Vaalvi Marathi Movie Review 2023

SPOILERS: Do not miss this dark comedy, go watch it on Zee5 first.

Even in a country of billion plus people, if you go missing, people notice. That is just one of the troubles with disposing off a body. For other troubles, follow this plot.

One thing you know even before watching the movie is that it is going to be a great watch. Paresh Mokashi has been a constantly great storyteller, his dreamy camera renders easily to his wonderfully built sets. Add to this mix, actors like Swapnil Joshi and Subodh Bhave who have been in great form and experimenting with various genres, this movie is a goldmine from the start. 

Having seen Swapnil in a horror movie like Bali, and with such a great plot at hand, it must tempting to set this story as a dark brooding tale. But no, trust Mokashi to build a dark comedy, that is in the league of classics like Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron. 

Swapnil Joshi's Aniket is not a dark man, he has just walked into the whole mess unwittingly, most likely following his hotheaded mistress, Devika, played by Shivani Surve.  He remains decidedly dark grey though. He could have been an all-out black character but his redemption is in the fact that he was stuck in a loveless marriage for a long time and seems to have given his wife, Avani, (Anita Date) a decent chance to walk out of the marriage through a clean divorce. 

Avani remains vulnerable throughout the movie, dying from the moment we see her to many, many times later. Our heart reaches out to the woman wondering each time if she has died of her own accord and escaped the sadistic plan being laid by her husband. We forgive her infidelity so easily because a childless woman who breeds termites with a maternal urge can only wring at your heart. 

Anshuman also can be forgiven. Despite forgetting the ethics of his profession, he is the only one who constantly seems upset by Avani's actual death. Swapnil Joshi and Subodh Bhave have a great camaraderie and it takes a great director to utilise their talents. Aniket's jumpy energy is greatly enhanced by Anshuman's angry nervousness. It leads to the best comic moments in the movie. Especially wonderful playoff when the gang wants to get rid of the body and Aniket takes time to play the petty customer, earning some great silent reaction by Anshuman. 

The movies first half has the sepiatone-inspired look (which could be called Mokashi's signature,) but the drama in the second half belongs to the city's chaotic energy, not usually associated with Pune, but which exists nonetheless due to the rampant urbanisation. 

Movies like these mirror to us the signs of human foolishness. As an audience, even we don't take a moment to mourn the woman's death. Along with the characters, even we get into the feverish craze of disposing off her body. 

Just like in life, many unrelated people keep walking into this mess. And right when you begin to wonder if there is a part two you didn't know about, comes the end and lifts the movie into one of the greatest in terms of suspense films. 

I will not get into the symbolism of the movie's title, Vaalvi, meaning termites, which is for you to watch and ruminate on your own.

Sarkarnama Marathi Movie Review

Sarkarnama was one of the movies which made a deep impact on me as I was getting interested in Indian politics in college. Watched it again recently and still liked it (minus songs,) unlike some movies that lose their sheen as age and reality catches on with you. My reflection on re-watching it.

Sarkarnama is a political drama. It is a realistic portrayal of the politics in an Indian state which is still feudal at heart and where personal ideals are always in conflict with the larger machinery of the system.

Sarkarnama deals with the issue of builders racket and cement scandal which rocked Maharashtra in the 80s. It has the quintessential ingredient of the underdog against the system. It may be considered one of those realistic movies that state the truth as is but does not end on a pessimistic tone, like the other movies of this genre such as Sinhasan or Dombivli Fast. Unlike these movies where the protagonists begin to lose grip on the situation as it unravels, the protagonist of Sarkarnama remains incorrigible.

The intent is to portray the stratification of power at different levels and the consequential bureaucracy, corruption in the political system and the condition of an ordinary citizen in such state of affairs. As such the director has many balls in the air but the first time director, Shravani Deodhar has a knack of a storyteller and manages the act of driving many branches of plot and giving weightage to array of characters with adroitness. Sarkarnama has an admirable ensemble in its casting of actors to fulfil its vision.

The movie takes time to build momentum but once it gains pace it maintains and leads to justified conclusion which is the success of humility against against power.

Fandry Movie Review

Note: No spoilers
Sairat was a blockbuster movie made by Director Nagraj Manjule. But much before this commercial success Manjule was a widely known name for people who follow off-beat, non-mainstream movies, due to his National Film Award winning short film Pistulya.
 
