‘Nach Ga Ghuma’ – Behind every successful working woman, there is a housemaid
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‘Behind every successful man there is a woman’, as she is the one who lays a firm foundation with the bricks that others have thrown at her husband. And at the same time, ‘Behind every successful woman there is a man’, as he is the one who believed in his wife, when nobody else did. But, do you know that, ‘Behind every successful working woman there is a housemaid’. To find out the reason, you will have to watch the latest released Marathi film ‘Nach Ga Ghuma’.
Incidentally, Marathi cinema is known for offering some thought provoking subjects, which are targeted at mass audience. Today’s city lifestyle is such that every person in the house is dependent on others. And when you think about a working couple with their school going kid, their dependability is more on a sincere housemaid, who should be able to manage the house and their kid.
‘Nach Ga Ghuma’ directed by Paresh Mokashi presents two such working women who have sweet and sour relationship between them. They are, Rani ( Mukta Barve) and her housemaid – Ashatai ( Namrata Sambherao). In this film, we find a small family comprising of Anand (Sarang Sathye) and his wife Rani busy with their respective jobs. They have a 6 year old school going daughter Sayali alias Chiku ( Myra Vaikul). To manage the house and their little daughter, they hire the services of a housemaid for 12 hours a day. The family is so dependent on Ashatai that even her late arrival on duty by 15-30 mins, upsets their daily schedule. Especially, Rani who has to suffer the most, as she has to face the heat in office from her boss.
Director Paresh Mokashi has presented this interesting subject in an entertaining way in the first half. In the second half he tries to highlight the emotional attachment among all the characters with some interesting happenings, to keep the audience engaged. Though the climax in predictable, the film certainly succeeds in entertaining the audience, with wonderful performances from all the artistes. While Mukta, Sarang, Myra are at their best, the actress who steals the show is Namrata Sambherao. Through this film, she could offer not only comedy in which she is at her best, but also her emotional feelings very well. Sharmistha Raut, Madugandha Kulkarni , Sukanya Kulkarni, Supriya Pathak, Sunil Abhyankar have offered good support through their respective characters, while Swapnil Joshi and Lalit Prabhakar have little to do through their special appearance.
‘Nach Ga Ghuma’ is a well presented film with a good social message, offered by director Paresh Mokashi, who has also extracted the best out of all the artistes. He has received good support from music director Tanmay Bhide, cinematographer Sandeep GN Yadav and Faisal Mahadik with his perfect editing work. It’s a family entertainer. No wonder the film is still drawing good crowds at cinema theatres in the 2nd week. So, Don’t miss it.
‘Ole Aale’ explains the true meaning of life
Summary Perfect editing by Jitendra Shah, appealing cinematography by Gulam Nabi and pleasant music by Sachin-Jigar. A perfect gift for the new year to our Marathi film lovers
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‘Ole Aale (ओले आले)’ is a story of a retired lonely father and an extremely busy son , who cannot spare even a few minutes with his father. Set on the backdrop of an expedition undertaken by the career oriented son Aale ( Siddharth Chandekar) to make his father Ole ( Nana Patekar) happy, under strange circumstances. During their journey they encounter a young lady Kayara alias ‘Kahihi’( Sayali Sanjeev), who joins them to discover the true meaning of life.
The highlight of this beautiful road journey film is that it has been shot at picturesque locations around Haridwar, Chopta and Kedarnath. But, more than that are the series of shocking revelations generated through the gripping screenplay from beginning till end.
Actually, ‘Ole Aale’ is a remake of Super hit Gujarathi film ‘Chaal Jeevi Laiye! ‘ and is directed by the same director Vipul Mehta who had directed the original film. However , the presentation part is simply superb through communicative sequences which are witnessed through the well written crisp dialogues. Perfect editing by Jitendra Shah, appealing cinematography by Gulam Nabi and pleasant music by Sachin-Jigar have added that required backing to this film.
Above all, the performances by the three lead artistes namely Nana Patekar, Siddharth Chandekar & Sayalee Sanjeev and well supported by Makarand Anaspure and Tanvi Azmi make this film more acceptable. Each one of them have put in their heart and soul into their respective characters. In short, after a long time this film has turned out to be a perfect gift for the new year to our Marathi film lovers. A must see film for all.
