3.0

Genres: Drama Censor: U Duration: 125 min. Studio / Presenter: Proactive Producers: Hemant Ruprel, Ranjit Thakur DOP: Riju Das Director: Hrishikesh Joshi Cast:  Reema Lagoo, Mohan Joshi, Spruha Joshi, Prasad Oak, Sumeet Raghvan, Hrishikesh Joshi, Mrinal Kulkarni, Vibhavari Deshpande Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke.

Actress Reema Lagoo has left this world two years ago, with her sad untimely demise. But, her last Marathi film ‘Home Sweet Home‘ in the lead role opposite another versatile actor Mohan Joshi has been released this Friday. The film also stars Spruha Joshi, Hrishikesh Joshi & Vibhavari Joshi in important roles. There is one more popular actress in this film, who makes her presence felt through her voice and she is Nirmiti Sawant. It would not be proper to say that Nirmiti has dubbed voice for late Reema, because she has worked very hard to move into Reema’s character of Shyamal Mahajan in this film. At the same time, she has matched very well with the late actress’ characteristics while delivering the dialogues in different moods. She has in fact paid best tributes to Reema through this film.

The theme of ‘Home Sweet Home‘ revolves around a senior citizen couple Shyamal and Vidydhar Mahajan( played by Reema Lagoo & Mohan Joshi) , living in their old traditional building at centrally located Dadar area in Mumbai. While Mr. Vidydhar spends his retired life enjoying his routine with morning exercises and walk in the company of his friends , Shyamal feels the pain of old age, while climbing stairs of their three storey building. She is also not happy with the presence of young Devika ( Spruha Joshi) in the house, because of her disorderliness. Devika is the daughter of Vidyadhar’s foster sister and lives in their house, as she is studying hospitality management. Suman ( Vibhavari Deshpande) is a domestic help visiting their house daily and Sopan( Hrishikesh Joshi) who also works as an estate agent operating from a neighbourhood Irani restaurant helping the couple to attend to their requirements at home.

One day a young couple visits the house of Mahajans to meet Sopan and misunderstand that he is dealing with the same house. Vidyadhar removes their misunderstanding but having come to know that their flat could be sold for Rs.3.5 Core, Shyamal is tempted to sell their house and shift to a tower in other area, with all the amenities including modern lifts. But, Vidyadhar doesn’t approve her plans initially. Shyamal tries to persuade him stating that they would save almost One Crore, which would fetch huge interest to meet their expenses and a tension future. The writer trio comprising of Hrishikesh Joshi, Vaibhav Joshi and Mugdha Godbole have developed this theme with their screenplay and dialogues to fill in some humour. Through the characters of Sopan, Devika and Suman they have tried to show effect on them of the couple’s decision. The story however takes a new turn in the climax.

The overall film has been good, but should have been much better with more humour filled happenings especially in the post interval session. Perhaps, the combination of three writers might have divided the scope of different characters. Nevertheless , the subject is closely related to every Maharashtrian family and especially the older couples living in the old buildings and dreaming for better facilities. It is rightly said that the grass is always seen greener on the other side. Performances of all the lead characters are very nice and that makes this film presentable. Not much scope for music in this film, except for one song, but the background music of Santosh Mulekar is good. The poetic compositions used during the beginning and towards the end are very meaningful. Last but not the least, this film is a biggest tribute to late Reema Lagoo.