‘Ek Sangaychay …’ deals with widening of generation gap
3.5
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Every Businessman wants his son to carry forward his business. Every Doctor wants his son to become a doctor . Similarly, every father into a job wants his son to take up a secured job. But, what if the son wants to do something else? This is a debatable issue. And, writer –director Lokesh Vijay Gupte deals with this subject of widening of generation gap between Father and son through his latest released film suitably titled ‘Ek Sangaychay- Unsaid Harmony‘.
The film begins with a raid carried out under the supervision of Senior Police Officer Malhar Raorane ( Kay Kay Menon) with his team at a rave party in Madh Island bungalow. In this raid they find drugs and liquor in plenty and therefore arrest all those present, including Malhar’s 22 year old son Kabir (Abhijit Aamkar) along with his close friends Dhruv( Shalv Kijavadekar) , Anhita Kapoor ( Harshita Sohal)& Angad ( Vibhav Rajadhyaksha) . Thereafter, how their respective lives get affected has been shown very cleverly by the writer –director through the film’s screenplay.
The film focuses more on the central character of Malhar Raorane and therefore we find most of the happenings taking place in his family. As the film progresses in the first half, we don’t find anything unusual. However, at the stroke of interval with the happening of an incident, changes the track of the film to give a different look. And then we find a lot of unanswered questions solved by the writer-director in the concluding part. The film does pass a social message to every family ..i.e. “Communication between parents and their children is imperative.”
Lokesh Gupte in multiple roles of writer of story, screenplay & dialogues has successfully shouldered his responsibility of direction on debut, besides handling the editing work. His seriousness for presenting this sensitive issue is clearly noticed through many important touching scenes, between Kay Kay Menon with his wife played by Rajeshwari Sachdev and also with his son Kabir played by young dashing television actor Abhijit Amkar. All three of them find plenty of scope to display their emotions very effectively. Director’s daughter Shubhavi who makes her debut in the role of Kay Kay Menon’s daughter in the film, has also performed her role confidently. Good support comes from supporting artistes like Padmawati Rao, Milind Phatak, Vineet Sharma, Shalv Kijavadekar , Harshita Sohal, Vibhav Rajadhyaksha and others and their selection has been done very appropriately for their respective characters.
The film ‘Ek Sangaychay- Unsaid Harmony‘ does have a drawback in the second half, as it keeps on hammering on the issues arising out of non communication between parents and their children. But, looking at the sincere efforts of the writer-director this can be ignored. Technically it is a well made film on a universal subject. Jitendra Joshi‘s meaningful lyrics, Shailendra Barve’s music, Pushpank Gavde’s cinematography, Resul Pookutty’s excellent sound design and Chaitrali Gupte‘s costumes are other plus points of this film on a timely subject. True lovers of sensible cinema will surely like ‘Ek Sangaychay- Unsaid Harmony‘ film.
Subodh Bhave puts his Heart and Soul in the role of Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar
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4.0
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Finally, the much awaited biopic on Marathi theatre’s so called first and last Superstar Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar has been released on the auspicious day of Diwali. And, the film has received an overwhelming response, with a full house shows at almost all the theatres on the first day. Thanks to versatile actor Subodh Bhave, who has put his heart& soul, while portraying the central character of Late Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar.
Written and directed by Abhijeet Shirish Deshpande , the film has very skillfully presented this biopic paying more attention on the real happenings in the life of the Superstar . What makes this film stand apart from the other biopics on legends is that, it has paid more attention not only on the personality traits of the central character, but also his weaknesses, which saw his downfall and end, due to his involvement in excessive smoking, drinking, besides his Extramarital affairs . And, this gives a very realistic look to this biopic. At the end of the film, the audience leave the cinema halls praising lead actor Subodh Bhave for paying sincere tributes to Late Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar.
The rivalry between Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar and Dr. Shreeram Lagoo has been clearly shown through many scenes, when they come face to face on few occasions. Sumeet Raghavan who has portrayed the role of Dr. Shreeram Lagoo, has also done justice to his role. However, Prasad Oak, who plays the role of Late Prabhakar Panshikar who always stood by his friend, has proved that he has the potential to play such challenging roles. Nandita Dhuri who plays his first wife Dr. Irawati , Sonali Kulkarni who plays Sulochana Didi, Mohan Joshi in the role of Bhalji Pendharkar and Anand Ingale who plays the role of playwright Vasant Kanetkar have also proved their mettle in many conflicting scenes with Subodh . But, young Vaidehi Parshurami steals the show, while portraying an equally important character of Kanchan, whom Dr. Kashinath married later.
