MMW Review 2.5 User Rating 0 (0 votes) Sending

Genres:  Drama Censor: UA Duration: 130 min. Studio / Presenter: Lade Bros Films Pvt Ltd Producers: Jayant Lade DOP: Vijay Mishra Director: Mangesh Kanthale Cast: Upendra Limaye, Hansraj Jagtap, Yash Kulkarni, Jeevan Karalkar, Chinmay Sant, Chinmay Patwardhan, Rupesh Bane, Suyash Shirke, Sharayu Sonawane, Ninad Tambade Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke.

Sports based films are not new to Marathi cinema. However, more than Marathi film industry, such films have done good business in Bollywood. But, the efforts are on to offer such films with new subjects on sports in Marathi. The latest released Marathi film ‘Sur Sapata’ which is on the background of the game of kabaddi has been released this week. Set on the backdrop of a village in Maharashtra, this film focuses on one such District run School, which won the Inter School state level trophy in the game of kabbadi 25 years ago.

Now, after 25 years, we find fresh talent in Kabaddi emerging in this school . But, they are all notorious boys and always involved in punishable acts. Time comes when a school teacher ( Anand Ingale) reminds the School Head master ( Govind Namdeo) about the forthcoming State Level Inter School Kabbadi tournament and insists that their school team should take part in it. The head master is not happy with these notorious students and therefore he suggests that the team can be sent for the competition without the names of these seven students.

How these seven Kabbadi passionate group manage to participate in this competition and how they find a former kabbadi player from their own village ( Anna Bhosale) as their coach, is what the story of this film is all about. The actual competition begins only in the post interval session but before that the audience is introduced to each and every important character including the seven students, their interactions with teachers and their parents to highlight the characteristics of each one of them.

The film does have a good subject and tries to emphasise on importance of Fair play in sports, but the presentation part is not so appealing, as it should have been for a good sports based film. In the first part a lot of time is wasted before arriving at the main theme. And when we see the actual competition in progress and the school team having lost the first two matches in the league stage, you find a former Kabbadi player who has won the same trophy for their school 25 years ago, turning up as their coach; to ensure their entry into finals. Generally, no such competition lasts for more than 10 days. So, the Coach Anna training the winning skills of this game in just a week’s time, fails to convince. The concluding scene of the film has been presented well.

Nevertheless, the performances of the artistes and the hard work put in by all the seven youngsters is to be appreciated . Some of them like Hansraj Jagtap, Chinmay Patwardhan, Chinmay Sant, Yash Kulkarni , Rupesh Bane have already proved their ability individually as child artistes in the past. Now, they combine together in a group, to display good team spirit. The entire film is on them. Though Upendra Limaye is projected as a hero, he finds better scope only in the 2nd half and he has given full justice to his character. Among the supporting artistes Govind Namdeo, Anand Ingale, Siddharth Zadbuke, Neha Shitole, Pravin Tarde and Sanjay Jadhav have done well, but the character of Sanjay Jadhav hasn’t been properly developed in the screenplay. Talented TV actress Abhidnya Bhave has been wasted in this film with an insignificant role. Music is just fine and the dialogues lack the required punch for such type of film. All in all, Sur Sapata has turned out to be an average film, which may be enjoyed by some ardent sports lovers.