Rating: ★★ ½ Studio: Prabhakar Films Producer: Dnyaneshwar Govekar Director:Sameer Naik, Dnyaneshwar Govekar Music:Pravin Kuwar Cinematography: Sameer Athalye Cast: Ramesh Deo, Dipak Shirke, Vaibhav Mangale, Santosh Pawar, Bhalchandra Kadam, Ganesh Divekar, Sanjeevani Jadhav, Vikas Samudre, Kishori Ambiye, Kishor Nandalaskar, Ashish Rane, Chetan Dalvi, Prabhakar More… Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Last year, a Marathi film ‘Golaberij’ based on P. L. Deshpande’s popular characters from his stories was released. The film was directed by Kshitij Zarapkar. In that film, the short story of ‘Mhais’ was also there. But, since the makers of ‘Chandi’ who had exclusively acquired the rights of the story of ‘Mhais’, issued legal notice to the makers of ‘Golaberij'; which forced them to delete that particular episode from the film. But, those who attended the press show of ‘Golaberij’ had the privilege of watching that part, which was very well presented.

Now, a year later, we find this much talked about film ‘Chandi’ based on the story of ‘Mhais’ by eminent writer late P. L. Deshpande; being officially released on 14th June 2013, all over Maharashtra. A big hype was created about this film, inviting dignitaries like Shivshahir Babasaheb Purandare & Ms. Vijaya Rajadhyaksha, who showed their physical presence at the Premiere show held at Sun City, Vile Parle on 12th January, which was the death anniversary of P. L. Even MNS Chief Raj Thackeray attended this show, as a special invitee.

Frankly speaking, the original short story of ‘Mhais’ is based on an incident of a buffalo being knocked down by a State transport Bus, on its way to Mumbai from a village in Konkan. This results in a big show, as the real owner of the buffalo not allowing the Bus to proceed further, till police party arrives for investigation. The situation goes on to show the reactions of the stranded bus passengers and their arguments with villagers, coming in support of the owner of the buffalo.

To present this film in cinematic format, the director duo Sameer Naik & Dnyaneshwar Govekar have taken the liberties to add some more characters, which were not in the original story and hence clearly deviating from the original story. The film begins well with the three characters from a village ‘Savarde’, off Chiplun, on Mumbai Goa highway . So, we find Gaja Khot (Bhau kadam) and Sane (Pradeep Patwardhan) trying to overpower the buffalo owned by Dharma Mandavkar (Prabhakar More), which goes out of control.

In the meantime, we watch the scene at another village, where a senior citizen and well known personality from the village Bapusaheb More( Ramesh Deo) getting ready to proceed to Mumbai, to begin his indefinite fast, over his demand of reviving the Marathi schools in villages. He hires a ST Bus and looks for support from other villagers.

Taking advantage of this situation, different people from the village, take a free ride on the bus to Mumbai to attend to their personal work . So, we find a big team of characters led by Bapusaheb More, followed by chatterbox Dattu( Vaibhav Mangale), his flirt young sister Keshar ( Rupali Bhosale) and a forced character of Gampu, played by Santosh Pawar, to create a place for hero in this film. Writer Anil Pawar has thus taken unnecessary liberties to show the affair of Gampu, besides Keshar also being crazy after him. Finally, the big troupe leave by bus, till it comes to a halt, after knocking down Dharma’s buffalo on the road off. Savarde.

It is at this stage, the original short story of ‘Mhais’ , gets too loud and is stretched too long with unnecessary sequences. The progress of happenings thereafter, clearly indicate that the director duo were running short of ideas to create spontaneous laughter among the audience. You just can’t compare the pleasure of reading the original story with that of watching its cinematic form for little more than two hours, with unnecessary additions. Moreover, the use of mobile phone in the film, brought the film’s story into the present days and that lost the originality.

The only surprise given in the climax is the creation of the original owner of the buffalo, in the form of P.L. Deshpande. Thanks to the special effects team. ‘Chandi’ offers good performances from 86 year old evergreen actor Ramesh Deo. His enthusiasm is to be highly appreciated. Vaibhav Mangale, Bhau kadam, Prabhakar More, Pradeep Patrwardhan, Sanjivani Jadhav, kishori Ambiye & Rupali Bhosale are at their best along with a big team of artistes; but they have not been able to make use of more dialogues over and above the few original jokes of P.L.

You find a big crowd of characters. But, Only Rupali Bhosale finds an author created role, which is most suited to her. Music of this film is just ordinary; but, Sameer Athlye’s cinematography is good. The film just needed that proper attention on its screenplay, which failed to capture the audience. If you compare ‘Chandi’ with ‘Golaberij’, the former was a better presented film with realistic characters. Even that sequence of ‘Mhais’ in that film looked more realistic. ‘Chandi’ has thus turned out to be an average comedy film.