Rating: na Presenter: Zee Talkies, Shivleela Films Producer: Nilima Lonari, Sanjay Thube Ex Producer: Nikhil Sane, Amit Phalke, Omkar Ranade Direction: Hemant Devdhar Story, Dialogues: Arvind Jagtap Photography: Suresh Suvarna Music: Shailendra Barve, Tyagraj Khadilkar Cast: Makarand Anaspure, Jeetendra Joshi, Tejaswini Lonari, Uday Tikekar, Sagar Talashikar, Mangesh Satpute, Pari Telang, Vishakha Subhedar, Sayaji Shinde Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Zee Talkies’ latest Marathi film ‘Guldasta’ has hit the screens all over Maharashtra, on the auspicious Maker Sankranti day. With comedy king Makarand Anaspure in the lead, the film had raised some hopes, since the last three films of Zee Talkies with Makarand had achieved good success. The theme of ‘Guldasta’ revolves around a model Jahnavi Deshmukh (Tejaswini Lonari), the only daughter from a well to do family. Besides being an aspiring model, she is also very keen on making it to Bollywood with a big banner. Her friend from an ad agency Aman Pradhan (Sagar Talashikar) tries to help her out.

In the meanwhile, she comes across two young men, who are childhood friends of each other. A simple living Rajwardhan Chougule alias Raja (Makarand Anaspure) is the owner of a winery, while Jeetu Desai (Jitendra Joshi) is the news reporter of a TV News channel which believes in sensational news. Both of them fall in love with Jahnavi, but try to hide the same from each other. Jeetu develops misunderstanding about his friend Raja, who he thinks has moved very close to Jahnavi. One day, Jahnavi insults Raja and also slaps Jeetu for his misbehavior.

After facing such humiliation, both Raja and Jeetu decide to teach a lesson to Jahnavi, who also has a helper- Madhuri ( Pari Telang) at home, treated like her own sister. Jeetu, seeks help from his colleagues to conduct sting operations to expose Jahnavi. In the meanwhile, Raja plays another game by throwing away money at Aman Pradhan, asking him to make Jahnavi a brand ambassador for his farmhouse. He even manages to come closer to Jahnavi, by gifting her costly items. This is followed by the Media game of Breaking News, which helps Jahnavi to find a role in Bollywood.

Finally, the film concludes at a reality talk show held by the TV channel in an
Amphitheatre. In that last scene, Raja tries to send across a message to the society and the film ends with a happy note. ‘Guldasta’ does not have anything very special like non-stop entertainment, but it certainly offers light shades of humour especially shot on Makarand Anaspure and Jitendra Joshi together, to explore their chemistry. But, how long these Marathi movies are going to depend upon comedy subject, still remains the question? In the role of Jahnavi, Tejaswini Lonari displays a satisfactory performance. There isn’t much scope for music, but Tyagraj Khadilkar’s music isn’t bad. Cinematography by Suresh Suvarna is good, capturing those beautiful locations around the farm house.

Among the supporting cast, Uday Tikekar, Sagar Talashikar, Mangesh Satpute, Pari Telang are fine. Sayaji Shinde, is just namesake in special appearance for one scene. There are few new faces also in the supporting cast. Director Hemant Deodhar has done a good job as a director. But, the two hour long film drags on till interval, with just routine passtime material, which ultimately gains momentum during the entire second half. Some of the dialogues are tailor made to suit the duo comprising of Makarand and Jitendra. ‘Guldasta’ is a display of light humour combined with mockery of our news channels. It has a different style of presentation supported by good performances. There is a doubt, whether the film would receive good response in a city like Mumbai, but, it has chances of pulling the crowds at small towns, especially with single screens, because of the village and city connect through the characters.