Some time back I watched The Blue Umbrella, a children’s movie based on a novella by Ruskin Bond, and directed by one of my favourite movie makers, Vishal Bharadwaj, known to make movies out of books. And I watched it again. Not because Tata Sky Showcase played it for 12 hours of the day, but because I thought it was a brilliant movie. And I wondered how many children actually got to watch it! Such children’s movies are a rarity in today’s times.

But that was till I read the book in its flesh and blood. And I read it again. And again. Till I realized that even a National Award winning movie in the Best Children’s Film category could have missed its mark!

Nothing compares to reading a book, imagining the characters, being part of the scenes and narrating the dialogs. And the same goes for The Blue Umbrella.

The Blue Umbrella explores  a naive desire of a small village girl, Binya, to own an umbrella that is perceived as exclusive and elite and how it becomes an obsession with  not only Binya, but Ram Bharosa (Nandkishore Khatri in the movie) a shop owner who secretly wishes to own Binya’s umbrella. How he plots through devious means to somehow get hold of it, and his misery on seeing Binya enjoy the beautiful, blue umbrella, are beautifully captured.

Ruskin Bond brings alive the mountainous terrains of Himachal and the life of its villagers in a manner like none other. The language is eloquent yet so submissive to the story. Every sentence leads so smoothly to another – in thought and in word. And I tried hard, but not a typo or grammatical error that met my naked eyes.

I strongly recommend reading this book even if you have watched the movie and could not flaw the screenplay, direction, or the stupendous performance by Pankaj Kapur.