Movie Review: Marathon Zindagi (2017)
Genre: Drama
Rating: 0.5/5
Starcast: Sushilkumar Bhosale, Seema Kulkarni, Vikram Gokhale, Sanjay Narvekar, Girish Pardeshi, Kishore Mahabole
Director: Shakir Shaikh and Inayat Sheikh
Written by: Tejas Marathe & Kalyani Mitragotri
Marathi films are known for their different subjects. India was very recently declared ‘Polio Free’ by the World Health Organization. There exist people who have felt prey to the dangerous disease which affects the nervous system. India is not a disabled friendly country and “Marathon Zindagi” tries to show it vividly. It takes courage, dedication, and determination for any ordinary man to achieve success; it simply requires a passion for a person with a disability to level the fame.
The story starts with Dharmendra Satav or Lallya (Sushilkumar Bhosale) who is affected by polio since he was not given the vaccination on time which led to the disability. He is also in one-sided love with Seema (Seema Kulkarni) who lives in his village. Lallya helps his parents in running the grocery shop. He dreams it big and soon starts his business of electrical products which kicks off well. The political changes in the ruling party make Lallya’s shop illegal overnight and is demolished by government. He has taken a bank loan and is already getting notices to repay it. Lallya starts facing challenges in his business which start taking a toll on his emotional well been. Lallya gets tired of the bureaucratic process and is about to give up when he comes across a forum in which collector (Vikram Gokhale) addresses the grievances of the people directly. Lallya meets collector who assures him to form an association of 11 disabled people and register it as “Marathon Vikas Samiti”, after which he will be able to help them. Lallya does succeed in convincing and forming a group of 11 handicap people. However, Lallya and his team are unaware of what lies ahead. Will Lallya be in a position to get his land back through the corrupt system and form a new business with his colleagues? Will Seema give a positive answer to Lallya? Is Lallya set for a different challenge which he has not at all predicted initially?
Sushilkumar Bhosale looks convincing in his role as a disabled person. Seema Kulkarni hardly has any role and her entry scene when she is making her hair with a huge comb, right in the middle of the road is so bad that it can’t be described. Vikram Gokhale has played his part well. Director Shakir Shaikh and Inayat Sheikh gives the audience an unpleasant experience. The editing and VFX effects are horrible, to say the least.
“Tujhya Darahun Jata” is actually a poem which is taken in this movie in the form of a song and is sung by Swapnil Bandodkar and lyrics are penned by Prakash Ghodke. The song “Successful” sung by Anand Shinde tries to give a motivational message, however, the rhyming of words like useful, wonderful, batya gul makes it comedy and annoying. There is hardly anything special as far as music is concerned and it simply delays 10 minutes of screen time.
This film is an epitome of technical errors. The dubbing of dialogue “Aaplyashi Wakada, Nadivar Lakada” which is repeated often, is pathetic. The way Lallya’s shop falls down when demolished is laughable. The protagonist search for disabled people to form an association of 11 people takes almost 30 minutes of screen time which is boring. Disabled people boozing in front of bonfire dilutes the message completely.
CONCLUSION:
This is a serious topic on which a documentary should have been made instead of making a full feature film which is 137 minutes long and hardly able to hold any grip. The story of the above 11 personalities try to prove only one important fact – it takes more than courage to face the adversities to win over and be victorious, however, it has been told in the most distasteful way.
