Rating: ★★★★ Studio: Indu Enterprise Producer: Mahadwar Story & Director: Ratnakar Matkari Associate Director: Ganesh Matkari Editor: Sagar Vanjari Cast: Tushar Dalvi, Supriya Vinod, Sulabha Deshpande, Sanjay Mone, Sandeep Pathak, Praharsh Maik, Milind Phatak Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

‘Investment’ written and directed by Ratnakar Matkari, has already won National award before its official release. The film also received critical acclaim at various international film festival, during the past few months. Now, its timely release has brought to the notice of the audience not only a socially relevant and hard-hitting subject; but a timely and thought provoking film.

Actually, ‘Investment’ is an extraordinary film, presenting the story of a typical Upwardly working couple Aashish ( Tushar Dalvi) and Prachi ( Supriya Vinod) and their twelve-year old son, Sohel(Parharsh Naik), who is being pampered with more than required care. The mother has a dream of raising her son to be a successful Politician of the Future, a field, which she believes, is promising, due to its lucrative opportunities of growth, power and finance. But, Sohel who turns a spoilt & self-centered brat, wants to follow his father’s footsteps. Only success formula he believes in is, “Achieve, what you wish”.

One day, he sends a love note to his classmate Deepa Gangan, who hails from a totally different social strata. As a result, her father (Sandeep Pathak) informs Ashish and Prachi to keep their son at bay. Prachi takes it as an insult; but Aashish’s old mother (Sulbha Deshpande) who keeps visiting their house; smells some trouble. Very next day, Deepa goes missing and Sohel who is approached by Deepa’s father, tells that he is unaware of her whereabouts. But, when Deepa’s dead body is found by the police; the suspicion points towards Sohel.

It is at this point, the film takes a break for interval, to generate more interest among the audience. In the post interval session, the issues of morality of different characters come to the fore, with the declaration of the actual crime. The film makes a clever statement on the materialistic point of view, with which today’s generation is ignoring moral values. The outcome of the case, signifies the selfish attitude, besides lack of regret of the educated young middle-class. Such disregard for moral values, concludes with a terrible climax of the film. But, that one last scene goes on to say everything; leaving it to the sensible audience to understand the effects of wrong court judgements.

There is no doubt about the strong impact created by the story of this film written by Ratnakar Matkari; but, as a director that too on debut, he has done a very good job. Through the film’s gripping screenplay, he has not only tried to generate curiosity at every moment; but has also sent a strong social message, through the contrast characters of Grand mother and the Mother of the child. The father does have some conscience; as seen through some cleverly shot scenes, but he too turns materialistic, at important situations.

Through the characters of influential criminal lawyer (Sanjay Mone) ,the school principal, class teacher and Police Inspector, the director has lot to convey, about the corrupt existing system. At the same time, through the characters of Sandeep Pathak, Bhagyashree Pane, Milind Pathak and Soham Kolvankar, he has presented the helpless voice of common man fighting for justice.

Except for the terrible climax, which leaves to the audience to decide the fate of such juvenile criminals; the film does send a clear message ‘As you sow, so shall you reap’. There are no songs in this film and therefore you focus on the series of events; which generate a lot of interest at every stage of the screenplay. Cinematography by Amol Gole and clever editing by Sagar Vanjari are other plus points of the film; besides superb realistic performances from all the artistes. A must see film for all..