Movie: Hampi Rating: ★★★1/2 Genres: Romantic travelogue Censor: U Duration: 130 min. Studio / Presenter: Amol Joshi Productions, Swaroop Recreation & Media Pvt. Ltd Producer(s): Yogesh Bhalerao Director: Prakash Kunte Cast:  Sonalee Kulkarni, Lalit Prabhakar, Prajakta Mali, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Chhaya Kadam Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Two years ago the writer and director combo of Aditi Moghe and Prakash Kunte through their film ‘Coffee Aani Barach Kahi‘ offered a very sensible story of a young working IT woman, who takes her own time to choose her life partner. Now, both of them have returned with another Marathi film ‘Hampi‘ to show, how the environment and people around help a young girl discover herself, after visiting a beautiful tourist place ‘Hampi‘.

The film presents Isha( Sonalee Kulkarni ) who is undergoing depression, due to the divorce taking place between her parents, after 28 years of their marriage. So, she visits a place called Hampi in Karnataka, in search of happiness. On her arrival, she first interacts with an auto rickshaw driver R.Ranjit ( Priyadarshan Jadhav ), followed by a Young bachelor in the neighborhood of her hotel room, Kabir ( Lalit Prabhakar ) who after his break up, has fallen in love with this place and the people around. Kabir tries to come closer to Isha, by understanding her problem and suggesting her to change her attitude towards life. Isha also comes across two more people, Ashabai ( Chhaya Kadam ) who sells handicraft items and a Sadhu, who also understand the reason behind her loneliness.

Though Isha doesn’t respond to Kabir’s approach, she starts liking him, after the arrival of her friend Girija ( Prajakta Mali ) who comes all the way from Delhi, to join her for few days. Fun loving Girija openly admires Kabir. But, being her good friend, she wants Isha to choose Kabir as her life partner. One evening, we find a sudden twist in this film. What happens in the climax is anybody’s guess.

But, the film does leave an impact, with the superb handling of the screenplay. ‘Hampi‘ has many plus points. The characters penned by the writer, are developed very well by director Prakash Kunte, paying full attention on their point of view and more importantly their thinking process, which have been shown through their communication process with well written dialogues by Aditi Moghe the writer of this film. Be it, the communication between Kabir & Isha, Isha and Girija, Isha & R.Ranjit, Isha & Ashabai, Isha & Sadhu, they have turned out to be very natural , generating humor at almost every important sequence.

The cinematography of this film is another plus point with Amlendu Choudhari making all efforts to capture the picturesque beauty of this place in all those outdoor scenes. He gives glimpse of his creativity in the very first frame of the film, giving you a hint that this place called Hampi can be counted as one of the lively characters in the film. He finds good support from Poorva Pandit’s art work and Sayali Soman’s dress designs. Film’s background music is also very effective at every situation . Above all, the performances of all the artistes are impressive. Sonali and Lalit display a good chemistry between them. Prajakta Mali finds her entry in this film at the stroke of interval, but she does extremely well to invite the audience attention with her bubbly character for almost next half an hour. This role will surely help her to find better roles in Marathi films. Good support comes from other artistes.

All in all, though ‘Hampi‘ is targeted at youngsters , showing the natural remedy for depression, it also offers good entertainment with its good presentation. You get the feeling that you are on a sight seeing for 95 minutes,to this beautiful place called Hampi .