The director has shown his creativity in the screenplay through many important scenes. The film exposes many hidden facts from the Marathi stage especially during 60s and 70s. While showing the rise of Dr. Kashinath’s rival Dr. Shreeram Lagoo with a picturisation of a song on Sumeet Raghavan & Amruta Khanvilkar from his old hit film ‘Pinjra’, he has simultaneously shown the ex marital affair of Dr. Kashinath with young Kanchan who is not only his great fan but madly in love with him. Dr. Kashinath’s interaction with Sulochanadidi after the later comes to know about her daughter’s affair with him and also his father (played by Pradeep Velankar) and finally the climax scene, display the real emotions of the respective characters.
The other plus points of this film are perfect make up by Vikram Gaikwad, well written dialogues by director along with Guru Thakur, suitable costumes by Nachiket Barve, superb cinematography by Sudhir Palsane and wonderful art direction by Santosh Phutane. Certainly a worth watch film. Don’t miss it.
‘Patil’ inspires Marathi youngsters to join Indian Administrative Services
MMW Rating
3.0
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Every father who cannot pursue his dream in life, wishes that his son gets better education so that he can achieve what he himself could not. Latest released Marathi film ‘Patil‘ is based on this simple theme. Set on the backdrop of Nanded district in Maharashtra, the film presents Santosh Mijgar in multiple roles of writer, director and lead actor. Having been brought up in a well to do family, Shivajirao Patil’s ( Santosh Mijgar) father was a wealthy man and the family lived a happy life helping the villagers.
However, at the request of the well wishers, Shivajirao’s father enters politics and loses election and also his wealth. To look after the family, in spite of being a graduate, Shivaji takes up clerical job in Government office. While his childhood friend Bhima Waghmare who has been offered shelter and education by Shivaji’s father, later becomes deputy collector in the same office, where Shivaji works as head clerk.
To offer best education to his son, Shivaji admits his son Krishna( Narendra Deshmukh) in a private engineering college, with the help of Waghmare’s contact, but to arrange donation of Rs. 5 lakhs, he mortgages his old ancestral house in the village to a money lender. In the college Waghmare’s daughter Pushpa ( Bhagyashree Mote) meets Krishna and falls in love with him. Soon, Krishna reciprocates. But, their love story does not last long and the couple gets separated, with Krishna being sent to his village to avoid threats from Pushpa’s notorious brother Samrat and his goons. But, Krishna escapes to Mumbai, only to take up a Security watchman’s job, with the help of his old village friend. In Mumbai, he joins preparatory classes for Indian Civil Services exam, with the courtesy extended by the head of the tuition class, who is impressed by Krishna’s confidence of securing first place. Krishna is inspired by the lecture of Zee CEO Subhash Chandra, who while answering the question of a participant says, “If a tea vendor can become a Prime Minister, why can’t a security guard become an IAS officer?” So, after topping the prestigious Civil Services exam Krishna returns to his own district as Collector.
With this inspiring story, writer director and actor Santosh Mijgar obviously reserves maximum scenes for himself, most of which are filled with emotions. To add one more actress into the extended screenplay, he has found one more character of Payal played by Pratima Deshpande, who also falls in love with Krishna, during his stay in Mumbai. Most of the scenes in this film involving the youngsters and their college life, are typical and fail to impress. Even the conflicts arising out of the caste issues don’t look natural. Quality humour is missing in this film, though it has been attempted through few scenes. Nevertheless, the intention of the writer-director has been sincere to inspire today’s youngsters to work hard join Indian Administrative services. Few emotional scenes to show the family bonding have been captured well.
There are many new faces in this film but they have sincerely given their best through their performances. National award winning director Shivaji Loten Patil plays a small role of Shivajirao’s kind hearted father in this film. Another surprise is that Zee Group head Subhash Chandra makes his debut in Marathi through his inspiring lecture to develop self confidence among youngsters. Music is just fine but background music is impressive. New locations in the films have been captured very well . All in all, ‘Patil‘ has turned out to be just little above average film and may inspire especially those living in small towns.
‘Me Shivaji Park’ may inspire senior citizens to unite and fight injustice
Reivew
3.0
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Eight years ago makers of national award winning film ‘Shwas’ had produced their second Marathi film ‘Second Innings’ which was written and directed by Mohan Parab. This film had shown the power of a group of well educated senior citizens, when it comes to taking on the corrupt system. It was a simple theme, but handled very effectively in an action packed thriller. After watching a crime taking place in front of their eyes, a group of well educated senior citizens unite together to take revenge against a criminal turned politician and people involved in shielding him. The latest released Marathi film ‘Me Shivaji Park’ is inspired by the theme of this film.
