Rating: na Presenter: Zee Talkies Producer: Satya Films Director: Sudesh Manjrekar, Atul Kale Story: Mahesh Manjrekar Camera: Shailesh Awasti Music: Ajit-Atul-Sameer Cast: Shivaji Satam, Makrand Anaspure, Siddarth Jadhav, Medha, Saksham Kulkarni and Gauri Vaidya Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Riding high on the success of ‘Saade Maade Teen’, Zee Talkies team is back with their latest movie ‘De Dhakka’. While ‘Saade Maade Teen’ was inspired from classic ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gadi’, ‘De Dhakka’ finds it inspiration from 2006 Oscar contender ‘Little Miss Sunshine’…

While there may be raised eyebrows over the trend of inspired movies, let us stay away from that point. What matters is whether the movie entertains or not? and ‘De Dhakka’ turns out to be a good entertainer. Credit must be given to the Zee Talkies team for successfully ‘Indianising’ the story (those of who have seen the original must know how different it was from typical hollywood movies)

This is the story of Jadhav family. A family with lots of troubles. Subhanrav(Shivaji Satam), his son Makarand (Makrand Anaspure), Makrand’s wife Sumi (Medha), Makarand’s children (Saksham Kulkarni) and Sayali (Gauri Vaidya) and Sumi’s brother Dhanaji (Siddharth Jadhav).

The movie begins with a brief introduction of all the family members and the audience gets to know the characters and their ambitions. Makrand is a motor mechanic who has spent all his money to fund his work which, he hopes, will make him millionaire. Subhanrav is sore with Makrand for this reason and Makrand hates subhanrav for drinking too much. Things don’t go well between two of them. While Makrand’s son aspires to be a wrestler. His daughter dreams of being a dancer. Dhanaji (Makarand’s brother in law), suffers from kleptomania. And Sumi, Makrand’s wife tries hard to keep the family happy.
Things change when sayali is selected for a dance competition and the whole family sets on a journey to Mumbai…on a autorikshaw. The Jadhav family is faced with many problems during the journey and how do they overcome them and also rediscover the family ties during the journey forms the rest of the story.

First half is very engaging, all the main characters are introduced and established. Then the movie moves ahead and audience gets to know of all the problems that the Jadhav family is facing, this part has been effectively handled with the help of some comic moments. The directors have done good job of maintaining the fine balance between comedy and emotional scenes. But the second half seems to drag at someplaces. The final dance competition is ok. Makrand’s speech towards the end seems to deviate from the main theme but nonetheless it should go well with the audience as it directly appeals to your heart.

The movie has a good storyline (Well, the credit goes to the original ) but the screenplay fails to take the full advantage of the story. The way police officer is portrayed is childish. Even Dhanaji’s multiple personality disorder doesn’t fit in properly. The confrontations between Makrand and Subhanrav seem repeating in the second half. And try as hard as you can, it’s bit hard to imagine audience booing away a lavani performance in dance competition at mumbai. The writers and director should have worked on these loose ends.

The performances are good. Shivaji Satam’s acting seems monotonous though. Makrand’s character has many shades, a loving and caring father, an angry son, a troubled husband and he shows all the emotions with ease. Siddharth Jadhav gives an energetic performance once again. Not a single moment is dull when he is on screen. Ajit-Atul & Sameer’s music is as usual catchy. The background music seems loud at some places. The title track ‘De Dhakka’ is excellent and it goes perfectly well with the story.
On the whole, ‘De Dhakka’ is a good one time watch.