Rating: ★★ ½ Studio / Presenter: Dreaming TwentyFour Seven, Cinema Company India and STV Producers: Inder Raj Kapoor, Rekha Jayant Joshi, Deepak Pandurang Rane Director: Sanjay Jadhav Writer: Sanjay Jadhav DOP: Prasad Bhende Music Director: Amitraj, Pankaj Padghan, Samir Saptiskar Cast: Swapnil Joshi, Sai Tamhankar, Urmila Kanetkar-Kothare, Upendra Limye, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Chinmay Mandlekar Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

Few years ago we saw a Hindi movie ‘1942 A Love Story’, wherein we witnessed an impressive musical love story, taking place in the midst of India’s fight for independence. Similarly, in the latest released new Marathi film ‘Pyar Vali Love Story’ , produced by Inder Raj Kapoor, Rekha Jayant Joshi, Deepak Pandurang Rane, we find a musical love story, which is set on the backdrop of 1992 communal riots in Mumbai.

The film takes you on the sets of two ‘chawls’ supposed to be located somewhere in Mumbai. Both these chawls are shown adjacent to each other, one having Hindu and the other having Muslim inhabitants. Aalia (Sai Tamhankar), stays with her parents (Ila Bhate, Nagesh Bhosale) and her brother Kaderbhai (Upendra Limaye), who indulges in street fights at a slightest provocation. But, he always has the strong support of his die hard Hindu friend ‘Pashya’ (Sameer Dharmadhikari). Then there’s a foul mouthed, but still lovable, Nandini (Urmila Kanetkar-Kothare), who is in love with Pashyabhai , and wants to marry him. Kaderbhai, who treats her as his sister, supports her. And soon we see the marriage of Pashyabhai and Nandini taking place.

Amar, (Swapnil Joshi), Pashya’s younger brother, who comes down to Mumbai for the wedding , coincidentally meets his love interest, Aalia, and it is love at first sight for him. Just when romance is budding between them, we notice a twist. Aalia’s father (a police constable) fixes her ‘Nikaah’ with his boss, police inspector, Alam, (Chinmay Mandlekar), who accidentally gets killed on the ‘Nikaah’ day. Kaderbhai suspects, it as a deliberate act by Amar, as he is aware of Amar’s affair with his sister.

Kaderbhai vows to take revenge, which necessitates enmity with his best friend Pashya. In the meantime, Amar and Aliya run away from this riot affected place and take shelter elsewhere. And that widens the enmity between kaderbhai and Pashyabhai. Finally, all of them assemble at one place for the concluding dramatic scene of the film.

The story by Sanjay Jadhav is simple, with a clear intention of presenting intense love story. The Screenplay of the film sometimes gets wobbly, but dialogues are noticeably brilliant at some points. Most of the dialogues are in Hindi, without hampering the process of story telling. Violin pieces used in the background music try to generate romantic atmosphere. The music director trio AmitRaj, Pankaj Padgham, Samir Saptiskar, have tried to make this film more musical; but, only one song ‘Jara jara..’ is impressive. Cinematographer Prasad Bhende has cleverly captured the essence of the 90s. Art direction of Manohar Jadhav is not so impressive, as the sets of the film look average and artificial.

Director Sanjay Jadhav has given a treatment to this film, like any other Hindi commercial movie ,by packing romance, drama, emotions, comedy, fights, song and dance routines, all together. Ila Bhate, Nagesh Bhosale, Chinmay Mandlekar, Sameer Dharmadhikari, have done their jobs effectively. Upendra Limaye should have toned down his facial tissue movements. Urmila Kanetkar-Kothare has turned a scene stealer in the first half. Sai Tamhankar has an exhilarating screen presence and with each film she is turning out to be a still better performer. Swapnil Joshi can easily be called Shahrukh Khan of Marathi films, given the number of romantic films he is featuring in. He has done a swell job using the right amount of emotions.