Bubble Gum

It is very rarely that one comes across a weekend where there is absolutely no movie that was really great. My weekend started with Smurfs which was OK followed by Khap and Gandhi to Hitler which were both quite bad. @ noon on Sunday, a casual look at the PVR listings and I was glad that I woke up on time to see Bubble Gum – glad because I would have missed it and that would have meant one review lesser on the blog *sigh*. So it had to be the 1410 hrs show of Bubble Gum to kick start Sunday for me followed by the creepy Cowboys & Aliens which I wasn’t too optimistic about. The trailer of Bubble Gum and its posters scream out, “Its hard to be 14”. Seemed interesting. And I was hoping to get 4th time lucky as well considering that there were 1 average movie and 2 bad movies done and other than Bubble Gum there was 1 expectedly average movie to come up. I wasn’t about to be disappointed – thankfully.

Bubble Gum traces the story of a bunch of kids who are predictably – around 14 years old. Jamshedpur seems to be the flavor of the decade with quite a few movies in the recent past based out of the steel city – the more popular one being the Rajat Barmecha starrer Udaan. Nevertheless, Vidur (Sohail Lakhani) and Vedant Rawat (Delzad Sanjay Hiwale) are the sons of Sudha (Tanvi Azmi) and Mukund Rawat (Sachin Khedekar). Vidur, the elder one @ 16 I would guess, is a deaf mute and stays in a hostel. Vedant is the pesky and irritable 14 year old who believes that his parents are partial to his elder brother and hates the situation that he is in. There is a continuous comparison on how everything is oriented only around Vidur and no attention is paid to him. The frustrations of an average 14 year old actually. And to make matters worse Vedant falls in love – puppy love – the worst of its kind. The kind that leaves indelible scars on anyone who has been through it. The kind that at times haunts you for the rest of your life and leaves you incapable of falling in love again :D:D:D:D. And the girl is Jenny aka Cookie (Apoorva Arora), the daughter of the local commissioner of police. In between all of this is our 14 year old villain – Ratan (Suraj Singh) who also has a big thing for Jenny.

Bubble Gum tracks the emotions that go through a 14 year old in all of the situations described above. It talks about how parents should learn to let go and not be too protective about their children, about how people who we consider to be disabled may actually be far superior to us in many a way and about how at the end of the day the people who stand by us are invariably family amongst other messages. The movie is well made and reminds you of both Udaan and Do Dooni Chaar. However, it does have a strong star cast missing. Tanvi Azmi and Sachin Khedekar are as always solid and continue to be under-rated. The kids turn in a decent performance but turn out robotic many a time and therefore give the movie a feel that is not quite natural. But full marks to the overall story and treatment. Full justice given to the subject matter. Could have done with a few cuts and better music. Definitely watchable and entertaining. 6 on 10.

Watch the trailer at http://www.top10bollywood.com/2011/07/bubble-gum-trailer.html