I want to talk about his second movie, Fandry, which is a longer film and hence gives the director much time to explore his themes. If you have watched Manjule's interview his background is a preoccupation for him. Moving to urban centres like Mumbai and Pune allowed him to gain a more objective perspective on these issues. Fandry is story a Dalit boy probably twelve or so of age and his discovery about his position in his world through his first experience of love. 

Jhabya (Jambhuvant,) the protagonist, belongs to the Kaikadi caste, and falls in love with an upper caste girl, Shalu. Although the movie is in Marathi, the Kaikadi language is spoken in some parts. The word "Fandry" means pig in the Kaikadi language. (Passing thought: These indigenous languages, some of which have been carried on simply through an oral tradition, must be preserved.)

As difficult as it is to make an unsubtle in-your-face movie as one can make, Manjule chooses the poet's path and let's his imagery do half the work for him. What Manjule also manages to capture is the silence of the rural parts of India. Noise is such a major component of urban living, where most movies are made, that it seeps into our movies too. However, rural living is made of silences, where a fair or even a rattling tractor can stir up the ambience. 

 One can see the resonance of Sairat in this story yet this simply told story is far cry from the drama of Sairat. Manjule's signature use of locale, as seen in Sairat, and his use of background music is already in development in this movie. The way this movie differs from Sairat is, Fandry is very rooted in the issues, drama never takes a precedence over the narrative but still it is not dry and authoritative, you invest in the character as an audience.

Again full marks to the casting, Somnath Awaghade in his naive dignity becomes a wonderful Jhabya and Rajeshwari Kharat as the elusive Shalu, fit and fill into the atmosphere, while veterans like Kishore Kadam must have enjoyed this creative challenge. Overall, I think Fandry and Pistulya must have been more creatively satisfying as works of art, compared to Sairat, which may have been a cathartic experiment about the influence of Bollywood.

Harishchandrachi Factory Marathi Movie Review

 Perhaps, it won’t matter to the whole world that there was a Dadasaheb Phalke. And that

there was a film made on the pioneer 96 years after he made his first film. But it should matter to us, both Dadasaheb Phalke and the film deserves to be made on the genius.

The art of film making itself was invented at the dusk of the 19th century, in 1895, almost two  decades before Raja Harishchandra. The first full length feature is said to be The Story Of Kelly Gang, made in Australia in 1906. The IMDB itself lists 766 film titles made in the year 1913, the same year that Dadasaheb Phalke directed first feature film from India, Raja Harishchandra.

So why should it matter to the world that a person has made a film on its first director? It was

Promotional Poster for Raja Harishchandra

not like it was the first film in the world. But firstly about Phalke. The year is 1913 India has only woken up to the fact (after the snooze alarm in 1857,) that it has enslaved itself for too long for any dignity to remain. Technological development was thrust upon the people, but mostly it was feared. The film has chronicled the same in a very funny and apt manner through the depiction of the fear of trains and cameras.

(OFFTRACK THOUGHTS: It should look so odd the juxtaposition of the nascent industrialisation against starving, dirty and superstitious India. If you think we are definitely doing great now, what with our bai and rickshawwalla carrying cellphones. Think again, we are still battling with our century old practices of sati. And just a couple of decades ago when a politician had an unusual foresight of the IT Age, Rajiv Gandhi, without trying and testing we panicked that it might give rise to unemployment. A machine that was thousand times faster than a calculator meant all the clerks and accountants would become obsolete.)

So a country that still battling inhuman practices like honour killings, imagine a man almost a century ago maddened by this dream. To go to an England that might be more racist at the time and to convince people to teach him the art, the dream that is the most profit making industry of the country. How ironical then that it took us so long to tell a story of this wonderful man and his journey.

Mokashi’s tribute is commendable for the many risks it has taken. Although it is true that we are yet to contribute to the world’s cinema legacy except for our Ray films, the stories that we tell here relevant and specific to India are important too. Something that we have so successfully done with literature, irrespective of the language. Why haven’t we managed to do the same with cinema. It perhaps lies deep into our approach towards cinema. We tend to look at cinema as an extention of the street theatre and oral tradition, at heart a source of popular entertainment. We do not believe that we might be able to extract something cerebral from cinema.