Ti Ani Itar Review: An Impactful ‘Play’ on the Big Screen!

• Review : Ti Ani Itar (2017)
• Producer : Prakash Tiwari, Punit Singh, Dayal Nihalani, Dhanajay Singh
• Director : Govind Nihalani
• Star Cast :Subodh Bhave, Sonali Kulkarni, Amruta Subhash, Priya Marathe, Bhushan Pradhan, Ganesh Yadav, Aavishkar Darvhekar
• Story : Based On ‘Lights Out’ By Manjula Padmanabhan
• Screenplay & Dialogue : Shanta gokhale
• Music : Vasuda Sharma
• Review By : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 3.5/5

Ti Ani Itar Marathi Movie Review :

Adapting a play into a film is always tricky! Many a times the story has the potential of a film within it, but very few times the makers manage to explore that potential. Among the many play to film adaptations in Marathi of recent times ‘Lalbaug Parel’ (adapted from Adhantar) & ‘Katyar Kaljat Ghusali’ could be considered to be successful to some extent in exploring this potential. But in the first place these plays had that kind of canvas, which would suit a film. Even a play like ‘Natsamrat’ had that canvas. But ‘Lights Out’ (from which ‘Ti Ani Itar’ is adapted) seems to be a play that is strictly a play and doesn’t really give much scope for its canvas to be expanded for a film.  

Hence it becomes obligatory for ‘Ti Ani Itar’ to be in the same compact ‘play like’ form to keep the soul of the story & its commentary intact. This film is directed by one of the most respected Indian filmmakers Govind Nihalani. Nihalani started out being a cinematographer & most of the times shot his directorials himself alike ‘Ti Ani Itar’. The point is that even after being a cinematographer Govind Nihalani’s films have always been ‘compact’.

The story is simple & takes place in a couple of hours. Anirudh Godbole (Subodh Bhave) & Naina Godbole (Sonali Kulkarni) belong to the upper class & live in a lavish flat. They have two little daughters. They have arranged a small get together for a few close friends (Amruta Subhash, Bhushan Pradhan, Priya Marathe & Avishkar Darwhekar) for celebrating the launch of Naina’s (who is a singer) latest music album. In the midst of that, suddenly they start hearing a girl screaming. Naina & Anirudh reveals that this screaming has been happening for a couple of weeks now!

At this point we as audiences expect an immediate action. Amruta Subhash portrays a responsible journalist, & many a times our expectations are mentioned by her character. But the point this film tries to make can’t be made if there’s an immediate action! This restlessness that we undergo as viewers is the basic aim of this story! Well it might be immensely effective on stage, it still works reasonably well on the screen too. Post interval the film takes a more intense dramatic turn. And surprisingly the acting is not at all theatrical or dramatic! Subodh Bhave in particular gives a well controlled yet intense performance throughout. The whole of second half works purely on two things first the basic strength of the original story & second of course the performances. But overall the film isn’t error free.

So one of the errors of ‘Ti Ani Itar’ is the fact that the original play was on the lines of ‘absurd theatre’, where what we see is not really ‘reality’. It’s a setup to say certain things. Many of what we see can’t be taken literally. It has a different meaning ‘metaphorically’. But in the first half of ‘Ti Ani Itar’ this metaphoric setting of the play disrupts the cinematic sense of the film. There was definitely a scope to ‘show’ certain things!

Secondly throughout first half as well as second, there’s almost no use of light! The whole film almost works one stock light. The film doesn’t acknowledge the fact that natural light can really be used to bring an important visual dimension to the film.

Overall:

Yes ‘Ti Ani Itar’ is basically a play that doesn’t quite justify it’s ‘film’ adaptation, but its one hell of an impactful experience. Those who like morally confusing ‘food for thought’ ‘Ti Ani Itar’ is definitely a must watch as there isn’t any available medium to watch this story on stage.