Review: Mauli (2018)
Cast: Riteish Deshmukh, Jitendra Joshi, Siddharth Jadhav, Saiyami Kher, Girija Oak Godbole & Shrikant Yadav
Director: Aditya Sarpotdar
Writer: Kshitij Patwardhan

Quick Viewpoint: Mauli doesn’t match the expectations that we had from a very reputed team who had recently given us ‘Faster Fene’. Yet the film should be looked as an honest attempt (though a failed attempt) to push the envelope of a template style commercial cinema.

What Fails? 

• The principal conflict of the film lacks logic especially in the first half. The film stereotypes a liquor bar as the most evil thing that can happen to a small village. And never does it feel to explain itself. Is the liquor bar illegal? If yes then why doesn’t the film spend some screen time to investigate what can be done legally to shut it down? Usual civic sense seems to be completely given a toss!
• Then the owner of the liquor bar, Nana (Jitendra Joshi) the evil villain with a scar on a his face, has a personal history against the temple that is just opposite to the bar & he has pledged that the locked temple will never be freed again! (If Pravin Tarde is reading, here’s the plot for Deool Band 2!) If Nana is mainly a greedy, money minded man, why doesn’t he ever realize that there’s probably more money in the spiritual field than the liquor field?
• The reasons of the above flaws is that, the film is least bothered about the actual narrative, it only wishes to use it as a template. The main moto is to give you a larger than life hero & his journey to become the saviour of this village!
• Saiyami Kher making her debut in Marathi cinema, sadly never manages to appear like her character. Her character itself feels like a poor man’s ‘Basanti’ (from Sholay) but without any fun aspect to it. Her Marathi is definitely problematic but beyond that too her performance feels fake.
• The action scenes have an overdose of slow motion. That is actually something that is common in masala action films made all over India right now! What happens is that we never really feel the actual rush of an action sequence if the slow mo is overused.
• It might be lesser important but the first 10 minutes or so have almost nothing to do with the actual film. First there’s this huge title sequence with a song which shows some beautifully captured moments of the Pandharpur Waari, just after that we see an action scene set probably in Pandharpur to introduce the principal character of the film, then follows the ‘Holi’ song! No matter what reasons they must have, but this is just not done! 10 minutes or more in a film’s run time should either be a part of the film or just shouldn’t be there!

What Works? 

• By the end of the first half there’s a twist in the story that turns the table on its head. An exact opposite turn to the story when compared to the prequel or other films like Rowdy Rathore of this type. At that point we are intrigued about the second half! And comparatively the second half of the film starts pretty well! Mainly because of the twist!
• The internal conflict of Riteish Deshmukh’s Mauli (can’t reveal much) with himself is far more interesting than the rest of the film.
• Kshitij Patwardhan’s dialogues sometimes fall flat & feel too ambitious for a template driven film, but sometimes they work! And when they work they make us linger over them!
• Amalendu Choudhary’s camera work! No matter how hard you try to be disinterested in the action scenes of the film, it’s the cinematography that keeps you there!

Final Verdict: I see ‘Mauli’ as a missed opportunity towards redefining the age old masala action genre. Yet there’s hope for this genre to be some day redefined by maybe the same people who are a part of this team!

Rating: 2.5/5

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In ‘Lai Bhaari‘ we saw Mr. & Mrs. Deshmukh shake a leg together in the superhit Holi song ‘Aala Holicha San Lai Bhaari’. Now in the sequel, ‘Mauli‘ we are seeing Riteish & Genelia together again performing on a ‘Holi’ song. And this time it’s twice more fun & twice more entertaining.

Just like the songs of ‘Sairat‘, Ajay-Atul are again back as lyricists for ‘Mauli’! This song has been penned by them & of course composed by them. The ‘hatke’ lyrics of this song sets it apart from all the ‘Holi’ songs that have been famous in both Marathi & Hindi films for years. From pout to social media it covers all the iconic aspects of today’s generation.

Moreover the chemistry between Riteish & Genelia is so perfect! Many of Genelia’s fans must be missing her badly as she hasn’t been seen in films ever since she got married. For those fans this cameo appearance in the song of ‘Mauli’ is a huge treat!

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Ever since the announcement of the ‘Lai Bhari’ sequel the audiences have been eagerly awaiting for ‘Mauli‘. With even more excitement this time as the Riteish Deshmukh starrer is written & directed by the team which gave us the superhit film ‘Faster Fene‘! Writer Kshitij Patwardhan & director Aditya Sarpotdar have collaborated again & the trailer promises that ‘Mauli’ would break many box office records!

