Whimsical tale a real trip

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This article was published 21/06/2019 (2331 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

This gentle, genial comedy-adventure, in which fairy-tale fantasy bumps up against the reality of the refugee crisis, takes us from Mumbai to Paris, London, Rome and Tripoli.

The global reach extends to cast and crew. An English-language film directed by Quebec-born Ken Scott (La Grande Seduction, Starbuck) and based on the French-language novel by Romain Puertolas, The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir stars Indian actor Dhanush (Raanjhanaa, Aadukaalam), a heartthrob in the Tamil movie industry.

The film also won the Ray of Sunshine award (awwwww!) at the 2018 Norwegian International Film Festival.

Whimsical, winsome and optimistic, this is a crowd-pleaser all right. And while its sweetness occasionally threatens to tip toward the saccharine, the steady, self-deprecating and very likeable Dhanush keeps things more or less level.

Dhanush plays Ajatashatru Lavash Patel, or Aja, who has grown up in a small neighbourhood in Mumbai as the beloved son of an impoverished single mother. A likeable fraudster, he survives as a street performer, dabbling in magic tricks, fakery and sometimes outright theft from rich tourists.

After his mother’s death, Aja heads to Paris, the city she had always dreamed of visiting. His first stop is not a famous cultural landmark but an IKEA store, the blue-and-yellow beacon of a poor-boy’s catalogue dreams. There he meets cute with Marie (Erin Moriarty). Planning to rendezvous with her the next day at the Eiffel Tower, Aja falls asleep in an IKEA wardrobe and wakes to find himself bound for London in a truck packed with Somali refugees, including the wryly funny Wiraj (Barkhad Abdi of Captain Phillips).

After Aja’s passport is shredded by a disbelieving English police officer, he is thrown in with the refugees, who end up stateless, stranded and imprisoned in Barcelona. In keeping with the film’s fanciful tone, however, Aja soon makes an escape — several, in fact — with the help of Louis Vuitton luggage, a hot-air balloon, helpful folks, quirky coincidences, humorous misunderstandings and musical numbers. (Dhanush is also known as a singer and dancer, but even the British cops, led by comedian Ben Miller, get in on the musical action.)

Dhanush has loads of star quality. He’s handsome but modest and altogether charming, and he carries the story, managing to be both earnest and lighthearted.

His charm can be almost too much, since the other characters recede completely. Marie, despite a high-powered job and a wacky best friend, doesn’t register as anything other than pretty, and the refugee characters, while portrayed with warmth, mostly serve as background.

Shot and edited with lots of colour and pep, the film offers a travelogue-y take on the streets of Mumbai, Paris and Rome. The script, from a team that includes Puertolas and Scott, also wants to make an emotional and moral journey, with Aja gradually coming to realize he no longer wants to trick people for a living.

That’s a nice ending to a nice story. The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir isn’t challenging or complex, but it is, as the Norway film fest suggests, a ray of sunshine.