Rating: ★★★ Studio / Presenter: Ajay Devgn Films, Raj Radha Films Producer: Leena Deore Director: Ganesh Kadam Writer: Vikas Kadam Director of Photography: Shailesh Awasthi Music Director: Santosh Mulekar Cast: Dilip Prabhavalkar, Ravindra Mankani, Yatin Karyekar, Ashok Samarth, Mrunal Thakur, Nishant Bhavsar, Gowhar Khan, Shubhankar Atre, Radhika Deore Movie Review by: Keerti Kadam

Winner of recently announced MarathiMovieWorld award for ‘Most Awaited Film’ category, ‘Viti Dandu’, is presented by Ajay Devgn Films and produced under the banner of Raj Radha Films by Leena Deore. Viti Dandu, which is an ancient Indian sport, possibly with origin over 2500 years ago,was a popular sports in India, till 60s and 70s.

The story (writtten by Vikas Kadam) of Viti Dandu is about affection between grandfather Daji and grandson Govind taking place in pre independence era, in a remotest village called Morgaon. Daji (Dilip Prabhavalkar) is a peace loving doting grandfather, always throwing protective wings around his grandson Govind (Nishant Bhavsar), mainly because his only son and daughter in law were killed by merciless British officials cruelly, for their involvement in India’s fight for freedom.
The grandfather bears villager’s taunts of being called ‘chamcha’ of Britishers, because he is worried about his grandson’s future in British Raj. Once, while visiting police station, Govind witnesses villagers getting thrashed by ‘Gora’ ( The name used by a revolutionary played by Ashok Samarth in the film,) and he keeps questioning Daji about it. To divert his mind Daji offers to play Viti Dandu with Govind, who loves playing that immensely. While playing, a strongly hit Viti hits a passerby on head, who happens to be the British officer, killer of Govind’s parents. The officer later dies, after suffering severe head injury, due to losing his balance after a hit. Daji panics and to save Govind from Britisher’s clutches, decides to run away, but seeing innocent villagers being beaten up blue and red, confesses to have committed that crime and gets himself jailed.
Govind unable to digest his grandfather being in jail, decides to rescue him with the help of his friends. They attack police officials with Viti Dandu, and are triumphant in the end ( ‘Bachha’ company will love it). Since it’s a pre independence era around 1943, revolutionary movement is also interwoven in the plot.

Director (Ganesh Kadam) has invested complete first half in environment creation and introductions of various characters. Even though having a thin storyline, the director has tried his best to present a sensible screenplay, till the climax of the film, which looks little filmy. The film has four songs and all of them are good, especially a Bharud song which is well composed (Santosh Mulekar), well choreographed, well photographed. Lyrics score points as they help in the storytelling. Background score excels and is effective without being imposing. Art director and costume department have been successful in creating the right time-period (pre-independence and now). DOP (Shailesh Awasthi) has done an amazing job and has beautifully captured the virgin rural beauty thus creating the right amount of required atmosphere.

Though the two main characters hog majority of the film space, there are presence-felt performances by others, like, Mrunal Thakur, Ravindra Mankani, Ashok Samarth. Yatin Karyekar is impactful in revolutionary’s role of Usmanbhai. Child actors Nishant Bhavsar, Shubhankar Atre and Radhika Devre has done a splendid job and wins hearts with his innocence. And, last but not the least, Dilip Prabhavalkar (winner of Best Actor award, announced by MarathiMovieWorld) has time and again been proving his versatility, doesn’t fail you this time too, showing different facets of the character with right amount of emotions.

All in all, a neat, clean movie, with picturesque locations and of course, Bollywood superstar Ajay Devgn as presenter.