Lai Bhaari




Director – Nishikant Kamat

Cast – Ritesh Deshmukh, Tanvi Azmi, Radhika Apte, Sharad Kelkar, Salman Khan

            An actor, shy of his roots, during his early days in Bollywood, now capitalizes on his father’s name, surname and legacy for his debut film in Marathi. However, the film Laai Bhaari directed by Nishikant Kamat has opened the gates for Marathi filmmakers to return to the 90’s era of ‘Saraf-Berde’ wherein shit was served in sparkling chinaware.

            Now the reason why I say 90’s is because during that period Marathi cinema copied everything from Bollywood and infused local flavour in it. For the first time I can say with utmost confidence that we have paid our tributes to the trashcan of Manmohan Desai.

            A childless couple is refused the annual honours at a temple. This encourages the lady (Tanvi Azmi) to visit Pandharpur. God answers her prayers and they are blessed with a son (Ritesh). Later, her husband (Uday Tikekar) and son are murdered when they cross paths with the husband’s younger brother. This marks the beginning of another visit to Pandharpur which brings a twist to the tale.

            The film taught me new things. A corpse can wink, a cowboy can manage a brick kiln, Pandharpur celebrates Holi like they do in UP, and in high class Marathi homes we still address our mothers as ‘Maa’. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Nishikant Kamat was short of money. Else he wouldn’t direct such a film.

            Ajay Atul probably can’t hear anything other than the sound of dhol tasha. Else the music would’ve been different. Ajay’s voice has become worse over the years. But we can sympathize with him (considering that excise duty on cigarettes has now jumped to 72%) Poor guy won’t be able to sing without smoking.

            Other than Tanvi Azmi all the other actors fail to impress you. Radhika Apte is wasted and even the special appearance of Salman is not enough. The overdose of background music kills your ears.

            I am going with two out of five stars for Lai Bhaari. Risk your mind to two and a half hours of torture.

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