Praveen Lulekar
The world might have gone to theatres to
see Riteish Vilasrao Deshmukh, but I swear to any damn thing that it was for
you that I saw Lai Bhaari. And not as a pseudo-intellectual reviewer,
but as an ardent fan of your work. Not that I was expecting a Dombivali
Fast, but I had seen Force and had loved it. But you had other
plans, like the Viththal in your film had for its characters. Well,
welcome back to Marathi and also, possibly to the hundred crore club.
Why I choose this dramatic form of
monologue? Probably because I have etched in my memory, Madhav Apte’s
application to god - ‘I, undersigned, Madhav Apte...’ and also because Lai
Bhaari has string of addresses to Viththal that have resemblance to ‘Aaj
khush toh bohot hoge tum...’ We appreciate your intelligence to have
gathered all such elements that make a perfectly commercial film, or
entertainer, as they call it.
There’s a maa, bichhde huye bhaai, devotion,
fate, revenge and of course, one man who solves it all. What’s more appreciated
is that they receive a touch of your own class. You cast an amazingly realistic
Tanvi Azmi as the maa, compensate the absence of style in Deshmukh with
character and repeat Force’s trick of a strong villain in Sharad Kelkar.
There are subtle cleavages, racy action and quirky dialogues. For
pseudo-intellects, there are little clues that make a game out of the story. In
short, you succeed in engaging.
The greatest commercial, sorry, entertaining
factor is the story. I guess South Indian filmmakers should prepare a proper
module of this. Double roles, massive twists and cynical baddies; but you are
bent to insert a story value in all these. The first half becomes flat in the
process. We all waited for Mauli and you kept showing us his ineffective twin
Prince. Sanjay Khapre’s comic intervening and Aditi Pohankar’s flowing zulfein
and her tight formals entertained us, but that’s not really the point
right? You cannot imagine how relieved we were when Mauli came at the interval
point.
Thank god that you did not use the
flashy cinematography of those films! That’s where your genius lies after all.
The title sequence of the waari absolutely mesmerised us. I think aerial
shots are your speciality. The one with the pilgrims travelling through the ghaat
is exquisite! You strike logical frames throughout the film to make it
beautiful. But it was sad to see you waste screen time in all those songs. And
those superstar appearances – oh yes, they are necessary to generate the hoots.
I have grown mature enough to realise
that a film should be seen in its genre. That was my first lesson in
review-writing. Lai Bhaari, as said, is the perfectly commercial genre,
but it’s not the Nishikant Kamat genre. Nine
years ago, you changed the flow, the thought, the texture of Marathi cinema through
Dombivali Fast. Even Lai Bhaari might do that, but in the
completely opposite direction.
P.S. – Sorry, forgot to mention the
talented Radhika Apte. Yes, even she is there. As the heroine.
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