Along with Riteish the film stars Saiyami Kher who is making her Marathi film debut after her performance in the Hindi film ‘Mirzya’! ‘Mauli’ also stars Jitendra Joshi in a negative role! After his stints as a villain in ‘Duniyadari’ & ‘Baji’, our beloved Jitu is again exploring the villainous side to him! The film also stars Siddharth Jadhav & Girija Oak Godbole among others.

‘Mauli’ seems to have the right blend of action, drama, comedy & strong ‘Marathiness’ in it. It doesn’t seem inspired from south Indian action film or Bollywood action films it presents the Marathi culture imbibing it into the framework of an old school commercial film with a rural backdrop! ‘Mauli‘ hits theatres on 14th of December!

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• Movie : Mauli (2018) | माउली
• Producer : Genelia Deshmukh
• Directer : Aditya Sarpotdar
• Studio : Mumbai Film Company and Hindustan Talkies
• Star Cast :
  • Riteish Deshmukh as Mauli Sarjerao Deshmukh
  • Saiyami Kher as Renuka
  • Jitendra Joshi
  • Siddharth Jadhav
  • Girija Oak
  • Mayur Khandge
  • Shrikant Yadav
• Writer : Kshitij Patwardhan
• Screenplay : NA
• Dialogues : NA
• Singer : NA
• Lyrics : Guru Thakur and Ajay Gogawale
• Sound Design : Arun Nambiar
• Music : Ajay-Atul
• Background Score : Troy – Arif
• Cinematography (DOP) : Amalendu Choudhary
• Editor : Snajay Sankla
• Art Director : NA
• Costume : Karishma Gulati and Sachin Lovalekar
• Make-up : NA
• Executive Producer : Sanjay Mehta
• Supervising Producer : Rajkumar Tiwari
• Action Director : Ravi Varma
• Presenter : Jio Studios
• Choreography : Bosco-Caesar and Ranju Varghese
• Co-Producer : Pankaj Razdan, Ashish Chowdhary, Deepa Pardasany and Ravi Walia
• Line Producer : Vinay Chaukar
• Creative Producer : Sandeep Patil
• VFX : NA
• VFX Artist : NA
• Production Design : Santosh Phutane
• Visual Promotions : Just Right Studioz NX
• Publicity Design : Marching Ants
• Marketing Consultant : NA
• Digital Promotions : Digi Osmosis
• DI : Prime Focus Ltd
• Genre : Drama
• Release Date : 14th December 2018

Synopsis : Mauli is the sequel to the Marathi blockbuster Lai Bhaari, where Riteish Deshmukh’s character was called Mauli. The sequel is directed by Aditya Sarpotdar.

Mauli Marathi Movie Poster/Photos :

Mauli Marathi Movie Teaser :

Mauli Marathi Movie Trailer :

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The much awaited teaser of Riteish Deshmukh starer ‘Mauli‘ is out on the festive occasion of Diwali. And it promises to be an action packed blockbuster! Interestingly the first person to share this teaser was no one but the Superstar King Khan Shahrukh Khan through his official Facebook handle! This film is directed by the ‘Faster Fene’ fame director Aditya Sarpotdar.

‘Mauli’ has brought together so many big names from writer Kshitij Patwardhan, the director, the star music composers Ajay-Atul, Riteish Deshmukh who is also the producer of the film under his banner ‘Mumbai Film Company’. Moreover ‘Mauli’ marks the beginning of a new era in film production as ‘Jio Studios’ are entering into it!

In the first film ‘Lai Bhari’ we saw Riteish Deshmukh playing a double role of two brothers who are completely different from each other. Now in ‘Mauli’ we see him in two avatars at the same time though not in a double role. We see him thrashing the bad guys as a rowdy but then we see the same man been revealed as a police officer! ‘Mauli’ hits theatres on 14th December so mark the date today itself!

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Riteish Deshmukh starer ‘Mauli‘ is already a hugely anticipated Marathi film. The film has the best of Marathi cinema in every department! The film is written by Kshitij Patwardhan & is directed by Aditya Sarpotdar, the same writer-director duo that they gave us ‘Faster Fene’! While the film is produced by Riteish Deshmukh’s ‘Mumbai Film Company’ which was also associated with Faster Fene.

Now this trio of writer-director-producer/actor is to get even more grander with the addition Maharashtra’s most loved music magicians Ajay-Atul! A new video from ‘Mauli’ team was posted on social media were we are seeing Riteish Deshmukh introducing the music composers of ‘Mauli’; Ajay & Atul!

There will be sky high expectations from Mauli’s music from now on as the label ‘A Ajay-Atul Musical’ is attached to the film now. It would interesting to see how different will their approach be from what they did for the prequel of the film ‘Lai Bhaari’ years ago. Music of ‘Lai Bhaari’ became blockbuster just like their other hit film albums!

