Rating: na Presenter: Samruoddhi Cine World Writter, Director & Producer: Advocate Samruoddhi Porey Camera: Rahul Jadhav Music: Ashok Patki Singer: Kunal Ganjawala, Vaishali Samant Cast: Urmila Kanitkar, Stacy Bee, Aiden Barkely, Samruoddhi Porey, Vivek Raut, Sulabha Deshpane, Suchitra Bandekar Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

“The mother loves her child most divinely, not when she surrounds him with comfort and anticipates his wants, but when she resolutely holds him to the highest standards and is content with nothing less than his best.” But, Samrruddhi Porey’s new Marathi film ‘Mala Aai Vhaychay’ ( I want to be a Mother) goes much beyond this thought, with a punch line, ‘A child gives birth to a mother’. In this film, the vibrant advocate turned director has dealt with the delicate issue of surrogate child and his mother, who actually gives birth to him.

Yashoda( Urmila kanetkar)a poor woman living in a village, is chosen by an NGO to be a surrogate mother for a model- Mary (Stacy Bee) who comes from a foreign country, in search of a healthy mother. When Yashoda is explained about the procedure, she agrees to be a surrogate mother for Mary, as she wants to spend towards the medical treatment of her daughter, who is handicapped.

When it is discovered in the check up during the sixth moth that the child to be born may be born with some handicap, Mary leaves back home, after making arrangements with an orphanage by paying a huge sum. She also instructs Yashoda, to hand over the child to an Orphanage. Yashoda is upset with this strange behaviour of Mary and she suggests the social worker at the clinic( Suchitra Bandekar)that she would take care of the child, even if born with handicap.

But, the child born to Yashoda turns out to be a normal child. The kid( Madhav) with brown hair and blue eyes grows up in the village and speaks Varhadi Marathi. Whenthe child turns four,in comes Mary to take back her child. What happens thereafter is a drama, but it concludes with happy ending. There is no legal battle as expected. Perhaps, it was an amicable settlement over the issue of custody of the child, in such a delicate situation.

‘Mala Aai Vhaychay’ does have a strong issue about a Surrogate child, well presented by Writer- director Ms. Samrruddhi Porey, in her debut film. But, she has also tried to support thismain theme with certain other issues like suicide of farmers and issues related to women folks. In the process, she has consumed a little more time than required. There is a character of Ganpat (Vivek Raut),who initially flirts with Mary and later maries his beloved from village. Though this character has performed extremely well, his parallel story consumes a little more time. The director herself has enacted the role of a farmer’s wife, who commits suicide to invite the attention of the country that it is not only the farmer who commit suicide, but it could be his wife too and she too deserves a compensation. It would have been better, if irrelevant parts were omitted to focus on the main theme.

But, looking at her approach and sincerity to deal with this so called true story, she certainly deserves a pat on her shoulder to make this sensible thought provoking film that too in Marathi. Her selection of artistes is good. Both Stacy Bee as Mary and Aiden Barkely as Madhav have lived up to the expectation of the audience, though it was their debut too. Other artistes in the cast like Sulbha Deshpande, Suchitra Bandekar, Samrruddhi herself, her two daughters Shruti & Shreya have supported well. But, it is Urmila Kanetkar in the role of Yashoda, who impresses the most with her extra-ordinary acting skills. She had as many as four most difficult scenes, which only an experienced and matured actress would have done; but young Urmila performs with authority. Music score and background music goes well with the village backdrop. Cinematography by Rahul Jadhav is good and so is the art direction by Santosh Phutane.

To make a film on this subject and that too in Marathi, certainly requires guts; but Ms. Samrruddhi Porey has marketed the film well, covering English media too, which is generally neglected by Marathi films. After ‘Shwaas’ we did have two films, ‘Pratisaad’ and ‘Aaghaat’ based on medical science; but, this one is different, as it deals more with emotions of a surrogate child and mother. With ‘Mala Aai Vhaychay’ Marathi cinema has opened the doors for sensible thought provoking films, which would be universally accepted