Rickshaw Girl

A girl with an artistic bent tries leaves her home village for the Big City to try to make enough money to get help for her ailing father, who used to run a bicycle-powered rickshaw. She is strong and sassy, but the Big City is not a kind place. (Well, neither was the home village, really.) She tries several ways to make a living, but it is one of those movies where whenever something good happens, you know something worse is always just around the corner. (But it never gets rapy or anything dark like that.) Most of the movie is in English -- not dubbed. But maybe 15% is in Hindi, and there were strangely no subtitles for the stuff in Hindi. Maybe they'll be added later? (Really, please do that before you sent the movie out to film festivals, people!)

What a movie. It follows the story of an amazingly artistic girl from Bangladesh who bravely disguises herself as a boy so she can peddle a rickshaw and earn money for her struggling family and boy did it deliver! It was simultaneously beautifully and captivatingly Bangladesh while also being universally relatable. Extraordinarily well done. The bravery of Naima and her determination to help her family was so poignant and the line about finding your purpose and it making even the ugly things beautiful hit my heart in such a striking way. I LOVED this book and I absolutely loved this movie. The imagery was stunning; the performances were brilliant and the story was absolutely captivating from start to finish. It's been awhile since a movie has struck me this way and I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Based on the novel by Mitali Perkins, the Rickshaw Girl of the title is Naima (Novera Rahman), who may not have been much of a student yet is an incredible artist. Her father (Naresh Bhuiyan) encourages her to develop her talent by allowing her to paint his rickshaw, but seeing as how they live in a poor area of town and her father only pulls other and more successful men in his rickshaw, the chances of her escaping to become a fine artist are quite limited. That goal moves even further away when her father gets ill and a loan shark (Nasir Uddin Khan) takes back the rickshaw. As her father needs medicine to live, she eventually finds her way to working in the very same business, hiding her sex under restrictive clothing so that her boss (Ashok Bepari) believes that she's a boy. A boy with a brightly painted rickshaw that gets her noticed by movie star Siam Ahmen -- playing himself -- and a role in his next movie. Yet when her secret is revealed, perhaps things won't work out. Director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury's film moves quickly and tells a story that is relatable to anyone, no matter where you are from in the world. It's issues of class, debt and gender make sense anywhere.

Fighting with poverty, taking a different way to deal with the odds, we are not watching for first time. But, the speciality of the film is it's casting, direction and storytelling. Different kinds of allegory has been used like colorful dreamy moments, flying over the top of the city, etc which enhances the viewing experience. But, the X-factor is missing in the 1 hr 40 min film. Viewers may feel bored in between the slow script. Only making the medium English, it's difficult to broaden the audience, unless you can provide a gripping script. Although the incidents in the film seemed to be real, Novera Rahman's both the looks seems to be perfect, the story flows with bumps. The end scene is too much dramatic and comes suddenly so that audience couldn't connect with it. But, it's good for 1 time watch.

I saw Rickshaw girl at a small film festival and it's a wonderful story of a young Bangladeshi woman who, despite many odds, is determined to help her family (ailing father) but also dreams of being an artist. Thru her trials she learns fortitude and confidence. Her art is her companion that keeps her going. One of my favorite scenes is when she's painting the tin roof late into the night. Having been to Bangladesh myself, what always struck me was the fight for beauty. Daily life is hard.. yet there is beauty found everywhere. This is an uplifting movie told with care - i highly recommend for teens and adults. Great for family viewing.

Fighting with poverty, taking a different way to deal with the odds, we are not watching for first time. But, the speciality of the film is it's casting, direction and storytelling. Different kinds of allegory has been used like colorful dreamy moments, flying over the top of the city, etc which enhances the viewing experience. But, the X-factor is missing in the 1 hr 40 min film. Viewers may feel bored in between the slow script. Only making the medium English, it's difficult to broaden the audience, unless you can provide a gripping script. Although the incidents in the film seemed to be real, Novera Rahman's both the looks seems to be perfect, the story flows with bumps. The end scene is too much dramatic and comes suddenly so that audience couldn't connect with it. But, it's good for 1 time watch.

Based on the novel by Mitali Perkins, the Rickshaw Girl of the title is Naima (Novera Rahman), who may not have been much of a student yet is an incredible artist. Her father (Naresh Bhuiyan) encourages her to develop her talent by allowing her to paint his rickshaw, but seeing as how they live in a poor area of town and her father only pulls other and more successful men in his rickshaw, the chances of her escaping to become a fine artist are quite limited. That goal moves even further away when her father gets ill and a loan shark (Nasir Uddin Khan) takes back the rickshaw. As her father needs medicine to live, she eventually finds her way to working in the very same business, hiding her sex under restrictive clothing so that her boss (Ashok Bepari) believes that she's a boy. A boy with a brightly painted rickshaw that gets her noticed by movie star Siam Ahmen -- playing himself -- and a role in his next movie. Yet when her secret is revealed, perhaps things won't work out. Director Amitabh Reza Chowdhury's film moves quickly and tells a story that is relatable to anyone, no matter where you are from in the world. It's issues of class, debt and gender make sense anywhere.