In ‘Me Shivaji Park’ too, we find the tale of 5 retired friends named Digambar Sawant (Ashok Saraf) , Vikram Rjyadhyaksha( Vikram Gokhale) , Dilip Pradhan( Dilip Prabhavalkar) , Rustum Mistry( Shivaji Satam) , and Satish Joshi( Satish Alekar) . All of them are seen as regular morning walkers at Shivaji Park. They spend the leisure time having humour filled conversations about their families and discussing current affairs. The story of the film unfolds with Satish’s grand daughter( Manjiri Phadnis) dies after falling from the balcony. There are several rumours spread after her accidental death, which prompts Satish and his friends to investigate the matter on their own, by taking the wrong side of the law. And they begin their work to take the revenge. They do succeed in their mission and eliminate a businessman behind the murder of Satish’s grand daughter. But, Dilip Pradhan who is influenced by Ghandhiji’s philosophy disassociates himself from the group, doubting their integrity.
In the meanwhile another mystery behind Digambar’s past life as a honest but suspended Police officer, unfolds through a flashback. And the screenplay of the film takes a turn with the present location of the corrupt politician( Sharad Ponkshe) and his murderer son( Santosh Juvekar) who had trapped Digambar . A Police officer on special duty (Abhijeet Satam) appointed by CM is also on the job and investigates the previous murder case. This time on their mission to take the revenge against the corrupt politician and his son, they face trouble. However, their well wishers comes to their rescue and all is well at the end.
The screenplay of this film and that of previous film ‘Second Innings’ have many similarities. Revenge against a corrupt politician and his associates by a retired judge, a surgeon and their group have striking similarity. Nevertheless, bringing all versatile artistes in Marathi film industry to play the group of senior citizens makes a big difference. And, they have all done their best. Director Mahesh Manjrekar has also done his best to present them in a way to extract the best out of them. There are other artistes like Suhas Joshi, Bharti Achrekar, Madhura Velankar, Uday Tikekar, Dipti Lele and others have also been used well in their limited roles. The only drawback of the film is that it has been overstretched in the second half with same modus operandi used by the group of senior citizens to enter the house of their target and inclusion of a Lavani in the screenplay of the film. Otherwise, it is a well presented film with good cinematography by Karan Rawat.
‘Boyz 2′ highlights Love, Sex and teenage Challenges
MMW Rating
3.0
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After experiencing the Boarding School life of the teenage school children in ‘Boyz‘, the producers and director of that film have now presented the Part 2 of ‘Boyz‘ using the main characters of the same three friends Dhungya, Dhairya & kabir around whom the story of ‘Boyz-2‘ revolves. So, these three characters played by Parth Bhalerao, Pratik Lad and Sumant Shinde respectively, we witness their life in a college hostel. These three teenagers who are studying their 12th challenge the dominance of Naru (Omkar Bhojane) son of a Politician played by Girish Kulkarni.
Naru and his supporters comprising of his right hand Lakha ( Soham Kalokhe) and others always come face to face on different issues in the college as well as Hostel with their juniors. When there are two groups with each having girls on their side, obviously there will be happenings about Love, Sex and challenges. And, this film too highlights on these three important aspects to convey a timely message. Some of the important scenes in the film also cautions about the ill effects latest electronic devices like Internet, mobile phones on the young generation. At the same time the film shows the responsibility of parents and teachers to handle such children addicted to social media.
Though this film is entertaining, it has been focused more on young generation, keeping in mind the commercial value . The use of some double meaning vulgar dialogues and inclusion of the typical item number clearly indicate the intention of the makers of this film. Nevertheless, there are fine performances from all lead artistes, Parth Bhalerao, Pratik Lad, Sumant Shinde, Omkar Bhojane, Shubhangi Tambale, Sayali Patil, Amitrtriyan Patil, Pallavi Patil & Yatin Karyekar and few others. They are handled very well by director Vishal Devrukhkar. Good cinematography by Jatla Siddhartha, especially with the coverage of the picturesque locations in Ladakh, makes this film presentable. There is no compromise on expenses, while selecting the locations & costumes of the artistes to give a realistic look in many scenes. Sensible Marathi film lovers may not appreciate this film. But, others may enjoy it from the entertainment viewpoint.
