Little Thomas

Thomas Miranda (Hridansh Parekh) has two pressing concerns: where do babies come from, and how can he get a baby brother? When he was six, he wanted a zoo; now at seven, he is convinced that he needs a sibling. His attempt to find answers lead him to a priest, his kindly neighbour Mrs Braganza (Mahabanoo Mody-Kotwal) and conversations with his two friends: Nigel, who has an insatiable appetite, and Murthy, a science enthusiast. Thomas’s parents Desmond (Gulshan Devaiah) and Jessie (Rasika Dugal) run a bakery, but business is slow. Jessie teaches piano, but dwindling interest among children in learning music threatens her livelihood. Desmond and Jessie’s disagreements are shaped by everyday pressures, though Thomas, naturally, sees things in much simpler terms.

When he witnesses his parents fighting over the everyday struggles of middle-class life—expenses, responsibilities and survival, seven-year-old Thomas Miranda (Hridansh Parekh) realises that life isn’t always sunshine and rainbows. Yet, in his innocent logic, he believes that a little brother could bring the family closer and make them happier. But with their finances crumbling, his parents – piano teacher Jesse (Rasika Dugal) and baker Desmond (Gulshan Devaiah) are too preoccupied with keeping their household afloat to think about expanding their family or rekindling their romance. At the heart of director Kaushal Oza’s tender tale is a child who wants to believe in miracles but must eventually confront reality. Set in the sleepy neighbourhood of Fontainhas in 1990s Goa, the film unfolds like a gentle childhood lullaby, evoking a time when life moved at a slower pace and childhood was unburdened by the noise of the world.

It’s hard to make a worthy film for children in India, where the mainstream inherently infantilises its audience. It’s not surprising then that a large section of supposed films for children that come out in India, are often trying too hard. The lack of assurance stems from a film second-guessing itself, and serving what adults presume children will like. The result, more often, are films so unbearably screechy and annoying that one has to wonder who the filmmakers were even targeting in the first place. At the very least, Kaushal Oza’s Little Thomas doesn’t have that insecurity, as it balances its protagonist’s sense of wonder with adequate padding of the gritty world of the grown-ups, which pokes holes into the fantasy.

There is a scene in Little Thomas where Gulshan Devaiah’s character tries to place a figurine of a couple on top of a multi-tiered cake. The cake comes crashing down. He eventually realises that the figurine was too heavy. And there, in a nutshell, lies the problem with Kaushal Oza’s film. The story topples under the weight of its own cuteness, forgetting that an adorable child can only take you so far. You need a good story and a tight screenplay to keep the audience invested, too.

When the first word that comes to your mind for a film is “sweet,” it can mean different things. Sweet could be a euphemism for small-film-with-a-big-heart syndrome, which implies: it means well but I’m reluctant to admit that it’s not made well. Sweet could be the sugarcoating of positive intent over weak craft. Sweet could be the kind of thing adults say to encourage eager kids and soften the blow of mediocrity. But we live in an age of such unbridled skepticism — where fault-finding precedes soul-searching — that we forget how the word can sometimes mean just that: sweet. Little Thomas is that film. It reclaims the harmless adjective from the clutches of condescension and agenda. English is a funny language, but we make it funnier.

Little boy wants a baby brother, but his mom and dad are too busy navigating troubles of their own. What is to be done, if they don’t even want to kiss and make up? Sweet premise. Solid cast, including Gulshan Devaiah and Rasika Dugal as Desmond and Jessie, the couple who live with their seven-year-old Thomas, in the sylvan Goa of the 90s. It is a time when old-fashioned bakeries in picturesque Panjim townsquare Fontainhas are threatening to give way to soulless American shops. Desmond’s tasty paos and pois are no longer able to attract even loyal customers, and the same crowd is replacing Jessie’s tuneful piano lessons for Dubai-bought musical toys. Money is hard to come by, and the spouses are to be found sparring more and more.

There are children’s films. There are child-friendly films. And then there are films like Dhurandhar – The Revenge that irresponsible parents take their kids to watch anyway. Little Thomas belongs to the first kind. Kaushal Oza’s feature debut, set in mid-90s Panaji, joins a growing list of Indian films made for younger audiences, including Baththa, Ohh My Dog, The Great Grand Superhero, Village Rockstars 2 and Boong. The idea, as with these films, is to tell children a story without talking down to them. The trouble is that children today have enough entertainment at their fingertips to know when they are being bored. Little Thomas has a lovely setting, a promising premise and an adorable young lead. What it lacks is the writing to make the most of them.