• Review : Bogda (2018)
• Producer : Suresh Panmand, Nanda S Panmand, Karan Konde
• Director : Nisheeta Keni
• Screenplay : Nisheeta Keni & Omkar Datt
• Star Cast : Mrunmayee Deshpande, Suhas Joshi & Rohit Kokate
• Review by : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 1.5/5

Bogda Review (Marathi Movie):

For a simpleton film watcher a quintessential “Festival Film” can be a bit boring & for those who watch films mainly at film festivals, for them, a quintessential “Masala Film” can be equally boring. But sometimes there are films which can bore both the groups equally! And those films could be inherently belonging to any of the two categories. Bogda definitely belongs to the “Festival” category but it can bore film watchers of both kinds equally!

The trailer of ‘Bogda’ was hardly two minutes long & the kind of theme it was dealing with it felt like the film would be around 100 minutes long, but the actual length of the film is 163 long minutes! And they feel like never ending! Every single scene & even the dialogues move at the pace of the turtle. The pauses taken by actors while uttering their hollow dramatic dialogues get on your nerve almost instantly as the film starts. Both Mrunmayee Deshpande & senior actress Suhas Joshi are good actors but the film never allows us to feel connected to their performance.

The conflict points, the character tracks, their dreams or motives & their backstories all of it feels plastic. The second half when the actual journey mentioned in the trailer begins we are already disinterested in the characters & their journey, yet we could have still been converted if the second half avoided the stylistic choices made by the director. But it doesn’t. It manages to make even a ‘road movie’ seem eventless. Sparing the pauses the actors take, they act in a very conventionally dramatic way, or their usual way. So even if the ‘slowness’ & ‘dryness’ was intentional it isn’t present uniformly.

While ‘Bogda’ has some good visuals that are interesting to look at if broken down in pieces & seen simply as images. As moving images they have no power. ‘Bogda’ is a film that proves simply good intentions of making a stunning cinematic film aren’t enough. A film is an amalgamation of different art forms, yes! But at the core it relies on some basic necessities, the most important of it is ‘engagement’. If a film can’t engage the viewer on a primary level, none of the visual artistry matters. Now there are different means of engagement, a narrative, an ultimate motive are one of them, which ‘Bogda’ tries to use but fails.

Yet I believe the debutant director (Nisheeta Keni) of the film has no reason to feel unsuccessful in any way! The reactions to this failure will only be helpful for her future works, & seeing her command over the ‘visuals’ she should definitely make more attempts, but this time with much more work on the script.

As said before performances of Suhas Joshi & Mrunamayee are as usual good, (sparing the pauses) but they don’t make any impact. ‘Kaul’ fame actor Rohit Kokate had an interesting character to play that never got explored to even it’s half potential. The music is decent, & contributes to the slightly interesting moments of the film in the second half. The overall boredom that the film inflicts on us could have been a lot less if the film was at least an hour less in duration. Such themes & narratives can never afford to be so long even if they are well written (Though Bogda isn’t) & executed!

Overall:

‘Bogda’ deals with the theme of death but ironically ends up boring the audiences to death.

The post Bogda Review: Literally Bores You to ‘Death’ appeared first on MarathiStars.

Mrunmayee Deshpande has mainly been associated with a certain type of roles in the past. But in recent times the actress has consciously made some unique choices. Her upcoming film ‘Bogda’ seems to be one unique film in every way. Directed by Nisheeta Keni, ‘Bogda’ stars Mrunmayee Deshpande, senior actress Suhas Joshi & ‘Kaul’ fame actor Rohit Kokate.

The film seems to be based on a dramatic story about ‘death’ & old age but the treatment of the film seems very contrasting to the subject & that is the USP of the film. Backed by Nitin Keni, ‘Bogda’ represents the new ‘indie’ cinema wave in Marathi cinema.

‘Bogda’ releases in theatres from 7th September & the visuals of the film excite us to watch the film on the big screen. Hopefully, ‘Bogda’ would be another welcome addition to the list of good content oriented films in Marathi cinema of recent times.

The post Bogda Movie Trailer: Mrunmayee Deshapnde in a New Avatar appeared first on MarathiStars.

Adish Keluskar’s Kaul has already been appreciated at various international film festivals. The film has released in the theatres and audience is simply amazed by this new experiment. The title track of this film “Kaul Lavato” has been released on the youtube.

