Review: Deool Band – Humorously unconvincing

• Review : Deool Band (2015)
• Directors: Pravin Tarde and Pranit Kulkarni
• Producers: Vatavruksha Entertainment
• Writers: Pravin Tarde and Pranit Kulkarni
• Cast : Gashmeer Mahajani, Mohan Joshi, Mohan Agashe,Girija Joshi, Nivedita Saraf
• Review By: Keyur Seta

Rating : 1.5/5

Review:

Turning an atheist into a theist requires conviction, more than anything else. Unfortunately, this is not the only issue with Deool Banda. In trying to be over-ambitiously religious and entertaining at the same time, the film ends up making fun of itself and that too through a duration of 3 hours and 5 minutes.

It revolves around the scientist Dr Raghav Shastri (Gashmeer Mahajani), who is an NRI living in the US. He visits India, with his wife and daughter, to add value to ISRO’s (Indian Space Research Organization) security systems that track terror activities. Raghav is a strict atheist, who is against Swami Samartha due to personal reasons.

Due to security reasons, he is given accommodation in a normal housing society. He is annoyed to know that the society has a Swami Samartha temple, which is thronged by residents throughout the day. Simultaneously, Raghav is having a tough time with ISRO members, whom he considers good-for-nothing.

Frankly speaking, Deool Banda has nothing working for itself. It looks as if the makers were so eager to spread the worship of Swami Samartha that they completely forgot about a proper storyline and a convincing narration. Merely speaking great things about Swami Samartha and playing his songs isn’t enough.

The film doesn’t stop at that. Swami Samartha is also an important character. So, one would expect him to spread his message and wisdom. But almost all the time, he just makes fun of the protagonist through one-liners and PJs. However, in a way, this is the only aspect that makes the film somewhat watchable as it produces both intentional and unintentional laughter.

There is more unintentional laughter in store through the following points:-

• The title is established in a shockingly silly manner. The protagonist wishes to take revenge on the society members by getting the temple closed. So, he calls up the head of ISRO, who puts forth the request to the Prime Minister of India (!!!). The temple is sealed within 20 minutes and, on top of that, a couple of cops stand on guard around it. Seriously? How dumb can you expect the audience to be?
• The members of this housing society are continuously seen worshiping Swami Samartha whenever they appear. The makers have simply crossed the line between being religious and being religious fanatic.
• A resident wakes up the protagonist daily as early as 5 am more than once and urges him to attend the aarti despite knowing that he is an atheist. The protagonist, who gets irritated and angry at every little thing, hardly reacts to this.
• Raghav stays on the 10^th  floor. Yet he is able to hear loud noises of the aarti even after shutting all windows, although there is no use of any kind of speaker or microphone.
• There is a certain Mr Deshpande in ISRO. He is supposed to be funny but turns out to be completely the opposite. Worse, the protagonist recalls his antics later on in detail while laughing uncontrollably. But apart from him, nobody else is laughing.
• The protagonist and the audience are forcefully made to visit a series of holy places through some flimsy reasons. This is the major reason for such an enormous length.
• The behavior and reactions of characters throughout the film is questionable and weird.

Many more points can be added but they aren’t to avoid spoilers. A couple of religious songs do go well with the subject. There is nothing noteworthy in the camerawork. The background score is too loud, especially during an important scene where you are forced to cover your ears.

The biggest plus point is Gashmeer Mahajani. He succeeds in proving that apart from good looks, more importantly, he also possesses some serious acting talent. Mohan Joshi provides entertainment as Swami Samartha. Girija Joshi is average in the role of a routine wife of an ambitious husband. Nivedita Saraf appears over-religious. But not as much as Pravin Tarde, who turns out to be a fanatic. Mohan Agashe is decent.

Overall:

Deool Band tries too hard to put across a message without any sort of conviction. It might attract a decent crowd due to the subject of Swami Samartha. But there isn’t much hope at the box office.