 |
 |
Our first order of business is staring at rotating lights and disco balls for no less than two minutes as the credits inform us of who we all have to blame for the abomination that is about to unfold. Once we're all good and disoriented by the spectacle, we cut to the beach. A small boy is seen running like hell across the sand, shouting to Raju that he's on his way. We jump cut to Pushpa Narsee Park and Municipal Garden where we get right to the first musical number, "Goron Ki Na Kalon Ki." I can't tell you the number of mistakes that happen during the beginning of this song. Among the many, we see Raju obviously not playing some bongos, somehow making little "pew! pew!" laser-gun type sounds with a toy guitar, and other such nonsense.
|
|
|
I have to say this here - I'm terrified of this kid. I don't know just what it is precisely, but everything about him makes me want to run as far away from him as I possibly can.
We see a few of Jimmy's character traits emerging during the song. He apparently likes being fed his dinner as opposed to feeding himself. Also, the lyrics of the song indicate that he and Raju are in the traveling street performance trade not for money (seriously!) but for the sheer love of the craft.
Jimmy
goes home after a long day at the office. (For those that are keeping track, his
given name is Anil but he goes by Jimmy for 90% of the movie. In order to keep
things simple, I'm going with "Jimmy" for the whole article.) He is greeted by
his mother, who asks why Jimmy's got Raju's guitar with him. Jimmy explains that
Raju's mother is ill, and he left town to go be with her. He left the guitar
with Jimmy in the meantime.
Jimmy wonders how he's going to work while Raju is away with his ailing mother. Jimmy's mom tells him that she'll go with him to play the following day. She sets some food down for him, but he doesn't touch it. When asked, he reminds his mother that he will only eat when she feeds him. We already know this is not true, since we saw him being fed by Raju during the song. Ah well, kids! What are you going to do? Mom sighs and starts cramming food into Jimmy's chirping little maw.
We cut to the next day. A young girl seen briefly during the musical number is now revisited as she sits in a garden swing plinking on a small guitar of her own. She hears the familiar tune that Jimmy and Raju were playing, and goes to investigate.
Jimmy
is seen leering madly at nothing in particular as he frantically flails his arms
at some off-screen bongos. The little girl is once again entranced at his
musical talent and smiles at him. We see Jimmy is indeed playing his bongos as
his mother sits beside him. Despite using completely different instruments, they
somehow sound exactly the same as they did yesterday.
The girl calls over to Jimmy and asks him to come over. Jimmy stops playing, as does the music on the soundtrack. No one told the actress playing Jimmy's mother though, as she diligently continues to pluck away at her instrument in complete silence. When she notices Jimmy standing up, she looks over at him with an annoyed expression.
Jimmy approaches the girl who compliments him on his singing. Granted, he wasn't singing at the time she noticed him there, but perhaps she was referring to the previous day. Jimmy immediately starts in with his "I am a pure artist of the highest caliber" routine, saying that he knows he sings well, since he sings from the heart and not the throat. He notices her guitar and asks her if she can play it. She says she can, and that she's memorized his song. Jimmy agrees to sing if she'll play for him.
She begins strumming the guitar, and we hear the only live instrument recording in the film. She can't even eek out a tune, and Jimmy laughs in her face. She asks him what's so damn funny, and he calls attention to the fact that she's not able to play. He tells her that one can't play an instrument just by buying one, and tells her to give it to him.
Jimmy
starts wailing on the guitar, playing the same song we've already heard twice
before in the first ten minutes of the movie. Oddly enough, as soon as the drum
part kicks in on the soundtrack, he hands the guitar back to the girl and begins
flailing at his bongos again. She learns instantly, and is now able to accompany
him as he thumps the beat. After one short jump cut, Jimmy now has a flute and
is tootling along on it. He's been seen wearing a thin cotton shirt and short
pants. Where was this flute a moment ago? Should he have it in his mouth? These
are all questions for the ages.
As they play the song (again, hooray for the third time!) we see them getting along famously. They are also drawing a crowd outside of the little yard. The onlookers are also being quite careless, as a few flowerpots and other bits of masonry are knocked off of the wall and break on the road below.
Also, strangely the voices of the two children are exactly the same as they sing. It's almost as if there were only one person singing, and they didn't feel up to adding a second vocalist. Hmm.
