LALBAUG PAREL

 Movie Review “Lalbaug Parel – Zali Mumbai Sonyachi” (2010)

Genre: Drama
Director: Mahesh Manjarekar
Language: Marathi
Star Cast: Shashank Shende, Seema Biswas, Ankush Chaudhary, Vinit Kumar, Karan Patel, Veena Jamkar, Siddharth Jadhav, Sachin Khedekar, Vinay Apate, Sameer Dharmadhikari, Satish Kaushik, Kashmira Shah, and others

LALBAUG PAREL is a movie based on Marathi play “ADHANTAR”. I had seen this play and this play was shocked me terribly. The story and acting performances by Sanjay Narvekar, Bharat Jadhav and others made me feel helpless; feel angry and I felt like crying. I could feel the anguish of the characters in my heart; I was so moved by this play. I knew the facts of mills strike and read a lot about it before watching this play; but I felt their pain only after watching this play. So I was very happy and excited as well as very circumspect before watching this movie. Will the movie able to do the justice to the brilliant play?
Film is much bigger canvas than theatre so the director Mahesh Manjarekar made some changes and obviously he won’t have made it a copy of play. He also had to make sure it will look contemporary. But I am not impressed with his casting of Narya, just because he was making this movie in Hindi also, he casted non Marathi actor. He has been given voice by Santosh Juvekar in Marathi Version. And listening to him throughout the film I wondered why he was not casted. He could have given the passion and aggression needed for the role which the other actor lacked.

 

The movie turned out very well but wasn’t up to the mark compared to the play. Play was lot better. Director of Mahesh Manjarekar’s caliber should have able to do lot better with it. As for acting everyone did well but Vina Jamkar and Siddharth Jadhav gave amazing performances. They stood tall out in this big cast. If I have to rate this movie I will give it 7 out of 10. This movie is also released in Hindi with the name “CITY OF GOLD”

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Movie Review: Uladhal

Movie Review: ‘Uladhal’ - Marathi

Director: Viswas Sarpotdar

Cast: Bharat Jadhav, Makarand Anaraspure, Ankush Choudhary, Siddharth Jadhav, Madhura Velankar, Aaditi Sarangdhar, Subodh Barve and Others.

Gener: Comedy

Music: Ajay Atul

The Marathi movie industry follows for success is either makes multi-starrer comedy film or makes an emotional family saga. And for many years now they are following the same trend except some movies like “Shwas”, “Tingya”, “Dombivali Fast” and others. This Movie “Uladhal” follows the same trend. Director – Producer Vishwas sarpotdar chose safest route for his first film by making comedy film that too with biggest names in Marthi Film Industry.

The movie revolved around ‘Dhaal’ (Shield) of gold which is considered to be of high exclusive heritage and so of very high value. It is belongs to Sayajirao (Makarand Anaraspure) and his prestigious family. This is the story about how this shield gets stolen and in the end how it has been recovered.

Movie is as funny as it supposed to be, very much entertaining. And it assures you good quality family time. All the actors are in there usual roles so they were very much comfortable doing their roles and doing it really well. Bharat Jadhav as usual comes with good performance with his immaculate comic timing. Siddharth Jadhav as usual does his mad character act very well but I feel like he could have been utilized little bit more. Ankush Choudhary, Aaditi Sarangdhar, Madhura Velankar does their respective roles as expected. Subodh Barve is getting too predictable in his negative role, it seems there is nothing more he can offer. He need to think about this hard before accepting negative roles as he is getting monotonous.

All this is good, but there is big blunder in casting Makarand Anaraspure as Sayajirao. I can understand the psychology of first time director – producer to cast biggest stars in his movies. So he can bring people to theatres. It is said that Makarand Anaraspure wanted to change his image in films so he accepted this role. This was big challenge for him; but he was never suited for this role in first place. He couldn’t pull it off although he is a brilliant actor and entertainer.

The movie was good but there was scope for to make it even better. Technically Marathi cinema is improving. Actors were always been top class. Movie is shot in Goa so it was pleasant to watch but they could have used it for their advantage more. Music of the film is so – so nothing great. Movie starts with a great song which was popular even when movie was in pipeline. So Music directors Ajay – Atul raise the hope but could not sustain it. In the end movie was good family entertainment it even seems to have budget for costumes because costumes of both the actress were considerably good.

If I have to rate the movie I will give it 6/10.

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