Masand: 'Kaccha Limboo' is overly long

Cast: Taheer Sutarwala, Atul Kulkarni, Sarika, Vinay Pathak

Director: Sagar Bellary

It'll take nerves of steel to sit through the entire duration of 'Kaccha Limboo', an overly long and meandering mess of a movie, directed by Bheja Fry's Sagar Bellary. Lost somewhere inside that mess, however, is a terrific idea.

Shambhu, the protagonist of this film (played by Taheer Sutarwala) is an eighth standard fat kid who wants to be in with the cool crowd. He's picked on and called names, his classmates don't want him in their dance troupe, and he's got a crush on a schoolgirl who barely notices him. It's not easy being an overweight 14-year-old with low self-esteem.

Bellary, unfortunately, is not content with telling this basic story simplistically. Despite the clunky dialogue and the wooden acting, there are some genuinely poignant moments in the first half, which sticks to Shambhu's misadventures at school. It's the second half however that quickly goes south.

The plot takes an unusual, needless diversion when Shambhu befriends a street-smart kid from the local fisherman's colony, and gets a taste of his life for a few days. This bizarre, inexplicable track includes a long-drawn marriage scene in the fishing village, and several scenes involving family quarrels at the poor kid's home. By this point, 'Kaccha Limboo' has moved so far away from its promising premise that you cease to care for its lead.

I also found the characterization of parents in this film particularly questionable. Shambhu's folks (played by Atul Kulkarni and Sarika) argue among themselves when he doesn't come home from school one day, but we never once see how they're coping when he vanishes for days. In an earlier scene that I found quite disturbing, Vinay Pathak as the friend of Shambhu's parents cheers his tiny daughter on excitedly as she gyrates suggestively to an Arabic tune.

In the end, this is an irresponsible, amateurishly made film that could have been so much better. I'm going with one-and-a-half out of five for director Sagar Bellary's 'Kaccha Limboo'. Feel free to miss this one completely!

Rating: 1.5 / 5

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