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The much awaited news about ‘Lai Bhaari’ sequel has excited Marathi audiences already. Riteish Deshmukh is reprising his role of ‘Mauli’ in & as ‘Mauli’. Moreover he is also collaborating with writer Kshitij Patwardhan & director Aditya Sarpotdar who worked with Riteish (where he was the producer) on Faster Fene.

Now another great collaboration has been added in this team. Actress Saiyami Kher who starred in the Hindi film ‘Mirzya’ is starring opposite Riteish Deshmukh in this film. Saiyami is the grand daughter of late Marathi actress Usha Kiran & nephew of actress Tanvi Azmi! Incidentally Tanvi Azmi played Mauli’s mother in ‘Lai Bhaari’!

Moreover this is Saiyami’s third film & all her three films are in three different languages. Her debut film was ‘Rey’ which was in Telegu! We are hoping ‘Mauli’ to be as action packed & an overall masala entertainer like the prequel! It would be fun to see how Saiyami complements Riteish in ‘Mauli’ & vice versa!

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Riteish Deshmukh’s ‘Lai Bhaari’ was a path breaking Marathi film of recent times. Directed by Nishikant Kamath ‘Lai Bhaari’ brought back the age old style of story telling from 70s & 80s. Now Riteish is all set to return as ‘Mauli’ with an upcoming Marathi film titled as ‘Mauli‘.

A new journey begins…

‘माऊली’

Produced by @Geneliad @mfc Mumbai Film Company
Directed by @AdityaSarpotdar
Written by @Kshitij_P

तो येतोय…..#MAULI #MarathiFilm #ShootBegins pic.twitter.com/EcDDnZCZbk

— Riteish Deshmukh (@Riteishd) April 30, 2018

Whether it’s a direct sequel of ‘Lai Bhaari’ is still unclear but we predict it is! Produced by Genelia Deshmukh under the ‘Mumbai Film Company’ banner ‘Mauli’ is written by Kshitij Patwardhan & directed by Aditya Sarpotdar. Which means the trio of Patwardhan-Sarpotdar-Deshmukh is back again after the super success of ‘Faster Fene‘!

The rest of the cast of the film isn’t revealed yet & we are definitely excited to see who would be the villain in ‘Mauli’! Marathi cinema definitely needs a event film like ‘Mauli’ that can entertain the audiences & also be content driven. We will keep you updated as soon as we know more about ‘Mauli’!

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• Review : Faster Fene (2017)
• Producer : Genelia & Riteish Deshmukh (Mumbai Film Company) & Zee Studios
• Director : Aditya Sarpotdar
• Star Cast : Amey Wagh, Girish Kulkarni, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Perna Pethe, Shubham More, Siddharth Jadhav, Om Bhutkar & Shrikant Yadav
• Story : Kshitij Patwardhan
• Review By : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 3.5/5

Faster Fene Marathi Movie Review:

The thing with detective characters like Sherlock Holmes, Byomkesh Bakshi & even Jagga Jasoos is that their world is distinctly different from our existing world. In case of ‘Faster Fene’ that isn’t the case. The film is set in today’s Pune. So that avoids comparison with all recent detective films from all over the world. FaFe’s strongest point is its compactness & the uncompromising decisions that the makers have taken. The film doesn’t have a single song or any sub track. The focus with which Kshitij Patwardhan has crafted the screenplay is indeed admirable.

However the plot points of the film are not completely error free. Because of the focus & compactness the film becomes a straightforward duel between our hero Fafe (Amey Wagh) & our villain Appa (Girish Kulkarni). Throughout the runtime of the film, Appa is this larger than life villain whose mere presence in the frame makes everything darker, fun. A villain is always made by his/her dialogues & Appa too has a plenty of lines that can erupt whistles & claps in the theatres. Maybe we weren’t supposed to but we are on Appa’s side. The error here is that by the climax of the film, almost abruptly FaFe makes a fool out of Appa.

Earlier one instance in the film did remind me of the Joker-Batman relationship. Appa too is a Joker like figure, who is ahead of FaFe by at least a single step. But the way FaFe catches him & gets ahead of him isn’t that convincing. The film could’ve chosen a little different path than Fafe himself explaining everything he did to catch Appa. Another minor error is that since there isn’t a sub track, the other characters Aboli (Perna Pethe), B.R. Bhagwat (Dilip Prabhawalkar), Bhu Bhu (Shubham More) don’t have any personal motives other than helping out FaFe who is principally right.

