Freddie’s Piano — Warm, fuzzy notes of home

The town of Puducherry, dancer Leela Samson, a student from Rahman’s music conservatory, and a talented debutant director come together in this charming English-Indian film

Currently screening at the New York Indian Film Festival, Freddie’s Piano is a simple-sweet film about two stepbrothers and their deep concern for each other after their parents die in an accident. Set in the charming by-lanes of Puducherry, the story of Aden and Freddie is written and directed by debutant filmmaker Aakash Prabhakar, a Mumbai-based stage and film actor. Suddenly unmoored from their parental anchor, life is difficult, but with touching stoicism the two continue the daily business of living. Twelve-year-old Freddie is a budding pianist, named after Frédéric Chopin. His mother was a skilled pianist, and the film opens with the lilting notes of the instrument being played expertly by the gnarled fingers of a woman, seen only partially. Hers is a presence that will be felt through the film, though she is no more. From that dreamlike scene, the camera moves to a delightful one of Freddie, playing an imaginary piano and listening to the notes of a real one on his Walkman, while waiting for his schoolbus. His older brother Aden is hurriedly rustling up a bowl of milk and cornflakes for him. Playing both mother and father to Freddie, Aden doesn’t just make breakfast for his kid brother, he also has to find money to run the house.