The screenplay can’t escape a few bumps, and some scenes such as a chance meeting with a benevolent civil servant come across as gimmicky. But these are small hiccups in what is otherwise a film that is bound to bring a smile to your face.

The dialogue is soul stirring in the film. In the big bad world of big ticket releases this little film with a big heart has all the right ideas. The execution of those ideas has been done with utmost honesty and the end result is a film that can move it’s audience to tears. Watch this and you will want to give your mother a bear hug. Do not miss this gem.

Despite all its attempts at sincerity, the film commits the cardinal sin of treating its school-going characters with a touch of condescension — a sin no film like this should commit.

Using locations, sets, costumes, language and setting (Agra), Iyer Tiwari creates an authentic world with a universal emotional core. However, at the close, the narrative trips over its own benevolence. The relationship between Bhaskar and Pathak Shah is a touch overdone and, while it managed to skip melodrama and manipulation throughout, the end succumbs to sermonizing (and a kitschy song called ‘Maa’) which dilutes the impact of an otherwise assured debut delivered with a lightness of touch and a positive message.

Nil Battey Sannata misses the bus in conveying the message effectively enough. It has a fine one-line story but the journey is not convincing enough. It will, therefore, not be able to score at the ticket-windows.

Nil Battey Sannata is a wonderful film that will appeal to all. Chanda and Apeksha will win your heart with their inspiring story. At the end of the movie, you’ll want to go home and give your mother a hug!

Nil Battey Sannata is plenty smart, but it might have seemed smarter still had it been more trusting of its audience’s capacity to get the joke, or the point.

There are plot points you could nitpick on but at the end of the day Nil Battey Sannata remains a warm, feel-good film which offers hope and the promise of upward mobility that doesn’t depend on the social strata you come from but your own will and diligence.

Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s debut is hardwired to be heartwarming. Only a curmudgeon could complain about the gimmickiness inherent in the story of a domestic worker who enrolls in her 15-year-old daughter’s school to ensure that the girl doesn’t flunk her crucial tenth standard board examination. The modern-day fairy tale has its fiar share of Moving Moments, but then over-eggs an already substantial pudding.