Cast: Ashok Saraf, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Shivaji Satam, Vikram Gokhale, Satish Alekar, Santosh Juvekar, Sharad Ponkshe, Uday Tikekar, Manjiri Phadnis & Deepti Lele
Director: Mahesh Manjrekar
Quick Viewpoint: The trailer, teaser & posters of ‘Mi Shivaji Park’ sell a completely different film! It feels like a deep intellectual drama that eventually turns out to be a poorly structured revenge drama with a forceful social context to it.
What Works?
- The theme. Though nothing new in it & having similarities to Manjrekar’s own ‘Virrudh’ (the Amitabh Bachchan starrer) it still somehow is very relatable to the audiences.
- Further rendition of the basic theme, the conceptual idea of retired old men recreating a version of a court case on their own.
- It’s just satisfying to watch stalwarts like Ashok Saraf, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Vikram Gokhale & others share screen together. Though Dilip Prabhawalkar stands out as he doesn’t miss a single beat in his performance like always!
What Fails?
- The starting conflict that initiates the narrative is so loosely set up that the there is no emotional relativity for the audiences towards the principal characters of the film.
- Absolutely horrendous silly mistakes in the detailing of the film. For e.g: In a flashback sequence set in either late 90s or early 2000s we see characters using smart phones!
- Tonnes of logical errors caused due to convenient twists & turns given to the narrative.
- The film ridicules Gandhism by unnecessarily connecting it to situations that doesn’t really have anything to do with it! For eg: a dialogue says how Gandhi followers who later became politicians resorted to violence against public agitations. The whole idea of a governing body & it’s defence is not a by product of Gandhism, it need not be associated with it.
- By the climax the film becomes a complete circus that jumbles up the whole socio-political message it wanted to endorse. You leave the theatre being clueless about what exactly did the film wanted to say?
Final Verdict: ‘Mi Shivaji Park’ suffers from serious lack of inspiration in saying something new or creating something of it’s own. It seems to just be a vehicle for the hugely respected star cast to come together.
Rating: 1.5/5
