Rating: ★★ ½ Studio / Presenter: Sharp Eye Production Producers: Prathamesh Gadwe Writer, Director: Sanjeev Kolte Cinematographyer: Jitendra Acharekar Music: Pravin Kuwar Cast: Santosh Juvekar, Namrata Gaikwad, Sheetal Dabholkar, Vikram Gokhale, Milind Shinde, Arun Nalawade, Swati Chitnis, Kishori Shahane, Rahul Dongre Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Come election time and it’s the time for the youth of Maharashtra to come forward and fight corruption by Politicians in the society. This seems to be the motive of some of the film makers today. And, director Sanjiv Kolte is nowhere behind, in presenting such a timely subject through his latest released Marathi film ‘Campus Katta’. Set on the backdrop of a college at a district place of Maharashtra, owned by the politicians Annansaheb Gunthe Patil (Arun Nalwade) and Kolse Patil (Milind Shinde). The ultimate aim of these two politicians is to make quick money, through donations for admissions, through the few educational institutes owned by them, making profits in catering services and selling the extra land meant for recreation purpose. But, they face stiff opposition from College student’s leader Raja Shinde (Santosh Juvekar), who prefers to remain in the same college for years, fighting corruption at administrative level in the college.

Being a dynamic leader, Raja has his own followers from the college, who are always there for staging demonstrations every time, when ever there is a need to pressurise the management. He has a well wisher girl friend Rasika (Sheetal Dabholkar), who also poses as a journalist for a TV channel, besides being member of his college katta. In comes Sakhi (Namrata Gaikwad), daughter of new college principal Kochrekar (Vikram Gokhale); who also becomes a great admirer of Raja Shinde, watching his fight against injustice. As the time progresses, we see the love blossoming between Raja and Sakhi, disappointing Rasika, who is also close to Raja’s mother. But, like a good friend, she accepts Raja’s decision and remains by his side, like a loyal friend.

Raja’s methodology is not acceptable to the new principal, who feels that he is nothing but a hot headed irresponsible leader with no future. But, looking at the way the trustees putting pressure on college management, he later realises the presence of Raja in dealing with such corrupt people. But, in the process, he has to sacrifice the life of his own daughter, who marries Raja; but cannot make him happy. So, it’s a happy end after a tragic turn, in the concluding part of the film.
Instead of presenting a strong conflict, the film has just remained representative about the different characters; be it the protagonist Raja, the two corrupt selfish politicians, a straight forward college principal, a typical young villain, a so called name sake female journalist and the team of forty loyal students, always with Raja.

Except for the character of Santosh Juvekar and Vikram Gokhale, there is no force noticed in the other characters. The confrontation of Sakhi with her parents for siding Raja, sounds very unnatural, than being realistic in the screenplay. The two politicians played by Arun Nalawade and Milind Shinde are neither funny nor terrifying. Even the new villain – Rahul Dongre playing their right hand to counter Raja, looks very unimpressive, with the kind of weak role entrusted to him.

The two girls Namrata Gaikwad and Sheetal Dabholkar are just namesake, though they have few songs to their share. It is Santosh Juvekar, who dominates, throughout the film. There are other characters like Raja’s mother played by Kishori Shahane, Sakhi’s mother played by Swati Chitnis and others around. But, they have very less to their share, except for being part of emotion filled scenes. The film has failed to define the roles of certain characters, like the one who is always with Raja and whom Rasika calls ‘Sir’. Even, it is not clear, what exactly Rasika does? If she is a student of the college, what way, she is associated with a TV channel? A freelancer or a full time journalist?

Barring these lapses, the film still manages to present the subject of united fight of the youth against the corrupt education system, in director Sanjiv Kolte’s style; using lot of emotional content in this otherwise action filled film. There is good scope for music by Pravin Kunwar, using the songs at festive occasions. As a result, the film appears as an ordinary formula entertainer, filled with emotions.