The current craze for stars and how a fan’s star-worship can develop into an all-consuming obsession was a terrific idea for a film. Hrishikesh Mukherjee had examined the phenomenon when it hadn’t even reached today’s virulent stage in Guddi (1971).
Samir Karnik’s Nanhe Jaisalmer picked the idea, but frittered away its potential on a vacuous melodrama with a ‘literacy-for-all’ message.With a faint resemblance to Lage Raho Munnabhai, Karnik develops the story of Nanhe (Dwij Yadav), a chirpy 11-year-old tourist guide in Rajasthan, whose one encounter with Bobby Deol results in the belief that the star is his friend.Illiterate himself, he dictates long letters to his sister and watches the star’s films. When told of a newspaper report that Bobby Deol is going to be shooting in Jaisalmer, he goes berserk with excitement. Then Bobby arrives and Nanhe’s dreams come true. The fantasy world he has created around the star results in some moments of warmth, but of course it is too good to be true. Problem is that the film remains one-dimensional and tends to get repetitive. The end drags too. Dwij Yadav is energetic, Bobby Deol is charming but the film’s as bumpy as a camel ride in the desert.
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