Rating: na Banner: Sagar Ramachandra Sakunde Films Producer: Sagar Ramachandra Sakunde Director: Vijay Gokhale Story, Screenplay: Advait Dadarkar Music: SAY Band, Laxman Patil Camera: Sameer Athalye Cast: Shankar, Smita Shevale, Manva Naik, Mohan Joshi, Anant Jog, Uday Tikekar, Vijay Gokhale, Ravi Patvardhan, Shubhangi Latkar, Ajita Kulkarni, Shital Karanjikar, Asmita Arya Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke

One does not know, whether it was the right time for Producer Sagar Sankude and director Vijay Gokhale to release their film ‘Dum Asel Tar’? They preferred the release time, during the most popular Ganapati festival in Maharashtra. The film has been released simultaneously with two other Hindi films with popular banners. Moreover, this Marathi film’s press show wasn’t held on Wednesday, as per the practice followed by other Marathi films.

‘Dum Asel Tar’, however has a good social message to convey through the script penned by Advait Dadarkar , with the hero Shankar ( Shankar Shingare) after realizing the crime committed by him in a hit and run case, killing a young boy; tries to help the family of the victim living in the slums. But, when the mother and sister Lata (Smita Shwale) of the victim, refuse to accept the help from him, being a politician’s son; he tries to create development in the slums, with the help of a schoolmaster Anna (Vijay Gokhale) from their area.

Shankar’s girlfriend Sonal (Manva Naik) who accompanies him during the accident in a drunken state after a pub party, is opposed to his plans. Moreover, Anantrao (Anant Jog) who is a close friend turned relative of Shankar’s father( Mohan Joshi) tries to blackmail him, having saved Shankar from the accident case. He plays his political game and also pressurizes Shankar’s father by harassing his newly wed daughter in law, who is Shankar’s sister.

How Shankar faces the opposition from local goons in slums, in his mission to uplift the society and winning the confidence of Lata, is all that the film’s screenplay goes on to show. Finally, Shankar is forced to form a Political party with the support of youngsters, the schoolteacher and Jaggu dada, to fight a tough politician like Anantrao. The screenplay is fine; but the insertion of ‘dahi handi’ song hasn’t been timed well. But, music by ‘Say band’ and Laxman Patil sounds good. So are the meaningful lyrics. The cinematography by Samir Athlye is remarkable. He has shot the outdoor as well as close up scenes very well. Imran and Faisal Mahadik have done their editing job well.

Both Smita Shewale and Manva Naik have performed very well, understanding the limitations of their roles. The performances from all supporting artistes are impressive. Anant Jog and Mohan Joshi in particular, play their respective roles with authority. Shubhangi Latkar (as Shankar’s mother) finds enough scope to express her emotions in the concluding part. Uday Tikekar as Jaggu dada, Vijay Gokale as School master , Ravi Patwardhan as senior citizen, Vighnesh Joshi as TV Journalist, Ashutosh Gokhale in a supporting role and others have played their roles effectively, to give a realistic look to the film. Guest actor Bharat Jadhav adds extra flavor in the concluding part, as a committed news editor of a news channel.

However, in comparison to all these versatile artistes around, the hero of this film Shankar hasn’t been much impressive especially with his dialogue delivery in Marathi. He should have worked hard on this aspect, being a Maharashtrian himself. Simply possessing a good personality does not necessarily work in a Marathi film, which has ample talent around. He has to work hard over his Marathi, if he has to continue in Marathi films.

Moreover, the character of the hero in this film, shown as US returned young boy, does not indicate the same through his accent, which doesn’t sound like a NRI. The director seems to have paid less attention on this aspect. When the marathi audience couldn’t approve the Marathi school teacher presented by Jackie Shroff in a recently released marathi film ‘Hridaynath’, how would they react to Shankar in this film, remains to be seen . His marathi diction is the only drawback of this film, which is otherwise a sincere effort to present a social issue based theme, something new attempted in Marathi films.