• Review : Youngraad (2018)
• Producer : Vitthal Patil, Gautam Gupta, Gaurav Gupta and Madhu Mantena
• Director : Makarand Mane
• Screenplay : Makarand Mane, Shashank Shende and Aziz Madari
• Star Cast : Chaitanya Devre, Saurabh Padvi, Shiv Wagh, Jeevan Karalkar, Shashank Shende, Savita Prabhune & Sharad Kelkar
• Review by : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 3/5

Youngraad Review (Marathi Movie):

Directed by Makarand Mane of ‘Ringan’ fame & backed by ‘Phantom Films’ the iconic indie film studio of Bollywood (& Overall Indian cinema), ‘Youngraad’ is a film that is solid on many levels starting from the casting, to the use of craft (technical), use of background score & the overall direction of the film. What it also manages to do well is inhibiting the ‘Sairat’ influence in a positive way. But the film has issues with the narrative, which hamper the overall takeout for the audiences.

The film begins with a flashback clarifying the protagonist of the film as someone who has got over a dreadful phase in his life & has now grown to be a wiser person. The problem with this device is that it takes away some of the ‘thrill’ in a film that had some traits of a crime thriller. The story revolves around four school going mid teenagers living in the city of Nasik. The first half mostly depicts their friendship through different incidents & the romantic track of the main hero of the film!

The romantic track clearly has a ‘Sairat’ influence but in a very healthy way. It makes us believe whatever it depicts. This in fact is Youngraad’s biggest strength. It never takes away the believability. Except a jail sequence in the second half which also stars Sharad Kelkar in an unnecessarily filmy mode.

As the trailer reveals these four friends start working for a local goon who is soon venturing into politics. This transition of normal fun loving kids to goons of an aspiring politician is almost very easy but still convincing. Then due to some circumstances they decide to leave all this & become clean. This conflict of the film arrives almost at the interval point. The second half then takes a completely new turn. Now this transition both from the narrative point of view & the character transitions aren’t smooth. The film develops quite a few problems in the second half. The biggest being the track of our protagonist in prison. The believability suffers here. However, even in these moments the performance of the lead actor keeps us interested.

Once the protagonist is out from prison the film deals with the aftermath in a bit formulaic way. But it let’s the protagonist dwell around the proceedings deliberately purposeless. We see him roaming around the sub-urban city clueless & with a grim on his face. These little sad moments involving the protagonist & his friends make the second half interesting. There are many errors & plot points left abruptly in the second half, but because of the film’s emotional connect we are affected by the film.

After ‘Ringan’ director Makarand Mane approached a completely new story & partially succeeded in creating another moving film experience. But more work on the writing of the film could’ve taken ‘Youngraad’ to similar heights of ‘Ringan’. However one could easily notice that as a director Mane has still improved his craft, especially the way he has used visual language in ‘Youngraad’. The young actors of the film have given good performances especially the lead actor. Shashank Shende & Savita Prabhune are probably the only well versed actors in the cast & they too have given superb performances. Savita Prabhune has been seen in very few films but she is impressive in all of them, last she was seen in ‘Jaudya Na Balasaheb’.

Overall:

In terms of the commercial value ‘Youngraad’ has everything that today’s youth Marathi audiences would connect with. Including humor & beautifully composed & shot songs. It shouldn’t go unnoticed just because it hasn’t been promoted well!

The post Youngraad Review: A Problematic Second Half Taints an Otherwise Impactful Film appeared first on MarathiStars.

