Rating: ★★★½ Genres: Drama, Humour, Family Censor: U Duration: 130 min. Studio/presenter: Sister Concern Entertainment Producer(s): Vandana Gupte Director: Chandrakant Kulkarni Music: Mangesh Dhakde Writer: Prashant Dalvi Cinematographer (DOP): Mahesh Limaye Cast: Vandana Gupte, Sai Tamhankar, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Kiran Karmarkar, Prateeksha Lonkar, Gauri Nalawade, Alok Rajwade. Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Very often we have seen Marathi film makers influenced by the scripts of popular Marathi dramas. Latest released Marathi film ‘Family Katta‘ is no exception. The film is based on Prashant Dalvi written and Chandrakant Kulkarni directed Marathi play ‘Celebration‘ .With no changes in the script and retaining the same director, Vandana Gupte and her sister Rani Verma under the banner of their ‘Sister Concern Productions‘ have made this multi starrer film, which is an emotion filled family drama.

The film begins with an old couple Mr. & Ms. Sabnis (Dilip Prabhavalkar & Vandana Gupte) based in Pune, busy with preparations to celebrate their 50^th Wedding anniversary .This time, the third generation of Sabnis family comprising of Grand daughter ( Gauri Nalavade) a TV actress and her foreign based cousin ( Alok Rajwade) more keen on meeting their grandparents and celebrate the occasion. But for the two sons of Sabnis couple (Kiran Karmarkar & Sachin Deshpande) and their daughters in law ( Prateeksha Lonkar & Sulekha Talwalkar) it is just an occasion for a family get together. The third son of Sanis couple ( Sanjay Khapre) who is into social work and living in a village, is also on his way, to attend this function. The only daughter of Sabnis family ( Sai Tamhankar) , who marries against her father’s wish, an elderly person , after her divorce, is also on her way with her husband ( Adesh Shrivastav) to meet her parents after six years.

The film’s screenplay goes on well in the first half, with light humor arising out of the old couple’s arguments over small issues in their day to day life. But, little before the arrival of the family members, we notice a sudden twist in the screenplay. Thereafter, the film moves on with emotion filled happenings that follow in the second half, keeping the audience guessing, as to what would happen next. The film concludes well, with a timely social message.

‘Family Katta‘ is a well presented film, with wonderful performances coming from the entire team comprising of Dilip Prabhavalkar, Vandana Gupte, Kiran Karmarkar, Prateeksha Lonkar, Sachin Deshpande, Sulekha Talwalkar, Sanjay Khapre, Gauri Nalawade, Alok Rajwade, Sai Tamhankar & Adesh Shrivastav. They have shown perfect understanding and proper team work in every scene in this film. The jealousy between the two daughters in law, is cleverly shown through few humor filled scenes, while their young children are shown with a liberal attitude. Music isn’t much important in this film, except for background music. Good editing work by Jayant Jathar and finest cinematography by Mahesh Limaye, makes this film more appealing. Dialogues by Prashant Dalvi are also well written. But, the director hasn’t taken much cinematic liberties to present this original drama, perhaps cutting on the budget. But, his direction is good.

‘Family Katta‘ is the film for entire family and hence likely to be appreciated by all.