2018 has been a splendid year for Marathi cinema! The great cinema was made last year too, but the audiences didn’t quite respond towards it! This year the audiences have wholeheartedly loved Marathi cinema & the box-office has boomed tremendously especially in the second half of 2018! So here’s our list of top 10 Marathi films of the year! Films that are high on quality as well have clicked with the audiences!

10. Mumbai Pune Mumbai 3
Our Rating: 3.5/5

The third part of the franchise mixed up the best of the previous two films very skillfully! It had the lighthearted fun tone of the first film & the serious dramatic undertone from the second film. Swapnil Joshi & Mukta Barve both had flawless chemistry as always!

Read our full review here

9. Redu
Our Rating: 3.5/5

Editor turned director Sagar Vanjari re-introduced the sweetness of ‘Malvani’ language & culture to the audiences, throughout enthralling us by the simplicity of this film. The film ended on such an unexpected yet beautiful point that it redefined the whole film & made us think after the film for a long time!

8. Aapla Manus
Our Rating: 4/5

The second Satish Rajwade film in our list after MPM 3! Nana Patekar’s surprise double role, the performances of the rest of the solid cast that included Sumit Raghavan & Irawati Harshe & the overall strength of the story made ‘Aapla Manus’ one of the most exciting films of the year! The idea of a suspense thriller was pushed to its limits rewarding the audiences in the end with an altogether unexpected twist.

Read our full review here

7. Pimpal
Our Rating: 4/5

Gajendra Ahire’s most simplistically beautiful film of all time! Dilip Prabhawalkar’s heartfelt performance connects us with the film almost instantly & we feel like we know this old man in real life. The film was a beautiful love letter to loneliness & how old age makes any stiff man become tender about his memories & the people who were most dear to him!

Read our full review here

6. Nude
Our Rating: 4/5

Ravi Jadhav’s magnum opus! Every frame of this film was like a painting! Probably the most visually stunning film made in Marathi ever! At the same time the film dealt with a very deep subject that dealt with the tragedy of a single uneducated mother fighting against the world. ‘Nude’ also had a philosophical subtext regarding ‘art’ & how it’s perceived by society.

Read our full review here

5. Maska
Our Rating: 4.5/5

Priyadarshan Jadhav’s debut film as a director was the most unexpectedly entertaining film of the year! Never have we ever seen a better ‘genre’ comedy in Marathi cinema. The performances of the cast that included Aniket Vishwasrao, Shashank Shende, Prarthana Behere, Pranav Raorane & Chinmay Mandlekar were equally brilliant & brought life into the quirky fun script! In years to come ‘Maska’ is destined to be an iconic Marathi film that will be enjoyed by the audiences repeatedly!

Read our full review here

4. Gulabjaam
Our Rating: 4.5/5

Sachin Kundalkar’s passion for food was seen in ‘Vazandar’ before but in ‘Gulabjaam’ he glamorized Maharashtrian food like never before! But beyond that the film’s strength was it’s emotional core & the chemistry between the characters played by Sonali Kulkarni & Siddharth Chandekar. ‘Gulabjaam’ had the right blend of Kundalkar’s avant-garde sensibilities & his love for ‘youthful’ mainstream cinema!

Read our full review here

3. Lathe Joshi
Our Rating: 4.5/5

A subtle masterpiece by debutant director Mangesh Joshi. A film that demands patience from the audiences & in return it rewards them with a completely original cinematic experience. A film that garnered praise all around the world at different festivals but didn’t quite receive a similar response upon its theatrical release here. Hopefully ,the film will pass the test of time & slowly the audiences would re-discover it some way.

Read our full review here

2. Chumbak
Our Rating: 5/5

A film presented by super star Akshay Kumar! He was so much in love with the film after watching it that that he wanted to be associated with it without expecting any returns! The film took the children film genre to an altogether new level in Marathi cinema. Popular lyricist & singer Swanand Kirkire gave a performance of a lifetime in this film & was equally supported by the rest of the teenage cast.

Read our full review here

1. Naal
Our Rating: 5/5

The Nagraj Manjule magic again worked! This time as producer & actor! However ,the real star of the film was the little kid Shrinivas Pokhale who gave the performance of the year! The audiences were throughout at the edge of the seat while watching this emotional journey of a little boy who discovers the meaning of the motherhood through it. Director Sudhakar Reddy Yakkanti explored the larger meaning of birth & death too in a very organic & non-pretentious yet artistic way!

Read our full review here

Honourable Mentions:
Farzand – 3.5/5
Amhi Doghi – 3.5/5
Take Care Good Night – 3/5
Ani..Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar – 3/5
Mulshi Pattern – 3/5
Cycle – 3/5
Mantra – 3/5
Youngraad – 3/5

The post Top 10 Marathi Films of 2018 appeared first on MarathiStars.