Well presented ‘Dharmaveer’ now available on Zee 5
Marathi film ‘Dharmaveer’ which celebrates 50th day of its release, is now available on Zee 5 OTT platform. A well presented film by director Pravin Tarde ,‘Dharmaveer‘ focusses more on the ideology of dynamic Shiv Sena leader from Thane Late Anand Dighe and actor Prasad Oak has done full justice to this character of a revolutionary leader, with his wonderful performance. But, more than that director Pravin Tarde has cleverly made this two hours 50 minutes long film interesting, with action filled sequences supported by some attention grabbing emotion filled moments.
The Character of the present chief minister of Maharashtra Mr. Eknath Shinde has lot of prominence in this film, as he is shown as the most trusted man of Anand Dighe. The focus is more on the present day happening where the character of Mr. Eknath Shinde as Minister played by Kshitij Date walks in for the 20th death anniversary event of his mentor Late Anand Dighe, which is being covered by a female Journalist . She has very little knowledge about Mr. Anand Dighe through Google search and is briefed by a local Auto Rickshaw driver and his narration about Dharmaveer Anand Dighe takes you in flashback.
Technically it is a well made film with perfect editing work by Mayur Hardas and excellent cinematography by Kedar Gaikwad. Many renowned Marathi artistes like Mohan Joshi, Abhijit Khandkekar, Mangesh Desai have appeared in small but important roles in this film. At the same time Kshitij Date, Shruti Marathe, Makarand Padhye, Vijay Nikam, Snehal Tarde and others have supported well through their respective important characters. ‘Dharmaveer’ is certainly a worth watch film, to understand the rise of Shiv Sena in Maharashtra politics with the help of such a dedicated leader from Thane and his trusted team members.
‘Pet Puraan’- A humour filled family series on Pet Parenting
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Not all the web series these days are a worth watch, if the entire family decide to watch together; especially the Marathi web series. But, recently released ‘Pet Puraan (पेट पुराण)’ is an exception. This six episode Marathi Web series is also available in other regional languages on Sony Liv. A unique subject tried for the first time in Marathi by writer – director Dnyanesh Zoting, the story of this series revolves around a new age working couple Anjali ( Sai Tamhankar) and Atul( Lalit Prabhakar) who do not wish to have children. Instead, they prefer to adopt two pets a Dog ( Vyanku) and a Cat ( Baku).
Their parents are not very happy, but accept their children’s new role as pet parents. As we have seen around what difficulties are usually faced by such pet parents in our society. In this series, we see perhaps little more than that experience. Writer- director Dnyanesh Zoting has handled this subject very well, crteating many humour filled scenes, faced by the young couple in their day to day life. What is more appreciated is the language of this film which makes it a worth watch for the entire family. Being a subject based on pets, children are more attracted to this series, including little kids. And therefore, the dialogues are well written. And, they should continue with this, if they wish to continue with Season 2.
Thanks to Producer Ranjeet Gugle and writer- director Dnyanesh Zoting for handling this interesting subject. Good performances by all the artistes makes this series presentable, but there is better scope for the director to create more interesting scenes involving the pets in Season 2. Both Sai and Lalit have given full justice to their respective lead characters, with good support coming from other artistes like Satish Pulekar, Rasika Agashe, Pournima Manohar, Rishi Manohar, Deepti Lele, Aarav Khot, Ninad Gore. Kshitij Date, Sayalee Phatak and others. Don’t miss it. It’s entertaining for all age groups.
‘Pavankhind’ is a tribute to the great warrior Baji Prabhu Deshpande
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4.0
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Every Sardar and every soldier of the Maratha army played an important role in strengthening the power of the Great warrior Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. Film maker Digpal Lanjekar who offered us two films namely ‘Farzand’ and ‘Fatteshikast’ were based on the bravery acts of such Sardars and soldiers. The latest film of writer- director Digpal Lanjekar offers the episode of aggressive battle of Pavankhind fought between Maratha Sardar Baji Prabhu Deshpande along with Bandal Army comprising of only 600 soldiers with the mighty 10,000 + army of Adilshah Sultanate led by Siddi Masud.