Nirmiti Sawant pays tribute to Reema Lagoo through the film ‘Home Sweet Home’
3.0
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Actress Reema Lagoo has left this world two years ago, with her sad untimely demise. But, her last Marathi film ‘Home Sweet Home‘ in the lead role opposite another versatile actor Mohan Joshi has been released this Friday. The film also stars Spruha Joshi, Hrishikesh Joshi & Vibhavari Joshi in important roles. There is one more popular actress in this film, who makes her presence felt through her voice and she is Nirmiti Sawant. It would not be proper to say that Nirmiti has dubbed voice for late Reema, because she has worked very hard to move into Reema’s character of Shyamal Mahajan in this film. At the same time, she has matched very well with the late actress’ characteristics while delivering the dialogues in different moods. She has in fact paid best tributes to Reema through this film.
The theme of ‘Home Sweet Home‘ revolves around a senior citizen couple Shyamal and Vidydhar Mahajan( played by Reema Lagoo & Mohan Joshi) , living in their old traditional building at centrally located Dadar area in Mumbai. While Mr. Vidydhar spends his retired life enjoying his routine with morning exercises and walk in the company of his friends , Shyamal feels the pain of old age, while climbing stairs of their three storey building. She is also not happy with the presence of young Devika ( Spruha Joshi) in the house, because of her disorderliness. Devika is the daughter of Vidyadhar’s foster sister and lives in their house, as she is studying hospitality management. Suman ( Vibhavari Deshpande) is a domestic help visiting their house daily and Sopan( Hrishikesh Joshi) who also works as an estate agent operating from a neighbourhood Irani restaurant helping the couple to attend to their requirements at home.
One day a young couple visits the house of Mahajans to meet Sopan and misunderstand that he is dealing with the same house. Vidyadhar removes their misunderstanding but having come to know that their flat could be sold for Rs.3.5 Core, Shyamal is tempted to sell their house and shift to a tower in other area, with all the amenities including modern lifts. But, Vidyadhar doesn’t approve her plans initially. Shyamal tries to persuade him stating that they would save almost One Crore, which would fetch huge interest to meet their expenses and a tension future. The writer trio comprising of Hrishikesh Joshi, Vaibhav Joshi and Mugdha Godbole have developed this theme with their screenplay and dialogues to fill in some humour. Through the characters of Sopan, Devika and Suman they have tried to show effect on them of the couple’s decision. The story however takes a new turn in the climax.
The overall film has been good, but should have been much better with more humour filled happenings especially in the post interval session. Perhaps, the combination of three writers might have divided the scope of different characters. Nevertheless , the subject is closely related to every Maharashtrian family and especially the older couples living in the old buildings and dreaming for better facilities. It is rightly said that the grass is always seen greener on the other side. Performances of all the lead characters are very nice and that makes this film presentable. Not much scope for music in this film, except for one song, but the background music of Santosh Mulekar is good. The poetic compositions used during the beginning and towards the end are very meaningful. Last but not the least, this film is a biggest tribute to late Reema Lagoo.
‘Pari Hoon Main’ presents a thought provoking subject very timely
MMW Rating
3.5
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Auditions for modelling , TV reality dance shows and serials have been attracting many children from the middle class and lower middle class families. Be it an assignment of modelling or auditions reality TV dance show or TV serials, the modelling coordinators are always in search of talented children at school annual gatherings. The story of latest released Marathi film ‘Pari Hoon Main‘ revolves around one such little girl Sajiri Dighe( Shruti Nigade) who is approached by a model coordinator through her Insurance agent father Madhav Dighe( Nandu Madhav) to appear for an audition for a forthcoming Hindi TV serial.
Lured by fame and money the father convinces his daughter to appear for audition without the knowledge of his wife Kalpana( Devika Daftardar), who is against such distractions. But, with the support from her father Sajiri is not only able to grab the title role but soon attains the celebrity status. To preserve her status, the father buys a new car and a bigger house on EMI’s . Time comes, when the co artiste Janhavi Kapoor( Flora Saini) playing Sajiri’s mother’s role leaves the serial to join films and to make adjustments in the story, Sajiri is also asked to leave the serial. With this big twist in the story, we find Sajiri losing her confidence while appearing for other auditions, being typecast into the role of Pari. This results into depression, followed by her hospitalisation. On an advice of a psychiatrist, the family decides to shift to their old house in a chawl and slowly the little girl recovers, to understand her real identity.
