The
'chawl'
culture
of
Mumbai
has
never
been
too
far
from
Hindi
cinema.
From
Basu
Chatterjee's
Piya
Ka
Ghar
to
Sanjay
Jha's
Pran
Jaye
Par
Chawl
Na
Jaye
to
Mahesh
Manjrekar's
City
Of
Gold
and
Chandan
Arora's
Striker....Many
gripping
tales
of
resilience
and
kinship
have
been
put
on
screen
with
no
trace
of
self-pity
or
anger
in
the
under-privileged
characters
who
go
about
their
lives
with
dignity,
optimism
and
humour
even
after
queuing
up
for
an
hour
to
get
into
the
dingy
public
toilet.
Madholal...Keep
Walking
is
a
well-intended
look
at
people
we
know
from
the
chawls
even
if
we've
never
been
to
one.
The
conversation
among
the
characters
is
authentic.
But
the
sad
part
is
these
characters
don't
seem
to
be
saying
anything
that
interests
anyone
apart
from
the
characters
who
speak.
Mundane
matters
acquire
a
certain
engaging
quality
on
screen
only
when
ordinariness
is
treated
with
extraordinary
empathy.
This
was
the
case
recently
with
Irfan
Kamal's
Thanks,
Maa
where
one
slum
kid's
quest
for
a
mother
made
all
the
routine
characters
assume
a
life
beyond
their
appointed
ennui.
In
Madholal...
the
plot
and
dialogues
create
no
interest
in
the
characters.
For
half
the
film
we
grow
familiar
with
the
hand-to-mouth
world
of
the
protagonist
Madholal
(Subrat
Dutta)
his
family
of
loving
wife
and
two
daughters
and
his
circle
of
friends
with
whom
he
commutes
by
train
every
day.
The
conversation
among
the
friends
is
essentially
about
sex,
or
the
lack
of
it.
One
can't
but
recall
with
pleasure
and
warmth
the
middleclass
ladies
travelling
to
and
fro
in
the
local
trains
of
Mumbai
in
the
soap
Ladies
Special.
Not
one
of
the
characters
travelling
with
Madholal
in
these
crowded
trains
appears
interesting
enough
to
meet,
let
alone
take
home.
Midway
through
the
flat
narration
there's
a
bomb
blast
on
a
train.
The
lives
of
the
people
who
populate
the
film
are
turned
around.
Madholal,
we
are
happy
to
know,
keeps
walking.
There
are
some
purposely
poignant
emotional-highpoints
in
the
story
that
touch
you
with
their
sincerity
in
the
second-half.
Actor
Purba
Dutta
who
plays
Madholal
conveys
a
profound
anguish
and
helplessness
in
the
second-half.
His
train-journey
at
the
end
when
he
comes
to
terms
with
his
changed
circumstances
in
life
is
a
measure
of
the
resilience
that
Mumbai's
middleclass
epitomizes.
Sadly
the
film
never
quite
takes
off.
The
plot
is
too
blunt
about
its
noble
intentions
to
convey
the
grief
of
common
people
caught
in
the
downside
of
terrorism.
This
look
at
Mumbai's
undying
spirit
is
like
a
village
mela
after
closing-time.
If
Slumdog
Millionaire
was
Mumbai
on
steroids,
Madholal...Keep
Walking
takes
the
lives
from
a
chawl
on
a
lifeless
journey.
Story first published: Friday, August 27, 2010, 15:34 [IST]