It was a well planned battle to mislead the enemy and enable Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj to reach Vishalgad through safe route. The film highlights the sacrifice of Baji Prabhu Deshpande and the Bandal army, while fighting the enemy in this region. So, the film is a tribute to Baji Prabhu Deshpande and all those soldiers from his army who were severely injured and laid down their lives for the safety of their beloved King.
The film has therefore given enough scope to Ajay Purkar, who has played the important role of Baji Prabhu Deshpande. He seems to be the favourite of the director, as in his earlier films he had played equally important characters of Tanaji Malusare and Motyaji Khalekar. Another artiste who invites all the attention is Harish Dudhade in the role of Bahirji Naik. At present, he is most popular actor on Marathi television. It may be recalled that Harish had played the character of Bahirji Naik very efficiently in Digpal’s previous film ‘Fatteshikast’.
Among others, Chinmay Mandlekar as Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Mrinal Kulkarni as Rajmata Jijau, Ankit Mohan with his strong physique as Rayaji Bandal and Kshiti Jog as Badi Begum make their presence felt in this multi starrer film, which concludes with the great battle in Maratha history , in which both the sides suffered heavy casualties. And therefore, we notice a lot of bloodshed while watching these action scenes. At the same time, there are many emotion filled scenes reminding about the love and respect every soldier from Maratha army had for their brave King. This film is now available for viewing on Amazon Prime.
‘Punashchha Hari Om’ presents a sensible and timely subject very realistically
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We are all aware how the corona pandemic affected the lives of people all over the country. At the same time, we are also aware how the lockdown imposed by the government made many people jobless. Last year a Marathi film ‘Punashcha Hari Om (पुन:श्च हरिओम)’ was released with a worldwide premiere, few months ago on Zee Yuva channel. Produced by Bhavesh Janavlekar, Rohit Mhatre,Sachin Yadav and others, this film which is now available for viewing on Zee 5 app. The film clearly shows how a middle class Marathi family from a village in Konkan suffers due to this lockdown and subsequent storm that devastated their village. But, what is important is that the family fights back to overcome this natural calamity, which inspires the viewers.
Directed by debutant Vividh Korgaonkar this film is set on the backdrop of a village in Konkan and revolves around a middle class Maharashtrian family comprising of young couple Ravi Parkar ( Vitthal Kale), Deepali Parkar ( Spruha Joshi) , their little daughter( Kashvi Sawant) and older parents Baba ( Sanjay Kulkarni) and Aai ( Neeta Shende). Ravi owns a small electrical shop while Deepali works in a Saree shop as a saleswoman. Their little daughter studies in a primary school in the village and is a bright student. Ravi struggles initially in his new business, as he has to repay the loan instalment of his shop. But, the family is happy with what they earn for their living.
The real trouble starts when Corona virus spreads in the village and lockdown is imposed. Ravi has to sit at home and Deepali also loses her job. The family faces crisis, as the financer demands the monthly instalments. He also takes away Ravi’s motorcycle. Ravi tries to find odd jobs and even attempts door to door sales of electric bulbs. At this stage their little daughter suggests something to her mother and both of them attempt something interesting to help the family. Initially, the father is opposed to this idea. But, soon joins them to set an example that there is always a way out to counter the crisis.
Director Vividh has presented a simple story written by Malti Joshi; but it is sensible and timely, to inspire the viewers. The screenplay offers some interesting and realistic happenings involving few more characters like Ravi’s close friend and well wisher Harish, the money lender and his associate, a salesman and finally an owner of a masala manufacturing company . Very cleverly, he has avoided showing extra characters on the screen, though their names are mentioned in dialogues. Also proper locations have been identified to meet the requirements of lockdown norms.
In the lead role, Spruha Joshi finds plenty of scope to display her talent through her emotions, which are cleverly captured by cinematographer Kaushal Goswami. She finds very good support from other artistes namely her co star Vitthal Kale , Kashvi Sawant, Devendra Gaikwad, Prathamesh Bhatkar, Sanjay Kulkarni, Neeta Shende and others. All of them have given memorable performances. ‘Punaschha Hari Om (पुन श्च हरिओम)’ is a well presented film, which keeps you engaged from beginning till the end.