Very cleverly the director Rohit Shilwant has presented this timely subject, to show how the child artistes are exploited on the sets, with late working hours and how their studies get affected by remaining away from the school. The film also goes on to show the reality, when after losing the role and celebrity status, how it affects the child artiste. In short, through a meaningful dialogue uttered by the senior co artiste while talking to the child artiste’s father, it is made very clear how it is wrong on the part of the father to expect much more from his little daughter.
Very rightly the director has chosen the three main artistes, namely Shruti Nigade, Nandu Madhav and Devika Daftardar, who have given their best through their respective roles of Pari, her father and her mother . Shruti in particular has very cleverly shown the changes noticed in her character after attaining the celebrity status and later losing it. Both Nandu Madhav and Devika Daftardar look very realistic and they have found good scope in this film to display their emotions in different situations. Flora Saini is fine as a TV actress and she utters all her dialogues in Hindi. Marathi TV actress Bhakti Desai and Marathi film actor Mangesh Desai have very little to offer in this film, due to their small roles. There is not much scope for music in this film, but Samir Saptiskar’s music during one song and Anurag Godbole‘s background music during the screenplay certainly appeal the audience. Cinematography by Rohan Madkaikar and dialogues by Yogesh Markande are other plus points of this sensible film, with a message. Certainly, a worth watch film, as it presents a thought provoking subject very timely.
‘Take Care Good Night’ cautions people about cyber crime
MMW Rating
3.0
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When a person retires from his job, for him his provident fund and all the dues from his employer are like his lifetime savings. What, if he finds the entire amount deposited by his employer into his bank account, withdrawn by someone else fraudulently ? Writer director Girish Jayant Joshi presents one such theme, when the lead character of the film Avinash ( Sachin Khedekar) goes through a similar shocking experience.
Avinash is a married man around 50 years of age , who lives with his wife Asavari( Iravati Harshe) a freelance counsellor and daughter Sanica ( Parna Pethe) a final year college student, happily in his well designed house. His son is in USA for higher studies. Avinash takes voluntary retirement from his well paying job, as his company asks him to undergo training to learn new technology. Not very conversant with mobile and internet application, he wants to stay away from such technological up gradation. However his daughter is more familiar with laptop/ mobile operations to stay updated on the social networking with regular chats with new friends.
One fine day, it is this contrast between father and daughter lands both of them into trouble. But, on his wife’s advice Avinash understands the situation and taking his daughter into confidence and after consulting his close friend Mohan( Vidyadhar Joshi) seeks the help of Cyber Crime Police Officer Pawar ( Mahesh Manjrekar) to trace the fraudster, who is on the run with different names like Badri/Gautam/Sagar /Satish ( Adinath Kothare) .
It is not that easy to present a film on this subject, but writer – director Girish Jayant Joshi has done a good job on his debut. Till interval, he has generated a lot of interest to keep the audience glued to their seats. But, in post interval session and especially in the concluding part he has nothing much to offer, as things happen as expected in the climax. However, the film’s story has shown the clever modus operandi of the fraudsters to make quick money, by targeting the people who can easily fall prey into their net. At the same time, the film has also cautioned the people to take care about their online banking transactions by maintaining secrecy and preserving important documents under lock and key.
Music in this film has been used just to meet the requirement of the screenplay, but Arjun Soprte’s cinematography is appealing. Best performances come from all the four important artistes like Sachin Khedekar, Irawati Harshe, Parna Pethe and Adinath Kothare. They find good support from Vidyadhar Joshi, Sulekha Talwalkar and Sanskriti Balgude who have limited roles to their share. Mahesh Manjrekar and Jaywant Wadkar have displayed some humour through their characters of Police officials investigating the case. Director Girish jayant Joshi has been able to deliver what he actually wanted to offer the Marathi audience. Certainly a worth watch film, if you want to keep such fraudsters away from you.
‘Truckbhar Swapna’ highlights exploitation of slum dwellers in Mumbai
Critics review
3
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We are all aware that as there is growth of high rise buildings in the city of Mumbai, there is also rise in unauthorised extensions in slum colonies. Every day thousands of people come in search of jobs and later settle down in slums, whether they are authorised or not.
Latest released Marathi film ‘Truckbhar Swapna’ revolves around one such family of comprising of Raja (Makarand Deshpande), his wife Rani (Kranti Redkar) teenage daughter Kajol (Aditi Pohankar) and son Sunny(Sahil Gilbile), migrating from Konkan to Mumbai. Raja wants to offer best education to his little son to make him Barrister. Raja himself works hard driving Taxi for 18 hours a day and his wife works as a domestic help in the house of rich couple Makhijas. They happily live in their small house and have limited dreams.
