This short is a very nice episode in the life a cute kid Pikoo, who lives a life of comfort in a rather luxurious house with his parents, ailing grandfather, and a host of servants. The film presents formative moments in one day of Pikoo's life which clearly shape his childhood and will be remembered as he grows up. As expected, Satyajit Ray directs this feature with poignant detail. The attention paid to each tiny object is quite extraordinary. One has to watch the film several times to catch the symbolic value of each one of the shots, set items, dialogues, gestures, and metaphors. Nothing is meaningless in Ray films, much less in a short film where the message is the main purpose.
Pikoo does falter a bit in the portrayal of the extramarital affair his mother leads with a family acquaintance, which isn't fully convincing and takes focus from the main, more interesting portrayal of the crucial, defining moments in the kid's childhood. We get it, this is a wealthy, upper-class family which seems quite liberal and dysfunctional at the same time. The wife doesn't function as a traditional housewife; the husband seems aware of and yet perfectly indifferent to his wife's infidelity; the lover is just there with no character; we learn from the kid that his parents fight at night. This entire set of underdeveloped stories makes the overall product a bit gloomy and unappealing.
Where the film wins is, indeed, in how well it captures the life of its titular character. In Ray films, there are no heroes, villains, or overly special characters. His protagonists are therefore real, ordinary and realistically human. Pikoo is thus very much a regular kid, and that's what may make his experience feel so relatable and familiar to many. He is curious, thoughtful, always looking for something to do to fight boredom, running around, playing pranks on strangers; as it happens with many kids, he loves his ailing grandfather, who treats him with extra affection like grandparents often do. This part of the film is, indeed, quite moving and convincing.
Ray masterfully collects these moments together. Even that grandad is not left as an inconsequential character. A moment where the "old man" realizes the way his children think about him and approach his condition, and that he might be a burden to them, is captured so beautifully as he looks over his late wife's picture on the wall. I wish there was a similar complexity in the relationship between the wife and her lover. All the actors do a good job. Again, I do wish the film had presented more redeeming qualities or left out some of the parts for another story. But Pikoo is a strong short anyway. It's an engaging chapter which is a little slow but it stays with you.
Pikoo does falter a bit in the portrayal of the extramarital affair his mother leads with a family acquaintance, which isn't fully convincing and takes focus from the main, more interesting portrayal of the crucial, defining moments in the kid's childhood. We get it, this is a wealthy, upper-class family which seems quite liberal and dysfunctional at the same time. The wife doesn't function as a traditional housewife; the husband seems aware of and yet perfectly indifferent to his wife's infidelity; the lover is just there with no character; we learn from the kid that his parents fight at night. This entire set of underdeveloped stories makes the overall product a bit gloomy and unappealing.
Where the film wins is, indeed, in how well it captures the life of its titular character. In Ray films, there are no heroes, villains, or overly special characters. His protagonists are therefore real, ordinary and realistically human. Pikoo is thus very much a regular kid, and that's what may make his experience feel so relatable and familiar to many. He is curious, thoughtful, always looking for something to do to fight boredom, running around, playing pranks on strangers; as it happens with many kids, he loves his ailing grandfather, who treats him with extra affection like grandparents often do. This part of the film is, indeed, quite moving and convincing.
Ray masterfully collects these moments together. Even that grandad is not left as an inconsequential character. A moment where the "old man" realizes the way his children think about him and approach his condition, and that he might be a burden to them, is captured so beautifully as he looks over his late wife's picture on the wall. I wish there was a similar complexity in the relationship between the wife and her lover. All the actors do a good job. Again, I do wish the film had presented more redeeming qualities or left out some of the parts for another story. But Pikoo is a strong short anyway. It's an engaging chapter which is a little slow but it stays with you.