Last but not the least Anurag Godbole & Chinmay Hulyalkar have provided suitable music with good sound recording from Nilesh Nikam. Certainly a worth watch film. Thanks to debutant director Vividh Koregaonkar. He has made his presence felt through this film.
‘Karkhanisanchi Waari’ takes you on a humour filled road journey
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4.5
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Produced by Archana Borhade and co produced by Zulfi waris ( ABP Studios) ‘Karkhanisanchi Waari (कारखानिसांची वारी)’ is the latest Marathi film released on OTT platform –Sony Live. With script written by Archana Borhade and Mangesh Joshi and directed by ‘Lathe Joshi’ fame director Mangesh Joshi, this film revolves around Karkhanis joint family living in Pune.
After the death of head of this family (Pradeep Velankar), his close relatives after performing his last rites are on a road trip to Pandharpur via their ancestral house to immerse his ashes , as per his last wish. Five of them namely, brothers - Dr. Mohan Agashe, Pradeep Joshi, Ajit Abhyankar , sister- Geetanjali Kulkarni and son – Om ( Amey Wagh) are on their journey, travelling in their Omni- traveller . They are followed on her motor bike by Om’s girlfriend Madhura ( Mrunmayee Deshpande), who wants Om to disclose their relationship to his close relatives, as early as possible.
While this group is on their way to Pandharpur, the widow played by Vandana Gupte has other plans to meet her financial requirements. She takes another route to settle a score with mistress of her late husband, who lives in another town close to Pune. As writers, director and producers both Archana Borhade and Mangesh Joshi have focussed more on highlighting attitude of each important character existing in today’s materialistic world. They have presented this film in a funny way, to make the screenplay interesting. Happening of humour filled events during their journey and simultaneously showing the developments to unfold the mysterious life of the deceased have been captured very well. The interaction between Vandana Gupte and Shubhangi Gokhale has been presented very well.
The highlight of this film are the performances by all the artistes in important roles. They are so natural that sometimes you feel as if you are travelling along with them. Writer- producer Archana Borhade has also done her main job as a cinematographer extremely well while presenting the emotions of each one of the artistes in close up scenes, besides capturing their humour filled sequences in the outdoor. No wonder, this universal subject representing every age group well presented through this film, has invited the attention of film critics from different parts of the world, wherever the film was screened. Above all, this film has bagged one of the five best films’ award at Tokyo International film festival. This itself is a very good news for Marathi cinema.
Certainly a worth watch film for all. Don’t miss it.
‘Bali’ – A suspense filled thriller under the cover of horror
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3.0
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Shrikant Sathe ( Swwapnil Joshi) a widower takes his seven year old son Mandar ( Samarth Jadhav) to a hospital , after his son faints on the cricket ground during a match. At this hospital, during his medical diagnosis, Mandar comes across Bhaskar a boy of his age, who is undergoing treatment for cancer. It is at this place Mandar learns about a mystery woman Elizabeth, from Bhaskar. Like Bhaskar, Mandar also starts believing that Elizabeth who lives in the next old building in the hospital campus, would only cure his ailment.
Mandar reveals the secret of Elizabeth to his father and insists that he should meet her. To make his son happy, Shrikant goes in search of Elizabeth in the adjacent building and discovers something strange. In the meanwhile Dr. Alisha Shenoy ( Pooja Sawant) who attends Mandar in the hospital, in absence of her ailing father, gets ready for Mandar’s operation. It is at this stage, Shrikant discovers the mystery behind Elizabeth and involvement of people in her case.
‘Bali’ (बळी) as the name suggests, does succeed in presenting a gripping screenplay, but there are few flaws in the film. However, the efforts taken by director Vishal Furia to present this suspense filled thriller under the cover of horror, are worth appreciating. Above all, the performances by Swwapnil, Pooja and little Samarth certainly add extra strength to this film with the support of good cinematography by Rajan Sohani and suitable background music by Rajan Patnail and Brince Bora.
For a change, ‘Bali’ is a worth watch film, provided you are not watching this film with very high expectations from this director. Produced by Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartik Nishandar this film Is released on Amazon Prime Video.
