Half Ticket Movie Review : Faithful remake that wins heart!

• Review :  Half Ticket (2016)
• Producer : Nanu Jaisinghani, Suresh Jaisinghani, Mohit Jaisinghani
• Directer : Samit Kakkad
• StarCast : Shubham More, Vinayak Potdar, Priyanka Bose, Usha Naik, Bhau Kadam, Jaywant Wadkar, Kailash Waghmare, Shashank Shinde, Shrikant Yadav, Nitin Bhodhare, Anuya Baiche, Santosh Kanekar
• Writer : Dnyanesh Zoting
• Music : G.V Prakash Kumar
• Genre : Drama
• Review By : Rasik Tirodkar

Rating : 3.5/5

Half Ticket Marathi Movie Review :

Right since when it was announced that Marathi filmHalf Ticket is going to be a remake of the Tamil film Kakka Muttai, my hopes were raised. Kakka Muttai has a very heart-warming story that has a universalappeal. But given how often remakes completely missthe mark, i was also a bit apprehensive. But be rest assured, director Samit Kakkad’s Half Ticket is that rare remake that has retained the soul of its original Kakka Muttai.

With Kakka Muttai having such a well-written screenplay, Half Ticket team’s job was cut out. They haven’t tampered with the screenlay much, but have tried their best to bring it up faithfully on screen and this approach is a winner. Now, it is certainly easier said than done, to shoot a screenplay. But Samit Kakkad and his team seems to have gone about their job meticulously. First they have got the casting right. The two children are the heart and soul of the film and it was probably most crucial to get their casting right. Not only the two share a fantastic chemistry but charm you with their performances. The two child actors here are natural and you wouldn’t think anybody else would have portrayed the role as well as these two have. And the apt casting doesn’t just end there. The casting team has made sure that every character gets an actor that suits the role to the Right from the two child protagonist’s Mother and Grandmother to the local hoodlums who become part of the narrative, you couldn’t fault with the performance of any actor. Now, how often can you say this about a Marathi film?

Mumbai as the city to set the story of two kids from the slums is another factor that works for Half Ticket. In a city where most its population lives in the slums, it is not difficult to get convinced about a pair of underpriviledged boys aspiringto eat in a pizza outlet that has opened near their neighbourhood. Half Ticket then goes through lots of twists and turns as the two boys, who usually get their proteins from eating an egg of a crow (and hence have both got the nicknames Chota Kawalyacha Anda and Motha Kawlyacha Anda), are firm about eating a pizza from the outlet, but cannot seem to scale the apparent class divide.

G.V. Prakash’s charming music has been entirely retained here. If there is one aspect Half Ticket beats the original, it has to be the way the songs have been shot. Sanjay Memane’s camera captures the world of the two kids with a lot of finesse and finds beauty even in the most mundane of their activites. The location scouting also deserves a mention as there are a number of shots interspersed throught out the film that underline the apparent class divide just through their locations.

Half Ticket works best when it is focused on the two of its child protagonists. You do get a little restless when the film gets involved in the local politics and the world of news channels. But this is a rather minor issue i had with the film that hardly affects the overall impact of the film.

Overall:

Half Ticket is directed with an assured hand by Samit Kakkad, and is a remake that remains faithful to the original. It has a lot of soul and charm that will win the hearts of the classes and masses alike!