• Review : Cycle
• Producer : Amar Pandit and Sangram Surve
• Director : Prakash Kunte
• Story: Aditi Moghe
• Star Cast : Hrishikesh Joshi, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Bhalchandra Kadam, Deepti Lele
• Review by : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 3/5

Cycle Movie Review:

Prakash Kunte directorial ‘Cycle’ is similar to some of his previous works in terms of what it achieves & what it doesn’t. It achieves soulful, simplistic & technically polished story telling standards, but lacks in details of the actual ‘story’. The stories are usually simple enough that they could be described in one line. Though Kunte has that much command over the medium to make a beautiful film out of them, in case of ‘Cycle’ most of the times we don’t mind the compactness of the one line story.

To begin with the flaws, two of the prominent characters in the film, of two thieves played by Priyadarshan Jadhav & Bhalchandra Kadam lack the comic energy between them. Strangely both seem to be giving deliberate understated performances, which didn’t work for me. The subtleness works better when there’s more to read between, here it was limited. Keshav played by Hrishikesh Joshi, his wife (Deepti Lele), Keshav’s father & Keshav’s little girl all of them aren’t enough familiar to us when the conflict of the film has begun.

The problem isn’t that, the problem is that we expect to know them more now that the conflict is active. Instead the narrative is completely concerned with the thieves. I felt since the film was already shorter in length it did have scope for more screen time for Keshav & his family in the second half. ‘Cycle’ is a story which has a sense of fantasy to it, or a sense of allegory, hence finding logic in every little incident that occurs isn’t fair to the film. Yet the incidents that are primary in taking the narrative forward need to be logically backed. ‘Cycle’ lacks this backing at quite a few instances especially in the whole track connected with the thieves.

Hrishikesh Joshi’s performance is one of the biggest strength of the film, his father, wife, daughter all of them are a picture perfect family. The visual feel of the film makes a larger impact in making us feel what the story wants us to feel, more than the story itself, cinematographer Amalendu Choudary deserves the credit for it. The overall openness of the story’s ‘message’ or what it wants to say gives good depth to the film. It shies away from telling us exactly what it meant, it let’s us choose between a few meanings or maybe it says it means all of them. That is the reason why ‘Cycle’ works when seen in totality.

The casting is pitch-perfect, yes even with Bhau Kadam & Priyadarshan (though their understated style didn’t work for me), Deepti Lele is a talented actress who should be seen in interesting roles in the future. The little girl too is lot better than what we see kids doing in daily soaps these days. ‘Cycle’ manages to make us feel it’s 1948 in a small coastal village & also encapsulates the beautiful locales of Konkan.

‘Goodness’ has a merit of it’s own when it’s translated in art earnestly, ‘Cycle’ manages that first & foremost. Better characterizations of the thieves, slightly more screen time to Keshav & co. ‘Cycle’ would have been a ‘complete’ feel good adventure, yet it is good enough to be seen in theatres with our families this summer holidays!

Overall:

‘Cycle’ is family entertainment set in the old world where ‘goodness’ was more common than today. And it has been backed by the technical fluidity of today’s times.

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Prakash Kunte who has given us films like ‘Coffee Ani Barach Kahi’, ‘Hampi’ & ‘& Jara Hatke’ is back with his new film ‘Cycle’. One thing we are sure of that in Kunte’s film every little detail will be given utmost importance. In ‘Cycle’ too this detailing is very much evident. The look of the film, the cinematography & the way it has created a little world of a small village by the sea is pleasing to our senses.

The film stars Hrishikesh Joshi, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Bhau Kadam & Deepti Lele. ‘Cycle’ seems like a light hearted comedy that uses the conflict of a bicycle being stolen to present how such little tings can matter to the simplest of people.

This simplistic style of storytelling reminds us of the old classic Hindi filmmakers Hrishikesh Mukherjee & Basu Chatterjee who made many such beautiful films that dealt with the common man in a light-hearted humorous way!

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Directed by Prakash Kunte of ‘Coffee Ani Barach Kahi’ & ‘Hampi’ fame ‘Cycle’ is a highly awaited film that was also a part of the prestigious Cannes film festival. The film stars Hrishikesh Joshi, Priyadarshan Jadhav & Bhau Kadam in very real characters.

The story seems to revolve around a father, daughter & their mystical cycle. Mystical because the little girl believes that her cycle flies! Hrishikesh Joshi finally seems to be getting the parts he deserves as an actor. Films about children have always been a strong point of Marathi cinema. And ‘Cycle’ seems to take this tradition forward.

