Fenil and Bollywood

Wherever there is urbanization, migration is bound to follow. And after some time, the migrants begin to consider the region as their own. Nothing wrong with that but problems arise when the local people living in the urbanized region since years begins to feel threatened with the growing migration. Things turn sour when these people feel victimized about their identity, culture etc. which finally results in feeling shameful. This is the time when things have almost gone out of the hands. ‘Mi Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy!’ tells a similar story of a Marathi person. However, kudos to the writer for not making this film a pro-Marathi.

The story of the movie: Dinkar Bhosale (Sachin Khedekar) is a common Marathi man living in Mumbai. He works as a clerk in a bank and lives in an ancestral bungalow. He is a simple man with simple needs but his life is miserable. His salary is meager and is humiliated everywhere. His daughter, Shashikala (Priya Bapat) is highly talented and she can easily be one of the best actresses of Bollywood. However, in the audition, she is rejected because of her surname ‘Bhosale’ which the production manager considers ‘downmarket’. His son Rahul (Abhijeet Kelkar) wants to pursue engineering from a reputed college but the college asks for a huge ‘donation’ inspite that the college is run by Nandkumar (Ganesh Yadav), who’s a childhood friend of Dinkar. Then there’s a builder, Ghosalya, who is keen to demolish Dinkar’s ancestral property and build a skyscraper in its place. In return, he’s willing to give Dinkar a posh flat in far away Badlapur area and a Santro. Dinkar rejects this offer and his wife Sumitra (Suchitra Bandekar) ridicules him for being impractical. Ghosalya on the other hand wants Dinkar’s property at any cost. He starts harassing the Bhosale family in various ways. Frustrated by all this, Dinkar curses him for being born as a Marathi. He says that his ancestors must have committed a heinous sin because of which he’s born a Marathi. This outburst of Dinkar arouses the spirit of Shivaji Maharaj (Mahesh Manjrekar) who comes face to face to meet Dinkar. He scolds him for his shallow thinking and asks him “Did I fight and establish Swaraj to hear something like this from my people?” He teaches him a lesson and Dinkar realizes that he was indeed wrong. From the next day, Dinkar changes his mindset and decides to fight landsharks, goons, corrupt officials, cops and all those who obstruct his path. Will he be able to emerge victorious?

Although the film has lots of dialoguebaazi, it doesn’t become preachy at any place. What really works is its excellent screenplay and direction. At places, the film just shakes you. Take for instance, the scene where Dinkar is criticizing the biggest Maratha leaders of the past-it stirs up your conscience. And the scene that follows, the entry of Shivaji Maharaj in the narrative creates a far more impact. The war theme in the background and the audience’s whistles and claps made for a fantastic experience! And from here, the film becomes brilliant!

The film becomes little slow in the 2nd half but again picks up in the last 20 minutes. The other flaw was in the story itself. Why wasn’t any attempt made to politicize Dinkar’s cause by any party? And the way he suddenly became very famous was hard to digest. However, the film makes up for its flaws completely in various departments and emerges victorious!

Along with its unique storyline, the film also earns brownie points since it doesn’t preach hatred towards other communities. Dinkar is shown to have rented a part of his bungalow to North Indian and Muslim family and is supportive to both of them. In return, they provide complete help to Dinkar in his struggle. Then there’s a scene where Dinkar says that we never raise our hand on the enemy’s wife/sister/mother or children. These were also the teachings of Shivaji, which is in today’s times forgotten especially after the cause of the Marathi people is politicized.

Coming to the performances, Sachin Khedekar deserves the highest praise for his mind blowing performance. In the film ‘Bose-The Forgotten Hero’ he wonderfully essayed the role of Bose which I feel was much better than Amitabh’s performance in Black! After ‘Bose’, this must be one of the best performances of his career. There was not a single flaw in his acting anywhere. Watch out for the scene when he comes home drunk and where he criticizes for being a Marathi-simply incredible!

Mahesh Manjrekar shines as Shivaji! His entry takes the breath away and his dialogue-delivery was powerful and strong. But what really worked was his appearance-he looked like Shivaji completely! Although audiences may be disappointed since he doesn’t have much role in the film, he leaves a mark and creates a long lasting impact!

Makarand Anaspure as Raayba was hilarious and provided lots of laughs in the film. Suchitra Bandekar was perfect. Siddharth Jadhav as the goon Usman Pakar was terrific and was quite funny in the final scene. Priya Bapat and Abhijeet Kelkar as Dinkar’s children play their part perfectly. Ganesh Yadav was natural. Others were good.

Out of the 4 songs of the film, the song ‘O Raje’ rocked! Sung wonderfully by Sukhwinder Singh, the song was the theme of the film and was played in all important scenes. Then there’s ‘Maharajanchi Kirti Befaam’ which describes Shivaji defeating the mighty Afzal Khan. It was a unique song with fantastic lyrics.

Sanjay Pawar and Mahesh Manjrekar’s dialogues were sharp. In fact, the film succeeds due to its mighty dialogues. The film also has some great one-liners, esp the ones mouthed by Makarand Anaspure which were quite funny! Shailesh Awasthi’s cinematography was flawless. Visual effects were breathtaking and the film is technically brilliant!

Mahesh Manjrekar has written the story of the film which was very novel. Screenplay by Manjrekar and Abhijeet Deshpande was great and did total justice to the story. Santosh Manjrekar emerges as a ‘hero’ for such a wonderful direction!

Some of the best scenes of the film:
1.   Ghoshalya and Dinkar meeting for the 1st time
2.   Shashikala’s audition
3.   BMC officials inspecting pipelines in Dinkar’s bungalow
4.   Dinkar criticizing great Maratha leaders (powerful scene!)
5.   Shivaji scolding Dinkar
6.   Dinkar scolding Gidwani for rejecting his daughter (best scene of the film!)
7.   All scenes of Usman
8.   The song ‘Maharajanchi Kirti Befaam’
9.   The final 20 minutes

On the whole, ‘Mi Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy!’ is surely one of the most powerful films to have come out of Marathi cinema. It teaches the great teachings of Shivaji, which we have forgotten thanks to the ‘sons of the soil’ campaign by political parties. All those staying in Maharashtra-go for it! Satisfaction is guaranteed!

My rating-**** out of 5!

This post first appeared on MouthShut.com: http://www.mouthshut.com/review/Me_Shivajiraje_Bhosale_Boltoy-165321-1.html

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VCDS AND DVDS OF ‘MI SHIVAJI RAJE BHOSALE BOLTOY!’ LAUNCHED: https://fenilandbollywood.wordpress.com/2009/08/01/mi-shivaji-raje-bhosale-boltoy-vcdsdvds-launched/