Rating: ★★★★ Genres: Comedy Drama Production House: Ekdant Creations Presenter: Prashant Damle Fan Foundation Director: Chandrakant Kulkarni Music: Ashok Patki Writer: Vidyasagar Adhyapak Artist: Prashant Damle, Sankarshan Karhade, Rucha Apte, Shubhangi Gokhale Play Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Lifestyle ailments are on the rise in India and diabetes is one of them. This so called lifestyle ailment is on the rise day by day with more than 62 million diabetic individuals currently diagnosed with this disease in our country. No wonder, some people call India as the diabetes capital of the world. Perhaps, looking at these figures, writer Vidyasagar Adhyapak thought of a good script for a Marathi drama and that’s how new Marathi play ‘Sakhar Khallela Manus‘ came on the stage. Even otherwise, our Marathi playwrights have always come up with ‘out of the world’ subjects in the past and this timely this play, is one of them.

‘Sakhar Khallela Manus’ presents Vilas Deshpande ( Prashant Damle ) as an Insurance Company Manager, who leaves his secured insurance company job and joins a private insurance company, only for good money. But, in the race of achieving monthly targets, he is always under stress and takes to heavy drinking and smoking during weekly parties. This results in detection of type 2 diabetes, with rise in sugar level in the blood. His wife Madhavi (Shubhangi Gokhale) becomes more stricter about his diet. His only daughter Rucha ( Rucha Apte) asks her boyfriend Omkar ( Sankarshan Karhade) who is a doctor, to visit her house and do the counseling part. But, some misunderstandings disturb Mr. Vilas more.
How, Mr. Vilas manages his diabetes and the fun filled interactions between Vilas and Madhavi, similarly between Vilas – Omkar and Vilas- Rucha have been skillfully presented by director Chandrakant Kulkarni. He has exploited the best out of the lead pair Prashant Damle and Shubhangi Gokhale through all those humour filled situations, throughout the play.

Good support also comes from youngsters Sankarshan Karhade and Rucha Apte . However, it is Prashant Damle who steals the show, with his non stop comedy. His presence in the play from start to finish, has made this play more lively and entertaining. All his scenes with Shubhangi Gokhale receive good appreciation from the audience. Prashant not only receives a rousing welcome from his fans at his entry, but also receives ‘Once More’ applaud for his song in the last scene, which indicates his popularity, as a stage actor.

Pradeep Mulye‘s set design is good with good support coming from music director Ashok Patki. All in all, ‘Sakhar Khallela Manus‘ is a wonderful black sugar coated adult comedy, which should not be missed by Marathi drama lovers.