‘Kaasav’ shows the way to overcome depression with a purpose in life
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4.5
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Renowned director duo Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukhtankar made 17 Marathi films together and won various national and international accolades for their previous films like ‘Doghi’,‘Dahavi Fa’ , ‘Vastupurush’,‘Devrai’, ‘Samhita’ and ‘Astu’ (movie review). Two of these films were based on mental illness such as Schizophrenia and Alzimer’s disease. And they presented these two subjects very skilfully handling the subject with the support of Dr. Mohan Agashe himself a Psychiatrist, who was part of both these films.
In ‘Kaasav’ (कासव) we saw Dr. Mohan Agashe contributing in the form of a producer along with the film maker duo Bhave and Sukhtankar. This film has won the National award for the best feature film at the 64th National Film awards. Unfortunately, this film could not be released in a big way in theatres like other Marathi films, but was released recently on Sony Liv OTT platform, which has made it possible to reach out to the Marathi film lovers scattered all over the world.
‘Kaasav’ truly stands to the appreciation it received during the Golden Lotus National award for best feature film. The film’s story is presented in a beautiful cinematic way, to show the relevance of the issues of depression suffered by the youngster (Alok Rajwade) in the film, in relation to the life and nesting cycle of Olive Ridley Sea Turtles, being researched by Janaki (Iravati Harshe) a middle aged divorcee, who herself consults a psychologist for her panic attacks.
Shot at the beautiful beach location of Devgad in Sindhudurg district, the film captures some realistic moments to show, how this middle aged woman tries to treat the depressed youngster, by understanding his problems with the help of a local doctor. There are few other important characters in the form Yadu( Kishore Kadam) driver cum cook of Janaki, Dattabhau (Mohan Agashe) a local, who is working on an olive ridley sea turtles conservation project, Devika Daftardar ( short appearance) playing the step mother of the depressed youngster and others with their perfect Malvani accent, who provide very good support.
Beautiful cinematography by Dhananjay Kulkarni captures the beauty of Devgad beach, while Saket Kanetkar’s music provides good support to this artistic film with a timely message of showing the purpose of living life to a depressed youngster. Perfect editing by Mohit Takalkar has made this 104 minutes length film look very interesting. But, the overall credit goes to the director duo Sumitra Bhave – Sunil Sukhtankar for handling this difficult subject brilliantly with the help of Dr. Mohan Agashe, who has contributed his bit as an actor, but more as a producer. Certainly a worth watch film for all.
‘Photo Prem’ presents Neena Kulkarni in a lifetime role
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Every talented artiste is in search of a role to give his or her best. Age does no matter. What matters the most, is the character you are offered and its importance in the script. Versatile Marathi and Hindi film actress Neena Kulkarni has found one such opportunity to prove her mettle through recently released Marathi film ‘Photo Prem’ on Amazon Prime.
Produced by a team of Mehul Shah, Aditya Rathi and Gayatri Patil and directed by the debutante director duo Aditya Rathi and Gayatri Patil, this 93 minutes length film features the main character of Mai a middle aged married woman who is camera shy and avoids facing camera directly even during her daughter’s marriage. After her daughter’s marriage, Mai becomes lonely at home, as her husband keeps spending his time after office with his friends and their parties. Except for watching television serials during the day and chatting with her domestic help Mai has no other work to keep herself occupied.
One day she attends a funeral of a woman (wife of her husband’s friend). She notices a problem faced in their family, where search is on for the deceased woman’s photograph, to be submitted to a newspaper Obituary column. In the absence of her photo, the news with the photo cannot appear in newspaper. This particular happening makes Mai feel uncomfortable and she keeps on thinking as to what would happen in her case and how people will remember her, in absence of her proper Solo Photo. How she deals with this situation is what the film’s screenplay is all about.
There is no doubt that some of the incidences are humour filled but due to limited content, the directors were not able to expand the screenplay with more interesting happenings, except for the climax, which is good. Nevertheless, actress Neena Kulkarni has found a lifetime lead role in this film and she has given full justice to her emotion filled character. Her husband and daughter are just namesake in this film. Instead, scope is given to the domestic help played by Chaitrali Rode, with some support coming from Amita Khopkar as Akka her relative, Pro Photographer Sameer Dharmadhikari and few others. Kaushal Inamdar‘s music and Kedar Phadke’s cinematography are the other plus points of this film.