Trouble begins when Raja visits his house in village during Holi festival, at the invitation from his old father (Vijay Kadam). During family get together over lunch his brother and sister in law taunts him over the living conditions in slums of Mumbai. Taking as insult, Raja leaves for Mumbai with a dream to extend his house with mezzanine floor and falls into the trap of corrupt BMC officials and a local goon turned builder RK (Mukesh Rishi). How he and his family have to face the situation after arrival of his parents is what the director Pramod Pawar has tried to show through this film. He has also tried to show the contrast in living conditions of people from diverse sections of society.
There is nothing new in the story of this film, as such type of stories were very common in Hindi films during 70s and 80s. Through this film the director has highlighted the exploitation of these hard working people living in slums of Mumbai. And therefore, he has tried to show how the corrupt BMC officials on duty in demolition squad work hand and glove with the local developer of that particular slum colony. But, what if the corrupt higher BMC official is transferred? The new officer if he is strict, all the illegal structures get demolished and no one comes to their rescue. This is what the director has tried to show through this film. However, in the process of cash transactions between Raja and the so called builder R.K. the director seems to have forgotten how much money was promised and how much Raja and his family finally pay to him. The mathematics part is all confusion created by him.
The plot of the film is good but the treatment given to it should have been better. Anyway, the film presents the real atmosphere of Mumbai slums and the different characters played by the respective artistes are really good. But, among them Kranti Redkar who plays the role of Mother going through all the sufferings, has performed superbly. She finds very good support from her neighbourhood friend played by Smita Tambe. In the role of Raja , Makarand Deshpande does well and so is the performance of Aditi Pohankar who has found good scope after her debut film ‘Lai Bhari’. Bollywood actor Mukesh Rishi who makes his debut in Marathi, has played a typical villain, while Manoj Joshi has found a limited role of a rich businessman married to a Model . It was nice to see Suresh Bhagwat in the role of a lonely feeling businessman. Asha Shelar has been wasted in this film with a very small role of Raja’s mother.
Music of the film by Shreyashh is just fine. Cinematographer Rajiv Jain has captured the life of Mumbai very well through his lenses. All in all, ‘Truckbhar Swapna’ highlights the problems faced by people living in slums and cautions them not to fall into the trap of builders suggesting illegal constructions and extensions. This film is a must watch for all those living in the slum colonies scattered all over Maharashtra.
‘Chumbak’ – A sensible tale of a teenager trapped between aspirations and morals
MMW Rating
4.0
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For the past few years we have been watching some story oriented Marathi films which have thrown light on realities noticed in our society. Latest released Marathi film ‘Chumbak‘ is one more addition to such thought provoking films. The film presents a sensible tale of a teenager Bhalchandra alias Baalu(Sahil Jadhav) trapped between aspirations and morals and the story of ‘Chumbak‘ film reveals how he makes his choice between the two to shape his life.
Baalu who works hard as a cleaner in a hotel in Mumbai, dreams of escaping this routine life to start a small little business of sugarcane juice stall of his own, in his own village. With the help of his street smart friend Dhananjay aka Disco ( Sangram Desai) he first puts his small saving into a double money making scheme with an investor. And when the investor cheats all , his friend suggests him another plan on the lines of the infamous ‘Nigerian SMS Scam‘ using a prepaid sim card. Baalu sends several text messages randomly, no one but one man falls for it. He happens to be a simple poor mentally slow villager Prasanna( Swanand Kirkire) who travels all the way to Mumbai to meet Baalu, who poses himself as a representative of a leading financial institution offering Lottery prize of Rs. 1 Crore.
How poor Prasanna falls into the trap of Baalu and Disco and how Baloo tries to be sympathetic towards him, yet moves toward his ultimate goal, is presented very systematically through an interesting screenplay by director Sandeep Modi. ‘Chumbak‘ almost goes on the lines of World Cinema, with good support coming from superb cinematography by Rangarajan Ramabadran, good editing work by Chandrashekhar Prajapati and suitable music by Saket Kanetkar going well with the script. But, above all the performances by the lead artistes is the plus point of this film. Besides the two youngsters Sahil Jadhav and Sangram Desai, the actor who has impressed the most is Swanand Kirkire. Certainly a worth watch film. Thanks to Akshay Kumar for presenting this sensible film.