A trip could easily be laced with LSD and if you were to throw a glance at the credits here you'd be suspicious of Sunday. Afterall, it was the directorial debut of the underground Indian filmmaker Pankaj Advani. His films have always been bold, to the point that Sankat City (2009) was his first theatrical release in a career spanning three decades. It made me curious about this little children film which he made.
The film surprises you with its unconventional approach to the story. It is avant-garde cinema that carries the baton from Om dar-b-dar (1988) ahead. If it's not evident enough, the second scene at home in Sunday has 'Babloo Babylon se' playing on the Radio in the background. In children's films dealing with fantasy, usually a suitable explanation to the events is given with a proper world with self-aware familiarity. Sunday takes the liberty to develop an almost real family dynamic at the start, luring you into a trap about a conventional home and then throws you off with it's quirks. If you don't have an appetite for bizarre and like everything neatly tied up then it might not be for you. It leaves you with many questions and doesn't answer many of them but that's not its purpose. It promised you a fun ride and it gives you that.
With time, some of its humour was dated but given the avant-garde nature of dialogues, it still keeps you engaged. Shrivallabh Vyas and Kurush Deboo make their first association with Advani that goes on in his later films. Ratna Pathak Shah is wonderful as Junior's mom. While Junior looks assured for the most part. Dina Pathak and Deven Bhojani fit their characters well. The plot could've been fleshed out more given the story was still pretty coherent.
It is worth a watch. :)
