MMW Rating 2.5 User Rating 5 (1 vote) Sending

Genres:  Drama, Thriller Censor: UA Duration: 131 min. Studio / Presenter: Viacom 18 Motion Pictures, Udaharanarth Nirmit Producers: Viacom 18 Studios, Sudhir Kolte, Vikas Hande Director: Makarand Mane Cast:  Rinku Rajguru, Shubhankar Tawde, Shashank Shende, Shantanu Gangane, Umesh Jagtap, Suhas Palshikar Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke.

Politics has always been a favourite subject of Marathi films since the time ‘Saamana‘ was released in the 70s. Directed by Jabbar Patel the film skilfully dramatized the conflict of wills between a small-town political racketeer and a morally upright schoolteacher. It had talked shown the power of sugar co-operatives of Maharashtra. Then in 1998, we saw ‘Sarkarnama‘ directed by Shrabani Deodhar on two political rivals. Both ‘Saamana‘ and ‘Sarkarnama‘ became famous for the powerful performances of Dr. Shreeram Lagoo & Nilu Phule (Saamana) & Dilip Prabhavalkar and Yashwant Dutt (Sarkarnama).

Now, writer-director Viju Mane has presented his latest Marathi film ‘Kaagar‘ on the backdrop of a small town Virainagar in Maharashtra, where we find a middle-aged school teacher, with higher connections trying to gain power through his choice of candidate. How he finally succeeds in getting his own young daughter into this political fight for survival, is what the film is all about. To succeed in his mission, Guruji (Shashank Shende) entrusts the most difficult job to his trusted so-called left hand Yuvraj (Shubhankar Tawde) a software Engineer from his small town. Yuvraj agrees to do anything for Guruji, as he trusts him and is also madly in love with his young college going daughter Rani(Rinku Rajguru).

As the sequence of events unfolds, Yuvraj- Rani love story takes a back seat and we find Guruji showing his true colours like a typical filmy villain to fulfill his dream. The film fails to present a strong conflict, due to limited content and lack of well-planned screenplay. As a result, this film has turned out to be neither a well-built love story nor an action-filled political thriller. Though Shashank Shende finds a lead role of a Guruji turned politician, he does not perfectly fit into that kind of canny character. Suhas Palshikar has also been wasted in that limited character of Guruji’s political rival from the same party. His character should have been stronger to show the conflict. Instead, more attention has been paid to Guruji’s changing political games, according to time. Except for one background song, the other song a Qawwali does not go well with the screenplay. Moreover, in the absence of renowned actors, the film fails to capture the attention of the audience.

If the filmmakers thought that using the card of Rinku Rajguru, they would invite all the attention towards the film, their assumption has gone wrong. As an actress, she has been typecast with the same style of dialogue delivery and her typical expressions noticed in ‘Sairat‘. Perhaps, she has her own limitations. In the role of Yuvraj, Shubhankar Tawde is fine but here once again, the protagonist in his character hasn’t been exploited much. In the supporting cast, Vitthal Kale as Bhavdya, Shantanu Gangane as Bhaiyasaaheb and Umesh Jagtap as Police inspector Nikam have offered good support. The work done by location sound recordist and sound engineer has been worth appreciating. All in all, there is something really missing from this love story set with a political backdrop.