Director Prakash Kunte has his own style of crafting films. His films always capture the essence of the places that his films are set in. And the beautiful little village by the sea in this film seems no exception. The film is produced by Amar Pandit & Sangram Surve & is being presented by Sudhanshu Vats, Ajit Andhare and Nikhil Sane.

The post Cycle Marathi Movie Teaser: A Refreshing Mystical Story! appeared first on MarathiStars.

• Movie : Cycle (2018) | सायकल
• Producer : Amar Pandit and Sangram Surve
• Director : Prakash Kunte
• Studio : Viacom18 Motion Pictures and Happy Mind Production
• Star Cast :
  • Hrishikesh Joshi as Keshav
  • Priyadarshan Jadhav as Mangya
  • Bhalchandra Kadam as Gajya
  • Deepti Lele as Jayashree
  • Pradeep Welankar as Holy Man
  • Sandesh Kulkarni as Sawant
  • Vidyadhar Joshi as Savkar
  • Sujata Mogal Pawar as Savkar’s Wife
  • Ruturaj Shinde as Tea Stall Boy
  • Abhijeet Chavan as Shyam
  • Sandhya Mhatre as Jalinder’s Mother
  • Sameer Khandekar as Jalindar
  • Mangesh Satpute as Natha Kumbhar
  • Tanvi Mundle as Natha’s Wife
  • Anil Gawde as Munim
  • Maithili Patwardhan as Mrunmayee
• Story : Aditi Moghe
• Dialogues : NA
• Lyrics : Mangesh Kanane
• Singer :Sagar Phadake and Aditya Phadake
• Original Soundtrack : Aditya Bedekar
• Sound Design : Manoj V. Mochemadkar and Sandeep Madkholkar
• Cinematography (DOP) : Amalendu Chaudhary
• Editor : Mayur Hardas
• Art Director : Mahesh Kudalkar
• Makeup : Nilesh Sonawane
• Costumes : Sachin Lovalekar
• Executive Producer : Avinash Bhanushali
• Co-Producer : MFA and Think Why Not
• Associate Producer : Rajiv Kottomtharayil and Luv Bhatt
• Presented By : Sudhanshu Vats, Ajit Andhare and Nikhil Sane
• Assistant Director : Niket Halve, Prashant Naik and Hemant Kudale
• Associate Director : Vishal Modhave and Swapnil Warke
• DI : Prime Focus LTD
• Visual Promotions : Just Right Studioz
• Publicity Design : Think Why Not
• Digital Publicity : Be Birbal Media Pvt Ltd
• VFX and Titles : Parthsarthi Ayar
• Camera Assistant : Jitendra Borhade
• Executive Producer (Viacom18 Motion Pictures) : Deepa Jathar
• Revenue and Inernational (Viacom18 Motion Pictures) : Gayatri Gulati
• Sales and Distribution (Viacom18 Motion Pictures) : Neeraj Goswamy
• Genre : Drama, Comedy
• Release Date : 4th May 2018

Synopsis : Cycle is an upcoming Marathi film directed by Prakash Kunte. This film is light-hearted family film. The film is produced by Sangram Surve and Amar Pandit and written by Aditi Moghe. The stars in the movie Priyadarshan Jadhav, Deepti Lele, Bhalchandra Kadam and Hrishikesh Joshi. The movie will be released on May 4, 2018.

Cycle Marathi Movie Poster/Photos :

Cycle Marathi Movie Teaser/Trailer :

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Recent Marathi films like ‘Vihir’, ‘Court’ & many more have travelled the world at different international film festivals. Recently the 64th National film awards were announced & Marathi cinema won as many as 8 awards in different categories including Best Director (Ventilator) & Best Film (Kaasav).

From 17th to 28th May 2017, the prestigious Cannes film festival will be held & under their Film Market Indian government has selected three Marathi films which were in the race of National awards.

The three films are as follows: Happy Minds Entertainment Private Ltd. produced ‘Cycle’, S.P. Entertainment Private Ltd. produced ‘Take Care Goodnight’ & Rangnil Creations produced ‘Dashkriya’. The names of this film were announced by cultural affairs minister Vinod Tawade. With each film two members, in total 6 members from the film’s teams will be sent to Cannes for the festival.

We wish all these three Marathi films all the very best for their journey to the prestigious Cannes film festival.

The post 3 Marathi Films Selected for Cannes Film Festival by Indian Government! appeared first on MarathiStars.

After giving two emotional films like & Jara Hatke and Coffee Aani Barach Kaahi director Prakash Kunte is ready with his third film. Titled as Cycle, this film will be a comedy.

The film stars Hrishikesh Joshi, Bhau Kadam and Priyadarshan Jadhav in leading roles. Actress Deepti Lele has been casted as a leading lady for this film. The shooting of this film has been finished recently and the film is in post-production stage.

We will soon share some more details about this film with you, keep watching this space !

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