Binya, a smart 12-year-old girl in a peaceful country village in India, sings and plays with friends as usual, while Chatri, a greedy and grumpy old man, is having an argument with a neighbor as usual. Binya comes across a blue Japanese umbrella, by which she is instantly fascinated enough to exchange it with her grandmother′s precious necklace believed to bring luck. With the beautiful umbrella that no one else has but everyone wants, she sings and dances in a vast plain, which is the celebration of a fulfilled desire as well as a ritual to endow the fetishist value in the umbrella, a mere object. Thus, it is only natural that the village people treat differently the owner of the umbrella, which is equaled to power and ability. Based on the novel of the same title by Ruskin Bond, the film blends the extremely colorful and gaudy images with Bollywood-style song and dance, stressing the old lesson that materialist desires lead to punishment. The cream of the crop is Pankaj Kapur′s brilliant performance as Chatri, the slick villain. (Michelle Sohn)