Having said all that ‘Faster Fene’ is still a very important film. One because of the way it uses contemporary technology of social media, & the internet. It truly belongs to today’s times. It also suggests us that even a normal person like us can investigate if we are passionate about it. This co-relation of fantasy & reality has never been seen before in Marathi. And then the actual subject matter of the film. I won’t reveal much, but I’ll say that it explores the most relevant social issue of today’s youth, education! Previously a film like ‘Shikshanachya Aaycha Gho’ tried a bit to address the issue on a surface level, but in case of ‘FaFe’ never does the film directly takes up the issue. It is bothered about its own plot, yet through the journey we are introduced & enlightened by many shocking realties of the education ‘Business’. Here too Appa doesn’t remain just a filmy villain with masterful dialogues.

Almost all of these positives should first be credited to the writer of the film, Kshitij Patwardhan. Followed by the director Aditya Sarpotdar & the whole cast of the film. Even the background score is an important character in the film especially because there are no songs. The editing, cinematography too contributes towards making ‘FaFe’ a truly memorable experience.

Amey Wagh as FaFe is perfectly casted & he does it with his usual mastery. In fact every single character whether it is lengthwise small like Siddharth Jadhav’s Reverse King (A Rickshaw driver who drives his Rickshaw in reverse) & Shrikant Yadav’s inspector, or the character of the original writer of ‘Faster Fene’, B. R. Bhagwat (Dilip Prabhawalkar in top form), all of them are perfect in their roles. But one man (& his character) still stands distinctly above all of them, & that is Girish Kulkarni as Appa. He is the closest Marathi cinema has ever been to a villain of Joker’s stature.

Overall:

‘Faster Fene’ takes commercial entertainment to a different level, the film is aesthetically made without a single compromise & yet it has everything that can interest audiences of all kind & all ages.

The post Faster Fene Review: The Detective & Villain We Deserve! appeared first on MarathiStars.

After a long time a Marathi film has been so whole heartedly anticipated by our audiences. Riteish Deshmukh & Zee Studios have collaborated for ‘Faster Fene’ & have made the film reach all the audiences in Maharashtra & beyond. It releases from 27^th October in theatres & should be watched only in theatres & not on other mediums. The film stars Amey Wagh, Perna Pethe, Girish Kulkarni, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Siddharth Jadhav, Om Bhutkar & child artist Shubham More. Written by Kshitij Patwardhan & directed by Aditya Sarpotdar ‘Faster Fene’ is the big Diwali release for Marathi cinema this year. We are giving you 7 important reasons why the film is a must watch.

1) The Ensemble Cast

The film stars Amey Wagh in the title role along with a brigade of talented actors in different roles. Every one of them seems to be perfect in their characters. From Dilip Prabhawalkar, Perna Pethe, the little Shubham More, Siddharth Jadhav, Om Bhutkar, & especially the new baddie in town Girish Kulkarni. The chemistry between our hero Amey & villain Kulkarni is evident in the trailers & promos itself!

2) A Completely Unexplored Genre in Marathi!

Faster Fene explores a completely unexplored genre of detective films along with adventure. Though this may sound to be exclusively for kids, but the film’s glimpses do not necessarily suggest us that it is just for kids. The film seems to blend the detective genre with a backdrop of a real city & real people, issues & situations. The film is also about our education system.

3) Based on a Beloved Character which is a Part of our Culture

B.R. Bhagwat’s Faster Fene books have inspired & entertained a generation of kids. Those kids must be parents now. And through this film those parents can in a way pass on their love for ‘FaFe’ to their kids. Both parents & kids would associate with Faster Fene in their own ways.

4)  The Diwali Vacation

Isn’t Diwali vacation the best time to watch films at theatres! Especially a film like ‘Faster Fene’ which can so easily match everyone’s taste in the family & everyone could enjoy it with each other’s company.

5) The Modern Day Adaptation of ‘Faster Fene’

Though B.R. Bhagwat’s ‘Faster Fene’ was written long back in the 70s & 80s, this film isn’t set in that time. This film is set in today’s modern world where technology is an inseparable part of our lives. Writer Kshitij Patwardhan who has given many unique films to Marathi cinema in very less time has designed this whole new setting for ‘Faster Fene’. The city of Pune, the character of the original writer B.R.Bhagwat all of it projects a newer & modern day version of ‘FaFe’.

6) The Backing of Ritiesh Deshmukh & Zee Studios

The last time Ritiesh Deshmukh’s Mumbai Film Company & Zee Studios collaborated they gave us an unforgettable blockbuster ‘Lai Bhaari’. This time too their collaboration is presenting a different kind of cinema to our audiences. Breaking the conventional limitations of Marathi commercial cinema ‘Faster Fene’ promises to be a film that would still appeal to audiences of all kind.

7) The Background Score!

Yes, this too is a very important reason. A film can be made a masterpiece or a massacre by the use of the right background score. And in case of ‘Faster Fene’ straight from the very first teaser poster of the film the background music has captured our attention for sure. It doesn’t feel like anything we have heard before in Marathi cinema.

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