I am a sucker for kid’s movies and series, even if they are half decent! So it was only obvious that amongst all the other releases, I was looking forward to watching this one. Frankly, I haven’t watched a film in the theater in a long long time. So I badly needed to break that streak. And after above average fares like ‘Stanley Ka Dabba’ and ‘Hawaa Hawai’, I expected Amole to really knock this one out of the park.
Amole is one of the few directors in India who cares about making films for kids. Otherwise kids have to depend on the Disneys and the Pixars of the world to entertain them. While I was growing up, Hollywood gave me many movies like Dunstan Checks in, Home Alone, Karate Kid, D2 the Mighty Ducks; but today kids have to either watch Super Hero stuff, Harry Potter or Animated films. Even back then Bollywood didn’t have anything for kids, but I had hoped things would change. Alas!
Sniff is about a young boy who has a rather nosy disability. He can’t smell anything. Apparently the nerves in his nose are blocked. And that’s an even bigger deal because his family deals in Achaars(Pickles), so they have to depend on their sense of smell to tell the difference between a good Pickle and a bad one. This weighs heavily on the young surd, who sulks all day. Until one day a freak accident turns him into a Super-Powered Sniffing Sleuth! Yep, the laboratory accident opens up the nose-block and gives him the ability to smell things 2 kms away. The once marginalized boy now becomes the hero of his locality, as he solves mysteries with a mere sniff. But will he be able to crack the mystery of serial carjacking in the city? For that, you’ll have to catch the movie.
Did I enjoy the film? Not really. Gupte bundles a poor script with some over the top acting by the seniors in the film. While the kids are alright, it’s the veterans who let them down. And frankly, the main lead ‘Sunny’ isn’t half as good as TZP’s Ishaan or SKD’s Stanley. None-the-less it’s the director who lets the film down the most. The script is half baked, the motivations of the characters are weak and you don’t empathise with any of the them. Even Sunny doesn’t endear himself to the audience, because the plot is a mere accumulation of scenes that are forced together. Watch Sunny walk past an “Access Restricted” signboard in the school and you’d think that this film was made by a rank amateur.
Now I know that I am not the intended audience of the film, but then there aren’t enough elements in the film that would excite a kid today. This might have worked in the 90s, but today kids are exposed to the best content from across the world and this falls short by a mile! What’s sad is that the director doesn’t give today’s kids their due. They are far more intelligent that you think they are Amole ji. Quiet frankly, they deserve much better. The kid was supposed to have Naak Main Dum (Superpowered Nose) ... but the film turned out to be Naam Mai Dum'b instead!
Rating: 4/10
P.S. : If you want to watch some good kids content- watch these shows – ‘The Worst Witch’ on Netflix, ‘Gortimer Gibbons Life on Normal Street’ on Amazon Prime and ‘TrollHunters’ on Netflix.
Amole is one of the few directors in India who cares about making films for kids. Otherwise kids have to depend on the Disneys and the Pixars of the world to entertain them. While I was growing up, Hollywood gave me many movies like Dunstan Checks in, Home Alone, Karate Kid, D2 the Mighty Ducks; but today kids have to either watch Super Hero stuff, Harry Potter or Animated films. Even back then Bollywood didn’t have anything for kids, but I had hoped things would change. Alas!
Sniff is about a young boy who has a rather nosy disability. He can’t smell anything. Apparently the nerves in his nose are blocked. And that’s an even bigger deal because his family deals in Achaars(Pickles), so they have to depend on their sense of smell to tell the difference between a good Pickle and a bad one. This weighs heavily on the young surd, who sulks all day. Until one day a freak accident turns him into a Super-Powered Sniffing Sleuth! Yep, the laboratory accident opens up the nose-block and gives him the ability to smell things 2 kms away. The once marginalized boy now becomes the hero of his locality, as he solves mysteries with a mere sniff. But will he be able to crack the mystery of serial carjacking in the city? For that, you’ll have to catch the movie.
Did I enjoy the film? Not really. Gupte bundles a poor script with some over the top acting by the seniors in the film. While the kids are alright, it’s the veterans who let them down. And frankly, the main lead ‘Sunny’ isn’t half as good as TZP’s Ishaan or SKD’s Stanley. None-the-less it’s the director who lets the film down the most. The script is half baked, the motivations of the characters are weak and you don’t empathise with any of the them. Even Sunny doesn’t endear himself to the audience, because the plot is a mere accumulation of scenes that are forced together. Watch Sunny walk past an “Access Restricted” signboard in the school and you’d think that this film was made by a rank amateur.
Now I know that I am not the intended audience of the film, but then there aren’t enough elements in the film that would excite a kid today. This might have worked in the 90s, but today kids are exposed to the best content from across the world and this falls short by a mile! What’s sad is that the director doesn’t give today’s kids their due. They are far more intelligent that you think they are Amole ji. Quiet frankly, they deserve much better. The kid was supposed to have Naak Main Dum (Superpowered Nose) ... but the film turned out to be Naam Mai Dum'b instead!
Rating: 4/10
P.S. : If you want to watch some good kids content- watch these shows – ‘The Worst Witch’ on Netflix, ‘Gortimer Gibbons Life on Normal Street’ on Amazon Prime and ‘TrollHunters’ on Netflix.
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