• Movie : Youngraad (2018) | यंग्राड
• Producer : Vitthal Patil, Gautam Gupta, Gaurav Gupta and Madhu Mantena
• Director : Makarand Mane
• Studio : Phantom Films, Vitthal Patil Productions and Futureworks
• Star Cast :
  • Chaitanya Devre
  • Saurabh Padvi
  • Shiv Wagh
  • Jeevan Karalkar
  • Shashank Shende
  • Vitthal Patil
  • Shantanu Gangane
  • Savita Prabhune
  • Sharad Kelkar
• Story : Makarand Mane
• Screenplay : Makarand Mane, Shashank Shende and Aziz Madari
• Dialogues : Bhushan Patil
• Lyrics : Kshitij Patwardhan, Datta Patil and Maghlub
• Music Composer : Hriday Gattani and Gandhar
• Sound Design : Arvind Vijaykumar
• Re-Recording Mixer : Rhitwik Raj Pathak
• Original Score : Mannan Munjal
• Cinematography (DOP) : Hari Nair
• Editor : Aashay Gatade
• Art Director : Prasad Arun Rahane
• Costume : Mausami Shaikh
• Make-Up : Santosh Sambhaji Gilbile
• Choreography : Vitthal Patil
• Executive Producer : Shantanu Gangane
• Visual Promotion : Just Right Studioz
• Publicity Design : Sachin Suresh Gurav
• Genre : Drama
• Release Date : 6th July 2018

Synopsis : Four best friends from Nashik always have each other’s backs be it getting into fights or setting up a friend with his dream girl. But having a wrong idol in such impressionable years lands them into a web of troubles that drastically affects their lives and brings them to a point where everything that they thought they knew about life disappears into oblivion and forces them to embark on a journey to redefine who they are.

Youngraad Marathi Movie Poster/Photos :

Youngraad Marathi Movie Teaser/Trailer :

The post Youngraad (2018) – Marathi Movie appeared first on MarathiStars.

Makarand Mane, the national award-winning director of ‘Ringan’ is coming up with yet another different movie ‘Youngraad’, the trailer of which was released recently. Produced jointly by Vitthal Patil (Vitthal Patil Production), Gautam Gupta, Gaurav Gupta (Future Works Media Ltd.), and Madhu Mentena ( Phantom Films ), ‘Youngraad’ stars four young actors in the lead, Chaitanya Deore, Saurabh Padvi, Shiv Wagh & Jeevan Karalkar. It also features leading actors including Sharad Kelkar, Savita Prabbhune, Shireen Patil, Monika Chaudhari, Shashank Shende, Vitthal Patil and Shantanu Gangane.

The story has been penned by Makarand Mane, who is also the screenplay writer along with Shashank Shende and Aziz Madari.  Young Hriday Gattani and Gandhaar are its music composers, for which lyrics have been penned by Kshitij Patwardhan, Datta Patil and Maghlub Poonawala. The four songs have been sung by Shankar Mahadevan, Divya Kumar, Shasha Tirupati and Hriday Gattani

‘Youngraad’ is a slang used to define vagrant boys in Nashik, the Dakshin Kashi (Southern Banaras) of India. Be it getting into fights or setting up a friend with his dream girl, these four friends have always got each other’s backs. But having a wrong idol in such impressionable years lands these four boys into a web of troubles that drastically affects their lives and brings them to a point where everything that they thought they knew about life disappears into oblivion and forces them to embark on a journey to redefine who they are.

The trailer of the film was recently launched at an event in Mumbai. This rustic hard-hitting story of four friends releases in theatres all over Maharashtra from 6th of July.

The post Ringan Fame Makarand Mane’s Youngraad Trailer Out Now appeared first on MarathiStars.

There are very few production houses that create an iconic status for themselves in so much less time, ‘Phantom’ productions is one of them. Formed by directors like Anurag Kashyap, Vikramaditya Motwane & Vikas Bahl to make the kind of cinema they believe in. They have made successful films like ‘Queen’, ‘Udta Punjab’, ‘Lootera’, ‘Masaan’ & many more in Hindi.

Now they have a grand entry into Marathi cinema with Makarand Mane directorial ‘Youngraad’. Youngraad means those boys who are wasting their lives roaming around & doing nothing. It’s a word from Nashik where the story of the film is based. The story of four boys who have wrongs idols in their lives & because of that they end up getting into trouble & then they start introspecting upon their life.

The director of this film previously made national award-winning film ‘Ringan’ & is also directing the next film of Rinku Rajguru of ‘Sairat’ fame which is titled as ‘Kagar’. Along with Phantom, the film is also backed by ‘Future Works Media’ & ‘Vitthal Patil Productions’ & is set to release all over Maharashtra on 6^th of July!

The post Anurag Kashyap’s Phantom Makes A Grand Marathi Entry with Youngraad appeared first on MarathiStars.