Little tales tell big stories and little eyes hold big wonders. The bigness, emphasised by the littleness and vice-versa, spark a corner in the psyche that makes it singular.

Tahaan, Santosh Sivan's fable about the boy with a grenade is one such little story full of lofty ideas, ideals,life-threatening situations, and a backdrop with a vast history. But this time the history continues to be the present. It is in the circumstances of this threatening history that Tahaan's innocence thrives and his mind tries to grasp the deeper meaning of the word 'maksad'. Tahaan poses a question to his grandpa, 'Does everyone have a purpose to their life?' and grandpa replies in the affirmative. Soon enough, in a deft stroke of smart writing, the writer and director inform us of little Tahaan's purpose in the near future. The search for his donkey, someone he loves more than a brother. Someone who keeps him connected to his estranged father. The purpose that is going to become an all-consuming search for him.

Yes, on the face of it, the movie seems to have a similar premise as to Sivan's much-reckoned, delectable film Halo. But Tahaan is an individual film that speaks of different issues, different worlds and hence through different eyes.

But the language of childhood is universal. And Sivan, an established magician with children's performances paints a world as fresh as dew even in the ravaged valley amongst poverty-ridden circumstances just because that world is seen through Tahaan's eyes. This cleanness brings a poignancy to the tale which otherwise has been under-exploited. Tahaan's persistence at finding his donkey through all odds, his natural resilience to obstacles, his straightforward, logical child's point of view, unsullied by experience, his forthright trust and innate goodness...

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