RATING: ★★★★★ 4/5
CAST: Ankush Chowdhary, Tejashree Pradhan, Abhinav Berde, Aarya Ambekar, Hruditya Rajwade, Nirmohee Agnihotri, Sanjay Mone, Sukanya Kulkarni, Tushar Dalvi, Anuradha Rajadhyaksha, Urmila Kanetkar Kothare.
DIRECTION: Satish Rajwade
REVIEW BY : Tejas Marathe
The movie starts with a group of close friends, once who used to live in the same society having a reunion. While everyone is cherishing their memories by looking at old photos, Anurag (Ankush Chaudhary) is badly missing his best friend Tanvi (Tejashri Pradhan). He is clueless when asked about her, however, his eyes shows the attachment and respect which she holds in his heart.
Flashback takes us to a middle class society setup wherein, small children play together, doors are always open to neighbours and people share things with each other. Anurag who is playing cricket sees little Tanvi for the first time when his ball accidentally hit Tanvi’s car. There starts the initial friendship which blossoms and they create beautiful memories in the process. The way in which children react and interact with each other is picturized well. The amount of thought which Satish Rajwade has put in understanding the emotions which small children bring is touching on every aspect.
Anurag and Tanvi transform into teenagers, the roles which are played by debutante Abhinay Berde and Arya Ambekar. Both are welcome addition to this movie, which is about friendship, love and relationships. They continue to bring liveliness to the movie through their innocent acting. The execution, dialogue delivery and humour will take every person to his childhood days, when life used to be simple. While their friendship continues Anurag and Tanvi end up in the same school and then in the same college. Anurag starts liking a girl Mohini and also gets positive signals from his classmate Anjali. Anurag gets confused which one is his real love when it comes to choosing between the 3 girls Tanvi, Mohini and Anjali. A misunderstanding during a college party creates differences between Anurag and Tanvi.
The film comes in the present and we see Anurag married to Radhika (Urmila Kothare) and having a daughter. The same is the case with Tanvi who is married to an engineer who is based out of Boston. Tanvi is back in the city with her daughter Riya to attend a friend’s wedding. Anurag comes to know that Tanvi is back and cannot control his inner feelings and anxiety to meet his best friend. Can Anurag really come to terms with his old friend whom he actually loved? Will Tanvi open up her feelings for Anurag?
I think this where the director Satish Rajwade is class apart. His movies are based on how relationships are to be handled. It is said that first love is something which one can never forget. This is the basic premise, which is used over here and the story gives us numerous opportunities to smile. Ankush Chaudhary is a good actor and he has really nailed this role. His eagerness to meet Tanvi, his shyness when he sees her after years and his commitment in friendship is absolutely on the money. Tejashri Pradhan comparatively has a small role to play as a matured Tanvi and most of the times she gets overshadowed by better performance from Ankush. I thing, if anyone that has benefited the most from this movie is Abhinay Berde and Arya Ambekar. Abhinay Berde is a welcome package wherein we see that he really gets into the skin of the character. His chemistry with Arya Ambekar is equally good. Arya Ambekar who will know was seen in Sa-Re-Ga-Ma little champ finals look sweet and her acting also looks promising considering that it’s her first movie. We know she can sing, but her dialogue delivery is equally good. She really brings that fresh look which was expected in this role. Urmila Kothare, I feel, has a small role of a housewife to play here, but she does impresses in a few scenes. The song “Hrudayat Vaje Something” sung by Vidhit Patankar is so soothing to the ears that you want it to go on in the movie. The picturization, simplicity and innocence which we see over here in this song, is simply a rare thing these days. Other songs support this overall theme of friendship and are added at the right instances.
Frankly, the first and second half of the movie is evenly paced with some lovely scenes and witty one-liners. We see a gradual transformation of Anurag and Tanvi, from small children to teenagers and then to matured adults. The film loses tempo in few places but picks up pace and goes great till the very end. We don’t see any great unfolding of events, however we get to see the maturity in friendship. Good acting from Ankush is one of the highlights of this film. The rest of the cast including Tejashri, Abhinay and Arya to have essayed their roles with effortless ease.
OVERALL
It wouldn’t be wrong to say that 2017 has started on a high note with a decent Marathi movie, which can pull the crowd to theatres and live up to their expectations. Lastly, this movie is a treat for people who believe in true friendship and first love.
