Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy.... himmat asel tar adva

Director: Santosh Manjrekar
Cast: Sachin Khedekar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Makrand Anaspure, Siddharth Jadhav, Priya Bapat Genre: Drama
Language: Marathi
__
The last marathi movie I saw was Dombivli Fast, which was indeed a thought provoking one.
But nothing has been ever so moving, yet entertaining to the hilt, as this movie....

It throws light on the quiescence of the common man or Marathi Manoos [as highlighted], in this oppressive world.
Interwoven with the glories of the Great Maratha King Shivaji Maharaj, it is the perfect concoction to 'Jaga karo' the Countryman in each one of us.

Dinkar Bhosle (Sachin Khedekar), is a typical middle class man, with a 9 to 5 job in a bank.
His son (Abhijeet Kelkar) is an Engg aspirant, made to realize that donation seats in colleges run by Marathi MLAs are merely a vice of the filthy rich non-Maharashtrians.
His daughter (Priya Bapat) aspires to be a Bollywood actress, but faces rejection by producers, on the grounds that Marathi girls are too conservative and vernac-accented to make it big in Hindi film industry.
His wife (Suchitra Bandekar) wants to sell-off their derelict, ancestral home to a Gujarati builder in exchange for a flat at the outskirts of Mumbai, to add to Dinkar's chagrin.

The cumulative repression of money, politics, education et al leads him to curse himself for being born as a Marathi... A scene, wherein Dinkar speaks to the mum statues of gretat men of the past, is particularly heart wrenching and stirring.
And this is what instigates the resurrection of the soul of the Great Shivaji Maharaj, from the sands of time..
Hereafter follows a series of events that lead to his transformation from a diffident old man to A people's hero.

How he saves his property from the impudent builder, gets his son into an Engg college, how his daughter finds her clarion call in the film industry and many other things in succession, without even once bowing down to repression, is intensely moving.

The Character of gangster Usman Parker, played by comedian Siddharth Jadhav, indeed makes an impact.
The term 'ghati', ascribed to the ppl living in the coastal part of Maharashtra, finds a whole new dimension here.

Though it is highly peppered with cliches and is quite stereotyped [a fact repeatedly hammered in2 my head throughout the movie, from a certain, so-called Precious Pearl], it manages to strike the right chords.
There's just one song n dance sequence which cud've def been better.
The crisp editing and screenplay and in-your-face dialogues makes it a complete entertainer!

Contrary to movie brickbats, i would say that this movie, is an effervescent show of secularism, not confined to just one state or creed, even if it rings with the 'Mi Marathi' hymn...