Pikoo (film)

Plot

Ranjan (Soven Lahiri) suspects his wife Seema (Aparna Sen) is having an affair. Their son, six years old Pikoo (Arjun Guha Thakurta), is enjoying his holiday at home. While playing, he gets annoyed by the loud barking of the neighbour's dog. Not knowing what to do, he shouts "Hush!" and is delighted when it works. Pikoo receives a telephone call from Hitesh (Victor Banerjee) who wants to inquire about Seema. Pikoo passes the phone to Seema. Seema mentions to Hitesh that something has happened but doesn't reveal that her husband had come to know about their relationship. Hitesh asks Seema if he should come as Pikoo is at home. Still, Seema asks him to come. Pikoo shares a friendly bond with his 80-year-old bedridden grandfather, Loknath (Promod Ganguli). Pikoo secretly tells Loknath about the fights between his parents, their conversation and requests Loknath not to share this little secret with anyone.

Hitesh comes over, uninvited, and brings Pikoo a gift: a drawing book and a set of sketch-pens. Pikoo readily draws pictures and shows them to Seema and Hitesh. Seema suggests that Pikoo go to the garden and draw flowers to match the colours of his sketch pens. Excited by the idea, Pikoo runs to the garden. Once Pikoo is gone, Seema informs Hitesh about Loknath's second heart-attack and also that Ranjan has started suspecting that she has a boyfriend. Pikoo roams around the garden and draws various flowers but wonders when he sees a white lily in the pond. Puzzled with not having a white-coloured sketch pen, he shouts from the garden and informs Seema about not having a white-coloured sketch pen to draw it. Seema was having sex with Hitesh and did not respond to Pikoo.

Pikoo then uses black-coloured sketch pen to draw the flower but a rain drop spoils his drawing and he runs inside the house. He overhears Seema and Hitesh having a fight. Now knowing how to silence others, he readily shouts "Hush!" again to see that it has worked this time as well. He runs to Loknath, his grandfather, to show him his drawings but realizes that Loknath has died in his bed. Not knowing what to do next, Pikoo runs away and sits in the balcony to watch his ruined drawing and starts crying. The film ends when Seema opens her bedroom door and notices Pikoo sitting outside, then avoids him and makes no eye-contact.

Restoration

After the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded Satyajit Ray an honorary Academy Award in 1992 for his lifetime achievements, the Academy Film Archive, part of the Academy Foundation which mainly works with the objectives as "preservation, restoration, documentation, exhibition and study of motion pictures", took an initiative to restore and preserve Ray's films. Josef Lindner was appointed as a preservation officer and as of October 2010 the Academy has successfully restored 19 titles. However, the Academy has yet to restore Pikoo, as the information about the film could not be retrieved.