Movie: Gavthi
Director: Anand (Anddy)
Writer: Nayan Rathod, Rohit Sawant
Cinematographer (DOP):  Ajeeth
Editor: Sanjay S Ingle
Rating:  ***1/2
Review By: Ulhas Shirke

If you think what one person can do to bring that required change in his village, the key for the same is the conviction and vision of that person. A farmer’s son need not be a farmer, but at the same time, he should not shift to the city, just to do odd jobs, to avoid the family tradition. Latest released Marathi film produced by Siva Kumar R and directed by Anddy Anand shows the success formula for village development through an interesting story, which should inspire every youth of the present generation.‘Gavthi’ is actually the story of Gajanan( Shrikant Patil) , son of a hard-working farmer Shankar ( Kishore Kadam) who wants to educate his son, so that like him he need not be dependent on seasonal rains and loan from the Government or moneylender to save his land. As per his father’s wish Gajanan who is studious completes his education and also acquires a diploma in Computer engineering with merit. At the same time, he also falls in love with his classmate Gauri , who happens to be the only daughter of Babanrao ( Nagesh Bhosale) the rich moneylender from the village. When Babanrao comes to know about the love affair of his daughter with Shankar’s son, he plays a game to send Gajanan to Mumbai for a job, assignment, much against his wish.

On reaching Mumbai, Gajanan realizes that he has been cheated. But, a kind-hearted fast food vendor Mutthuswamy ( Kushal Badrike) comes to his rescue by not only providing him shelter but also a job of an Office Boy in an IT company, through one of his regular customers. And, this changes his life. How he rises to the executive post and convinces his Boss to adopt his own village for rural development, to get tax exemption for his company, is an interesting story. All is well in the concluding part.

The first part of the film presents a typical love story taking place in a village which comes to an end with the separation of Gajanan and Gauri. Even the post-interval happenings indicate the same old story of a village boy coming in search of a job in the dream city of Mumbai and getting cheated. But, soon we find the film taking a new turn to show how one person can change his own village, with the help of his proper planning. In short, the concluding part of this film is more inspiring with a timely message for every educated youth, especially coming from the rural background. The film has also shown through one important scene, how our Marathi people holding high position don’t help their own people coming from rural Maharashtra to find jobs, only because they are not fluent in English.

Director Anddy has cleverly shown the strong bonding between Gajanan and his parents and at the same time he has presented the love story of Gajanan and Gauri. He has also added humor to this film with the inclusion of few characters like Kushal Badrike, Kishore Chougule and others. But, it is Kushal Badrike in the character of Mutthuswamy invites all the attention in the post interval session. One can compare his performance with Bollywood legends like Late comedian Mehmood and also Jhony Lever. So much has been the capacity of this actor , when it comes to presenting good comedy. Another actor Kishore kadam has performed extremely well. He finds good support from Vandana Waknis, who has played his wife in this film & Nagesh Bhosale who has played a negative character.

Talking about the young lead pair, both Shrikant and Yogita have done well on their debut, but Yogita is more impressive, because of her expressive face and perfect dialogue delivery. Music of this film is good, but cinematographer Ajeeth captures all attention through his good work. Technically, it is a good film. Only drawback of this film is its length which is two and half hours. A long time has been spent on classroom and school campus happenings, which we have seen in many Marathi films based on teenage love in the past. Even the two friends of Gajanan shown schoolboys are not very convincing, though they have given good performances. However, looking at the sincerity of the filmmaker to send across a strong message with the help of good humor, makes this film a worth watch.