Rating: ★★★
Studio/presenter: Nadiadwala Gennext Productions, VTB Enterprises
Producer: Abrar Nadiadwala, Vaibhav Bhor
Cinematographer, Director: Rahul Jadhav
Story: Neha Kamat
Dialogues: Prashant Loke
Editor: Imran Mahadik, Faisal Mahadik
Genres: Comedy
Censor: U
Duration: 129 Min.
Cast: Dilip Prabhavalkar, Hrishikesh Joshi, Vandana Gupte, Vikas Kadam, Kamalakar Satpute, Sanjay Khapre, Mansi Naik, Kranti Redkar, Shruti Nigde
The ploy of ‘mistaken identity’ , used to be the plot of the Shakespearean comedies, including ‘Comedy of Errors’. Perhaps, inspired by the idea, debutant story writer Neha Kamat thought of writing the story of the film ‘Murder Mestri’, produced by Abrar Nadiadwala and director Rahul Jadhav.
So, the idea of a village based postman reading all the letters before delivery and then finding one of them, as murder plan of a person living in adjacent village, seemed interesting. So, we see the postman going out of his way, in search of the concerned person Madhav Mestri, whose murder has been planned. But, before this happening, the screenplay of the film by Prashant Loke failed to pick up in the first half. However, he succeeded in carrying forward the same, through the interesting second half, with some humour filled dialogues, penned by himself.
The actual plot picks up, when this postman Prabhakar Sawant (Hrishikesh Joshi) arrives in this adjacent village, to save the life of one Madhav Mestri, the real fun begins. On his arrival, he finds out through voters’ list that there are three persons with the name of Madhav Mestri. So, he is required to deliver the letter, cautioning all three of them, on the basis of the plan of murder, mentioned in the post card. With this limited plot, the screenplay takes you to the surprise climax, which reveals the real story behind the plan, mentioned in the post card.
Now, talking about the characters of Madhav Mestri, they comprise of three men, in different age groups, i.e 25, 35 and 75 respectively, living in the same village. The first being newly married (Vikas Kadam) with his over enthusiastic wife Hemlata ( Manasi Naik) eager to proceed on their honeymoon. The second one being a former Sarpanch (Sanjay Khapre) who is in a regular habit of drinking and his wife Saraswati ( Kranti Redkar) trying different tricks , to stop his bad habit. And, the eldest among them, being a retired medical practitioner ( Dilip Prabhavalkar), migrated from Mumbai to this village. His wife Malini ( Vandana Gupte) is fed up of his strange behavior. All of them have performed well, with good support coming from Shruti Nigade, as postman’s wife, Kishor Chougule, as tea stall owner and friend of the postman and Kamlakar Satpute , the wanted gangster.
The film has been shot at a totally different location, somewhere in Sawantwadi and surrounding areas, which gives a perfect feel of a village; but, the director has not been very clear about the exact period. Except for showing the postcard period. But, still, few errors are noticed, in the screenplay. However, looking at the sincere effort put in by all versatile artistes, these can be ignored. Music of the film provided by Pankaj Padghan is apt for the location, it is not very impressive, except for one song. In one of the songs, Bollywood’s influence has been clearly noticed. What impresses most, is Amar Mohile’s background music. It is too good.
It was only because of some cinematic skills used by cinematographer and director Rahul Jadhav, the film has turned out to be a little above average comedy. Overall, it has turned out to be a comedy of coincidences and clumsiness. Nevertheless, it is still enjoyable, by those, who keep their logical thinking aside, while watching such type of plots.