HALF PANTS FULL PANTS Review : "An endearing, charming tale soaked in nostalgia"

Have you ever witnessed something like your childhood story unfurling in front of your eyes ? Has any film evoked a sense of been here, seen there.Half Pant Full Pant created by VK Prakash which is an adaptation of Anand Suspi's book with the same title tugs at your heartstrings while navigating the days of innocence, adventures and giving wings to ur dreams.

 

Unfolding like the intimate memoirs of childhood,it keenly observes the ramblings of a young boy from the railway colony of a village named Donigal, Anand Subbarao(master Aswanth Ashok Kumar) who is cheekily named Dabba, by his chaddi-buddy, Giddy.

 

Dabba, hailing from a very humble middle-class Brahmin family is a slacker, he dilly dallies with Giddy all day, much to the agony of his honest and grounded father( played by Ashish Vidyarthi) who works as a railway guard. His mother( Sonali Kulkarni) however is lenient towards him and belives that one day, he will realize his responsibilities.

 

Packaged as an eight-episode series, it is an vivid autobiographical account of Suspi who grew up in the small town of Simoga, meticulously re-imagined by Prakash to evoke nostalgia with its immaculate milieu and ethos.

 

Akin to RK Narayan's Malgudi Days, Half Pants Full Pants follows Dabba's adventures - his crazy aspirations to become a magnet king by turning coins into magnets, to regale as a Karate Champ or his tryst with the orchestra. The innocence brims with each episode and you are slowly immersed in his world.

 

And so does his silliness, mischief and harmless notoriety, nicely articulated and astutely performed by master Aswath Kumar. He embodies Dabba with an unmistakable charm and characteristic non-conformity to any sagely advices from his parents and elders on thrift, modesty and simplicity.

 

The show boasts of some pristine captures of Donigal's verdant landscapes and hills by cinematographer Ganesh and a seamless transition of one episode to another, thanks to Suresh Urs's editing.