Rating: ★★ Genres: Thriller Censor: U Duration: 130 Min. Studio/presenter: The Nine Films Producer(s): Shivvilash Chaurasiya Director: Joji Raechal Job Music: Soham Ajay Pathak Cinematographer (DOP): S. Prasad, Anik Verma Cast: Sachit Patil, Spruha Joshi, Milind Shinde, Aashish Newalkar, Pankaj Vishnu, Vikas Patil Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Marathi films have made progress at the international level, for their new subjects and ability to handle ‘out of the box’ topics. But, still there are some film makers in Marathi, who believe in borrowed subjects from Hindi or remakes of south Indian films. Latest released film ‘Paisa Paisa‘ falls in this category. Produced by Shivvilash Chaurasia and directed by Joji Raechal Job, the story of this film revolves around an ad film maker Ajay ( Sachit Patil) who is already struggling in his life, with financial problems. His wife Janhavi( Spruha Joshi) , who is a Model, has separated from him for the past six months and they are in the process of patching up.

Janhavi calls Ajay to their old meeting point- a coffee shop to forget the past and start a new life. But, on his way, Ajay receives a call from his friend Rajiv ( Ashish Newalkar) that he has been kidnapped in Nagpur , where he had gone to give an interview; and the captor( Milind Shinde) had demanded Rs. 10 thousand for his release. So, he goes out of his way, to raise the money for his friend’s release, which could be deposited in his bank account. By the way, his friend Ajay is already broke like him and does not have any balance in his savings account. Before contacting Ajay, when Rajiv requests his girlfriend Neha ( Vinita Joshi) in Mumbai to remit the amount, without telling her the real story, she misunderstands him and refuses to oblige.

So, with this limited plot, we find the film’s hero begging money from all his sources, except his wife; who keeps waiting for him at the coffee shop for two long hours. Now, looking at the methods adopted by Ajay to raise money in parts from different sources, including an illegal trade, fails to convince the Marathi film audience. In today’s smart phone age , they really wondered, why the helpless hero, at a particular point, didn’t think about taking police help, especially when he receives a call from the captor’s number. Perhaps, he was not watching Marathi serials like ‘Lakshya‘ and ‘Asmita‘. Even Rajiv, who appears to be street smart, fails to stop or resist the auto-rickshaw driver, when he knows that he is being taken to an unknown destination.

With all those unconvincing happenings in the screenplay, the film reaches the climax, where again the audience is taken for granted. The only good thing about this film, is its good cinematography and background music. Lead actor Sachit Patil is impressive in his performance. Spruha Joshi is a waste in this film. Except for one title song in the beginning of the film, she doesn’t face the hero face to face, in any of the scenes. It is only conversation over phone. Milind Shinde, who plays the auto rickshaw driver, kidnapping Ajay’s friend, has delivered the same type of dialogues repeatedly, except for last scene. Artistes like Madhav Abhyankar, Pankaj Vishnu, Pushkar Shrotri, Deepali Sayed & Vinita Joshi are just namesake in this film. All in all, the film fails to appeal, for its unconvincing borrowed plot.