Rating: ★★★ Genres: Drama Censor: U Duration: 130 min. Studio/presenter: Golden Gate Motion Pictures Producer(s): Vinod Malgewar Director: Ruturaj Dhalgade Writer: Ruturaj Dhalgade Music: Shubhankar Shembekar Cinematographer (DOP): Ramesh Bhosale Cast: Spruha Joshi, Siddharth Chandekar, Vinod Malgewar, Dr.Mohan Agashe, Mangesh Desai, Tejasvi Patil, Gauri Konge Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Known for their ‘out of the box’ subjects, Marathi films have already established their identity as story based films, all over the world. Latest Marathi film ‘Lost and Found‘ produced by Vinod Malgewar and directed by Ruturaj Dhalgade also falls in this category. The film does begin well, with its focus on finding a solution to drive away loneliness from the lives of people from different age groups, living in cities.

‘Lost and Found‘ begins with Manas( Siddharth Chandekar) a youngster running a small provision store in the city of Aurangabad, facing a break up from his girlfriend Mugdha( Gauri Konge) who prefers a well to do partner for her secured future. Dejected Manas does open his mind to a senior citizen Shrirang Kaka ( Dr.Mohan Agashe) living in his colony. Shrirang Kaka who is also living a lonely life, suggests Manas to form a group to voluntarily help people living in loneliness, by sparing some time with them. Another dejected person Maruti( Mangesh Desai) who has lost his family in an unfortunate accident , also joins the group, along with Naina( Spruha Joshi) a young lady, whose husband has left her a month after her marriage, for no reason. Few more youngsters also join the group.

The volunteers do succeed in their mission of counseling all such people; but in the process, Manas understands Naina better and Naina falls in love with him. Maruti who goes for counseling a young lady ( Tejasvi Patil) suffering from a serious ailment, likes her company. Shrirang Kaka encourages them all to spread their network beyond Aurangabad and we find them crossing the city limits to make their ‘Anti Loneliness Programme'(ALP) effective. And, they all succeed in their mission.

‘Lost and Found‘ is a sincere effort by director Ruturaj Dhalgade, but, he could have made it more interesting. At few places, he fails to go into details of the victims of loneliness. A young girl, who has a break up with her boyfriend, over a small issue, speaks her mind to Manas for the entire day till late evening. But, nothing is clear about her family, as she lives in a bungalow. Also, the episode of a Bengalee lady living a lonely life, is left incomplete. There was no need to show the episode of a struggling non Marathi actor from North. Instead, it would have been better to show a youngster from Aurangabad, struggling to become an actor in Mumbai. That would have brought the audience more closer to this character. The film hasn’t shown how the volunteers generate income to do their selfless service to the society. Moreover, it set on the backdrop of Aurangabad city, but you don’t get to see the much of city life, captured by camera.

Music by Shubhankar Shembekar is just fine to go with this kind of film and so are the lyrics of Spruha Joshi. Cinematography by Ramesh Bhosale is good. All the five important artistes in this film have given their best through their respective characters. But, Dr. Mohan Agashe invites all the attention. He has given an energetic performance, bringing lots of humor, through almost all the scenes which have come to his share. The film scores on account of its different subject and good performances.