Rating: ★★★½ Genres: Comedy, Drama Censor: U Duration: 130 min. Studio/presenter: Kayan Productions Producer(s): Jitendra Kulkarni, Rahul Bodas, Sanjay Shetye Director: Dr.Meena Nerurkar Music: Ashok Patki, Sudhir Phadke, Pratik Shah, Neel Nadkarni Writer: Dr.Meena Nerurkar Cinematographer (DOP): Hyder Bilgrami, Vinayak Radhakrishnan Cast: Vikram Gokhale, Vijay Chavan, Asha Shelar, Ram Kolhatkar, Dr.Meena Nerurkar, Makarand Bhave, Manasi Karandikar, Madhuvanti Bhat, Seeyali Singh, Dr.Deven Gabale, Dawn Scott, Carrie Sullivan Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Parents living in India and their children busy with their jobs abroad and not finding time to visit India, is not new to us. There is at least one such case in every housing society. Latest released Marathi film ‘A Dot Com Mom‘ is also a story of one such simple middle class mother Sulbhatai( Dr.Meena Nerurkar), from a small town in Maharashtra. Like all other Indian house wives, she too has worked hard to raise her only son Sunil alias Sunny( Sai Gundewar) , who later goes to USA and becomes a millionaire, attaining success with his dot com company. Sunil invites his parents to visit him and his wife to share his success. But, only his beloved mother manages to go to USA, while his father( Vikram Gokhale) prefers to stay back.

Feeling exited with his mother’s arrival, Sunil wants to make her happy, showing her all nearby places during week ends. But the mother is unable to cope up with the lifestyle of USA and gets into trouble on many occasions. Her daughter in law Seema( Apoorva Bhalerao) also cannot bear her mother-in-law’s presence in their house. Finally, instead of staying for 4 months, Subhatai decides to return back to India, only to be recalled again, when the daughter in law needs help, during the time of her delivery. But, this time, the mother in law goes all prepared, finding two months time to change herself.

Very cleverly the writer- director has handled the screenplay, to make it interesting with humour filled events. She has also shown the perfect lifestyle of NRI’s, besides showing some unexpected happenings little before interval and in post interval stage. The film is inspiring, as the central character has shown the way to thousands of such mothers in law, to bring in that required change in them, to move with the time and make their children happy.

The selection of artistes, whether Indian or foreigners is perfect. Playing herself as the central character, Dr.Meena Nerurkar has given full justice to her role. Vikram Gokhale as Sunil’s father and Vijay Kadam as shopkeeper are just namesake in this film. Sai Gundewar plays the young handsome bald hero, who not only looks smart and handsome, but has also performed very naturally. In the role of his wife Apoorva Bhalerao is just fine. But, excellent performance comes from popular TV artiste Deepti Lele, who has played an important character in this film. She is so lively, with her foreign accent. But, another versatile TV artiste
Asha Shelar has very limited scope and has been wasted in this film.

Perhaps, this is the first Marathi film shot in USA, besides using proper indoor locations, to give a realistic look to the film. Film’s title is very apt and goes well with the story. Technically, it is a well made film, with suitable music.Excellent cinematography and art direction has also helped to give a polished look to this film. All in all, ‘A Dot Com Mom‘ is a sensible thought provoking film.