The World According to Chippa
Photo Credit: Travelling Light Pictures
A coming-of-age story about a 10-year-old boy from the streets of Kolkata: Safdar Rahman’s film CHIPPA takes viewers through a memorable night of mystery, imagination, danger, and joy.
Chippa lives on the streets of Kolkata with a nagging grand-aunt, tired of her antics, wishing to be set free. His feelings only get stronger when he receives a mysterious letter—to be opened on his 10th birthday—from a father who has abandoned him. But there’s a problem: the letter is written in Urdu, which he can’t read. With curiosity to propel him, Chippa sets off on a night of discovery.
Directed by Safdar Rahman, Chippa was first showcased at the 20th Jio MAMI Film Festival last year, and has been doing the festival rounds since. It was finally, officially released on Netflix this month. The coming-of-age (of sorts) film follows the titular character on the night of his birthday—played by young festival favourite Sunny Pawar—viewing the world through his unique lens.
Chippa is happy and imaginative (with an imagination that deserves its own movie), but he is also street-smart and senses trouble a foot away. He doesn't complain about the cards he has been dealt. But we’re immediately concerned about this young boy's safety when he decides to pack his bags and wander off on his own, leaving his grand-aunt behind. He's alone and young—anything could go wrong.
Photo Credit: Travelling Light Pictures
There have been several films in contemporary times to show the mainstream audience a slice of Indian street-life, including Slumdog Millionaire, Traffic Signal, and Ek Chalees Ki Last Local. Most of these films depict the pain, hardships, the troubled homes of the characters, and the filth of the world around them around them. Often, the themes surrounding the youth are similar, of children falling on the wrong side of the tracks, of becoming victim to trafficking and prostitution.
Chippa, however, is refreshing in a way that it shows a different slice of life. The film is endearing and heart-warming, keeping up the viewers’ curiosity: partly because we’re subconsciously expecting something tragic to happen to him (conditioned viewing has made us expect the worst), and partly because we want to follow his imagination, to know where he will wander off to next.
Here is a Kolkata presented to you that you don't usually see in films, minus the usual clichés. This city lives a different life at night. And as the night passes, the city too, drops off its face of a culturally rich society filled with poets and artists. You catch glimpses of the urban underbelly where drunk men wander, prostitutes wait to get into a car, and hijras walk by.
Chippa meets several characters in the film through his journey: a taxi driver, a police officer, other kids at a construction site, two postmen, a sweets shop owner, members of a wedding band, a newspaper vendor. He dreams along with them, and while he's at it, he also hopes for someone to read his letter. His changing ambitions and desires make him a delivery man of sealed stories inside envelopes in one moment, and a taxi driver that regales fresh air and freedom in another. Chippa’s journey stands in stark contrast to that of Gully Boy’s Murad, popularised by Ranveer Singh, where desires are oppressed and having dreams are a luxury that only a few can afford.
Here is a Kolkata presented to you that you don't usually see in films, minus the usual clichés of Durga Puja and Howrah Bridge visuals. This city lives a different life at night. And as the night passes, the city too, drops off its face of a culturally rich society filled with poets and artists. You catch glimpses of the urban underbelly where drunk men wander, prostitutes wait to get into a car, and hijras walk by.
Despite his many interactions, Chippa finds it hard to meet someone who could read the letter to him, a sudden reality in Kolkata that doesn’t have an Urdu reader in a Hindu-dominated state. A social divide comes under the spotlight in a scene where Chippa, who is calmly sitting outside a convenience store, is accused of robbery by the store’s Hanuman chalisa-chanting Hindu owner. This boy is beaten up by an angry mob.
In one scene, Chippa ends up in a luxury car with a drunk man he has met outside a bar. He’s enthralled to be sitting in a car like this for the first time. When the man asks him if he looks rich himself, Chippa tells him he does. ‘Of course, you would find anyone rich’, the man says. Chippa, however, responds that he has some money in his wallet, too, that he can also buy himself biryani or a pack of chips whenever he desires to. It’s a moment that points the mirror back at the rich, who are quick to judge those from a lower economic class. In a way, sympathising with the poor only makes the rich happier about their own situation. They’re thankful—not for what they have—but for the fact that they are, at least, not ‘one of them’.
After roaming around the streets for a while, Chippa finds himself thirsty and looking for water, with an expression of expectation on his face that recalls Pawar’s other landmark performance, as Saroo in Lion (2016). While Chippa is on the lookout for a better life, good company and an answer to the riddle of the letter, Saroo searches for his brother and for shelter. Chippa’s love for a cup of cutting chai have the same gleam in his eyes that Saroo had in sight of some jalebis.
Image credit: Travelling Light Pictures
Chippa takes out his drawing book and imagines a world of his own, from the world he observes. Sitting opposite a post office with some letters in hand, he sees a letter addressed to a girl with an Eiffel Tower stamp. He imagines exchanging letters with this young French girl. In this universe, they’re friends, she has a dog like him, and they talk about their day.
In another scene, while watching some workers painting a zebra crossing on the street, there is a sudden downpour, and Chippa dreams of boats floating on the water. The animations illustrate these scenes beautifully and give them a surreal touch of magic realism, of feeling almost as if one is immersed in a story by Salman Rushdie or Gabriel García Márquez. These moments give an insight to the child’s mind—however wise he may be, he is still, after all, only a child.
Pawar bagged the award for the best child actor at the 19th New York Indian Film Festival and the 5th DFW South Asian Film Festival among others. The film also received the award for the best movie at the 16th Indisches Film Festival, Stuttgart.
Pawar is a delight to watch. He brings joy to the screen, especially in such morose times, and a perspective of positivity rarely shown in such stories. The film’s ending is particularly touching—we wish Chippa knew what the viewer did. He still has a lot of growing up to do, and this night will not decide the future of the rest of his life.
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Nidhi Choksi Dhakan has worked with The Hindustan Times, The Times of India, HT Brunch, and G2. She is a regular contributor at KoolKanya.in. A Mumbaikar by heart, Dhakan shifted to Dubai in 2018. You can find her art on Instagram @sketchbook_stories and her bylines here: https://nc16ultimate.wixsite.com/nidhichoksidhakan
