Ziprya Movie Review: Socially Impactful Subject Wasted

• Review : Ziprya
• Producer : Ranjeet Darekar
• Director : Kedar Vaidya
• Screenplay : Kedar Vaidya
• Star Cast : Chinmay Kambli, Amruta Subhash, Prathamesh Parab, Hansraj Jagtap, Saksham Kulkarni & Praveen Tarde
• Review by : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 2/5

Ziprya Review (Marathi Movie):

Based on a novel of an acclaimed Marathi writer ‘Arun Sadhu’, ‘Ziprya’ is a film that manages to only give little glimpses of the actual world the story was set in. Firstly the film has no understanding of a cinematic structure in the screenplay. It feels abrupt from the beginning & ends on even more abrupt note.

There’s something inherently connectable about films that manage to capture the essence of Mumbai’s actual heart. It all started with one of the finest films ever made anywhere, Mira Nair’s ‘Salaam Bombay’ to the recent Rajnikant epic ‘Kaala’ & many films in between. But then by default these films don’t become great just because of the subject! There’s a whole lot of expertise required to be perfected especially in this genre.

One of it is acting. Acting is not just connected to the talent of an actor but also to the choices they make along with the director, the choice of casting & finally the overall effect of all of it on the backdrop of the film. There’s just not enough coherence here in the overall effect. Amruta Subhash as ‘Leela’ looks a straight miscast playing the elder sister of ‘Ziprya’. Some scenes seem so serial-like & never remind us of the harsher reality on which they are based.

The original novel was published in 1990 but was set in the late 70s to early 80s. Now this film is clearly set in today’s times. But still we see a Amitabh Bachchan fanboy (Aslam played by Prathamesh Parab) reciting dialogues from ‘Deewar’ (1975). While on the other hand he also mentions Salman Khan! None of the main characters behave like they belong in today’s times. We see the kids selling mobile covers, but we never see them using a mobile!

Ziprya (Chinmay Kambli) and his boot polish gang do not create any emotional connection with the audiences, mainly because they never seem like real characters. The background score & the songs don’t help here, instead keep us even more distant from them. Still the only clear positive of the film is the locations where the film is shot. This is unfiltered Mumbai! If the makers managed to shoot at such real locations, more work on the script could have easily made ‘Ziprya’ an effective experience.

The performances in the film are not bad when looked individually but as said earlier the effect isn’t coherent in the context of the overall film. Prathamesh Parab’s ‘Aslam’ is made the centre of attention by the end of the film, for no real reason. Maybe the only logical explanation to this is that since Aslam was played by the most popular actor in the cast! Throughout it’s Parab’s performance that irritates us the most, we have seen him do the same thing so many times now!

Chinmay Kambli who plays Ziprya was earlier seen in the extremely effective feel good film about ‘farmer suicides’, ‘Jhing Chik Jhing’. He was very effective back then as a child artist, not now. Saksham Kulkarni’s performance is the only one that makes some impact on us, but sadly his character is left in between the film, & then suddenly brought back later.

It has been proved countless times before, that a highly relevant subject doesn’t process itself into a highly relevant film by default & it’s proved again. It needs better cinematic understanding & an approach to get precise performances from the cast.

Overall:

It’s an easier choice to make between ‘Ziprya’ the novel & ‘Ziprya’ the film for the audiences who really are excited by the idea & premise of this story.