Film Review: Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai

HE DRIVES a taxi, rides a dream. From the ghats of Banaras to the skyscrapers of Mumbai. Learner by day, earner by night, he wants to get to the highway of high success fast - enviable education, academic topper, champion sportsman with a dainty dame on the arm by day, a svelte sizzler by the night, a posh bungalow, a swanky car with a signature that can unleash the millions stacked up in the bank. And if he can get to play a little avenging angel and a Good Samaritan too, well, then he does not want anything more because, as the catchline goes, all that he wants is everything. ``Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai''. Simple. This then is debutant director Goldie Behl's cinematic dream presented to viewers at cinema halls across the country this past week.

And for a while, the dream is delightful. It stays that way as long as the dream remains just that - a distant dream of a personable young man. It is even enchanting to see the upstart from Banaras - Abhishek Bachchan as Sooraj, his fourth shot at stardom - set out to accomplish all that he desires. And poignant to see the little boy hold on to his ideals in the grim, big, bad world of Mumbai with as much sincerity as a devotee sums up in protecting the last flicker of the lamp before the final prayer. Just for an ephemeral moment or two, the reality of his life is more beautiful than a dream can ever be. There is achievement - nothing major, just minor - enough to keep the fire burning one more night at a time, adrenalin pumping one more day. He finds admission to a college, a part- time job in the vicinity. And a companion to visualise those heady dreams together. Then arrives the media baron Naved Ali - Jackie Shroff - in the life of Sooraj, promising fulfilment, powering him on to greater heights. A dream engenders another dream. And then another.

The guy from the roots of Indian culture flies high. Quickly he is on the brink of realising all that he had set out for, and a few things he was even afraid of dreaming. But then there is a price every high-flier has to pay. And the bird which flies too close to the sun has its wings singed. Ditto with Sooraj. The god he had worshipped as the ultimate in human perfection is actually a false deity with feet of clay. What happens to the little, little dreams he had kept space for even as he ran adjacent to the calm Ganga waters back home, the little sweet nothings he had exchanged with a sweet friend in the metropolis?

``Bas Itna Sa Khwab Hai'' marks Goldie Behl's endeavour to realise the wishes of his father, the late Ramesh Behl. And this poignant venture actually marks the passing of the baton to the next generation. If Behl Senior made ``Kasme Vaade'' and ``Indrajeet'' with Amitabh Bachchan, Behl Junior takes the help of Bachchan Junior to follow in the footsteps of his father. And from the fare on offer here, both of them have a few inches to fill in before the shoe fits.

A film with a fine beginning, it falls disappointingly short at the end. And sorry, Bachchan Junior, your dream of box office success will have to wait a while because Rose Movies Combine's ``Bas Itna...'' comes packaged with a few avoidable thorns.

ZIYA US SALAM

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