- Review : Zindagi Virat (2017)
- Producer : Anjaneya Sathe
- Director : Sumit Sanghamitra
- Star Cast : Om Bhutkar, Sumit Sanghamitra, Kishore Kadam, Bhau Kadam, Usha Naik, Atul Parchure, Shrikant Yadav & Chandrakant Dhumal
- Story : Sumit Sanghamitra
- Music : Suraj – Dhiraj
- Review By : Abhay Salvi
Zindagi Virat Marathi Movie Review :
Many Marathi films have been made in recent times where the overall life of the plot is very little but the treatment has some novelty to it. Films like ‘Ranga Patanga’ for example. But there aren’t many films which actually succeed in employing a treatment that justifies the specific scope of the plot. And ‘Zindagi Virat’ is no exception here. The film starts off on a good note promising some kind of a black comedy. But that never happens.
The one liner for this film is actually the whole plot of the film. A young man in his early 20s (Om Bhutkar) has lost his father (Kishore Kadam) & he is supposed to fulfill his father’s last wish (of sort) of celebrating his birthday. But for that the son needs his father’s birth date. So the whole 2 hrs or so are spent in searching for that exact official birth date! The first half isn’t great but it isn’t unbearable in every way. At few of the instances the humor in it actually works. It could be credited for the chemistry shared between the hero & his best friend (Sumit Sanghamitra; who is also the director of this film).
But soon in the second half that chemistry too becomes tasteless & the whole exercise of finding the date becomes pointless & unbearable (on our part). Kishore Kadam keeps making entries in different fantasy sequences & flashbacks. This certainly isn’t one of his performances where he could hold the audiences by simply being in the film (which he has managed a few times before). Even Usha Naik’s fun interpretation of the historical (in Marathi cinema) ‘Kannada’ accent couldn’t save the second half.
‘Zindagi Virat’ doesn’t even have a social message of sort that could be hammered on us in the end. The film is literally out of thoughts. It appears as if the writer was so much fascinated by the basic one line itself that no efforts were taken to develop the entire story for this film. There are two songs that are completely irrelevant to the plot of the film. One being a ‘Sairat’ inspired romantic number & the other a Bhau Kadam starrer party song! Bhau Kadam exists in this film because, well he is Bhau Kadam! Isn’t he? In fact the Tele-vision promos of this film feature only those two scenes which have Bhau in it. Yes Bhau exists in merely two scenes & the party song!
Om Bhutkar though has done his part with sincerity & the director himself (Sumit Sanghamitra) too is a talented actor, but definitely not a talented director! I genuinely feel that editors of Marathi films should be given utmost authority even more than the directors! Maybe then just maybe we would have films that could be bad but short & hence bearable.
Marathi cinema has been regularly manufacturing rural comedies but in so many years very few of them have become memorable! This year started with another rural comedy ‘Zhalla Bobhata’ which at least had a message & some hilarious moments. Yet the film wasn’t well received by the audiences. Why don’t our filmmakers get it? There isn’t much audience to these films, especially when they don’t have enough content & considerably decent treatment.
Overall:
‘Zindagi Virat’ is a film that doesn’t even know why & how it was titled ‘Zindagi Virat’! What it knows doesn’t matter much. Yet if you’ve really liked the trailer, promos or the songs of this film you might even enjoy the films to some extent, provided you skip the entire second half! So the choice is yours!
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