Bal Ganesh - Indiatimes Review

Written by Praveen Lance Fernandes for INDIATIMES, Click Here for Original Link.

Director: Pankaj Sharma
Music: Shamir Tandon, Sanjay Dhakan
Singers: Asha Bhonsle, Usha Mangeshkar, Shankar Mahadevan, Hariharan, Kailash Kher
Rating: * ½

Hanuman ’s box-office success opened a market for animated films in India. That film was subsequently followed by Krishna and now Shemaroo gets into the animation business with Bal Ganesh - a film on the childhood of Lord Ganesh – the Elephant God.

Bal Ganesh’s antics and wit along with his friend Mooshak the rat forms most of the film. His love for modhak, his respect for his parents and him constantly making fun of Lord Shiva’s soldiers, etc and the reason why he has an elephant head. is mostly what the first half is about.

India is still in its infancy stage when it comes to animation so one cannot expect completely finished and detailed characters in the film. The design of the characters and backgrounds are quite decent according to Indian standards but their movement is something which has to be worked on. They tend to move in a very stiff and rigid manner and remind you of Honda’s robot Asimo.

The major fault lies in the screenplay and editing. The story of Bal Ganesh is something which is known to all children alike and since that is the target audience, they should have focused more on the funny situations. But, most of these jokes fall flat and the scenes also seem repetitive. Clearly, the script could have been the winner here which sadly isn’t the case.

As for the editing, the shots are not cut quickly enough and ideally the film should have been at least 20 minutes shorter.

Please note that this review has been reproduced from Indiatimes.com. Click here to read the Original.

Some things don’t fall into place either. Why does the mouse Mooshak who is giving the narrative suddenly get completely modernized with loads of money, a bungalow and a sports car? (Reminds one of Stuart Little ). The director tried to mix contemporary fantasy along with mythology but that fails to deliver.

Director Pankaj Sharma does focus on camera angles quite a lot (even for an animation film) and you see a number of pan shots which don’t even seem required. Also some of the fight scenes are clearly lifted from The Matrix .

Bal Ganesh is but obviously the hero of the film. The elephant God is adorable and sweet and along with Mooshak they form a really good team. Most of the voices fit their respective characters.



The music may not be really foot-tapping when you hear it on any other occasion but when gelled with the film, they compliment each other like Ganesh and Mooshak

Though this film is in 3D, it is not as entertaining as Hanuman . During the Diwali vacations, kids along with their parents might just flock in to watch this film but at the end of the day, Bal Ganesh is not something which will blow your mind away.