Home Sweet Home Movie Review: Well Acted but A Problematic Narrative

• Review : Home Sweet Home (2018)
• Producer : Hemant Ruprel and Ranjeet Thakur
• Director : Hrishikesh Joshi
• Writers : Hrishikesh Joshi, Vaibhav Joshi and Mugdha Godbole
• Star Cast : Mohan Joshi, Reema, Spruha Joshi, Hrishikesh Joshi, Vibhawri Deshpande, Prasad Oak, Sumeet Raghavan, Mrunal Kulkarni
• Review by : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 2.5/5

Home Sweet Home Review (Marathi Movie):

Home Sweet Home’s trailer is slightly misguiding in a way that it makes us feel that the star cast of the film that includes actors like Prasad Oak, Sumeet Raghvan & Mrunal Kulkarni have bigger & more important roles in the film & in the narrative. But that isn’t the case. They are merely cameos (Prasad Oak’s is an extended one though). The problem is that, it means the film is based on a single narrative & with a single conflict. And both the narrative & the conflict have major loopholes & repetition.

So the film involves four principal characters & a few lesser important characters. Mohan Joshi & Late Reema play a couple (Mr & Mrs. Mahajan) in their 60s who don’t have any children. Spruha Joshi (Devika) lives in their house almost like a paying guest. Mr. Mahajan is her ‘Mama’. But her ‘Mami’ never really has any warmth for her, (if she had any warmth for her, the whole point of her character’s existence in the narrative would have been pointless). Spruha’s character definitely has enough screen time, yet it never feels like an essential character. It is never directly connected to the narrative. And even her own track isn’t really established.

Hrishikesh Joshi plays a real estate agent & for no particular reason he is close to the Mahajan family. Closer to their residence there’s an Irani hotel where he sets up his office every day. One day all of a sudden his customers visit the Mahajan home (as they think the property that their agent is selling them is this). Mrs. Mahajan for no particular reason readily lets them see their home. By the time the whole confusion is cleared Mrs. Mahajan knows the price of her house! As they live in prime place like Dadar, Mumbai the number is big! This leads to the start of the narrative with the conflict to whether sell their house & shift to a cheaper but more modern & spacious flat somewhere else far from the main city.

The problem is that the above scene is an important plot point that kick starts the narrative, but it feels so artificially created. After that the film has different ways of going round & round the same conflict. By the middle of the second half the narrative starts feeling tedius. The resolution of this conflict never really resolves the conflict. It just takes everything to the starting point. The problem isn’t that, the problem is the audiences can’t make out what exactly does the film wants to say? Yet the last 15-20 minutes work on a different level of giving some kind of emotional impact. The emotion is obviously connected to the idea of home, the whole nostalgia that surrounds a house where a family has lived a major portion of their lives!

Mohan Joshi & Reema’s performances are another huge positive of the film. Reema’s voice in the film is dubbed by Nirmiti Sawant. And her voice acting matches Reema perfectly. Hrishikesh Joshi has a very weak characterization for himself, his personal track was there to show the societal difference between his & the Mahajan family & also to infuse some humour, but none of that works well. Sumeet Raghvan & Mrunal Kulkarni’s cameo is a part of the climax that as said earlier works well on emotional grounds, & so does their performances.

Overall:

Hrishikesh Joshi’s debut as a director is nowhere near his reputation yet he manages to make a decent family friendly film, that even with it’s flaws is worthy of at least one watch on the big screen!