The song tells us about the mood of the film, but does not even hint about the plot. Brilliantly shot and edited, this song captivates your eyes from the first frame. The lyrics are penned by Mahesh Keluskar and music is by Gaurang Soni. Ganesh Chandanshive’s folk voice gives a different edge to this song. The film stars Rohit Kokate, Deepak Parab, Makrand Kajrekar, Saudamini Tikle . The excellent shots of rainy konkan and busy metro city roads have been used to create an almost yin-yang balance in this song. Kudos to DOP Amey Chavan.

Kaul has received Young Critics Award in MAMI 2015 and special mention from the international jury section in Pune International Film Festival 2016. The film is already in the theatres and audience is loving this audio-visual treat.

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• Review : KAUL – A Calling (2016)
• Producer : Chin2 Singh, Uma Mahesh Keluskar
• Director : Aadish Keluskar
• Studio : Chin Up Films & Zinzinat Productions
• Star Cast : Rohit Kokate, Deepak Parab, Makrand Kajrekar, Saudamini Tikle
• Writer : Aadish Keluskar
• Music : Manan Munja
• Genre  : Realistic Fantasy
• Review By : Abhay Salvi

Rating : 3.5/5

Kaul Marathi Movie Review :

‘Kaul’ is an act of calling god. Along the coast line of Maharashtra (Konkan) in almost every small village there are people who specialize in it. They are called Gurav (basically they are priests with lesser or almost no privileges). If anyone in the village is stuck at a crucial decision or wants to know future consequences of his deeds, the Gurav arranges a ‘Kaul’ on his behalf. Interestingly this highly experimental indie film doesn’t quite go into that act of ‘Kaul’. Instead it redefines the concept.

For Aadish Keluskar (Director), or rather for his lead character Kaul stands for a communication from the opposite end. This end could be Mother Nature or a faceless source of power. A power that has no sense of the conventional boundaries of morality, a power that makes you aware about the meaninglessness of everything around us including ourselves.

The film follows a recently married school teacher, who gets transferred to a small village in Konkan. The film doesn’t quite seek in to find the authenticity of the region & it’s culture as it’s completely focused on our protagonist’s mind which itself is as complex as a culture. Yes the school teacher suffers from issues to find solace in the world around him. Once he says to the doctor, that his life has no problems at all & everything is just fine & that really bothers him, there is probably no dream to strive for! This little prologue from the film resembles the soul of this film! He experiences few acts of super powers in that village which act as a catalyst to his situation.

The protagonist is then guided by a mystical old man who says he has been through all that the protagonist is now going through! We listen to this terrifically voiced old man who speaks the purest form of Malvani (unlike any TV Serial) through monologues combined with images that sometimes advocate & sometimes contrast the viewpoint but resembles the overall flavor of the film. Though this film experiments with the conventional style of building up a conflict & then making the characters play around it, it still builds a believable world.

It doesn’t really tell a story, it’s main focus is to let us into the state & mind of it’s lead character! There is a hint of the thriller genre in bits & parts which adds credibility to tempt some of the conventional audience. The film has achieved admiring heights in terms of the visual feel & the breakthrough work in sound recording & mixing!

However to fully enjoy ‘Kaul’ one has to get over the conventional definitions of entertainment. As their tagline goes ‘Experience is the new Entertainment’ is an essential perspective!

In the last chapter of ‘Harry Potter’ series there’s an incident when Harry is half dead & is at a strangely clean & bright King’s Cross Station. He asks a god like looking Albus Dumbledore “Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?” to this Dumbledore replies “Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it’s not real?” That’s what we suggest would be the right perspective to watch ‘Kaul’.

If you still aren’t convinced remind yourself of the last Indian film that explored the world of mentally ill individuals without slapstick humor. You won’t find many! ‘Kaul’ is unpretentiously sensitive towards this issue which has been naturally imbibed in it. One way it considers these people as ‘dancing to the music they hear’ & others as those who can’t hear it, in a way it stresses on our unawareness or a lack of sensitivity towards such individuals.

Overall:

Kaul has an exclusive aspect that has been curiously missing from Marathi Cinema & i.e ‘experiment’. Not often we see a Indian film that really gives an opportunity to the audience to watch & experience a film in their own exclusive way.

The post Kaul Review: A Unique Audio-Visual Treat that Experiments with its Form! appeared first on MarathiStars.

Kaul, a critically acclaimed film will be released on 18 November all over Maharashtra. The film is directed by youngster Adish Keluskar. It has received many awards in various international film festivals. The film has an interesting visual tale of a murderer and what he experiences in his life.

Adish’s short films have already been considered as a fine example of visual medium. His feature film also has a gripping tale and technical brilliance on every level. Being son of a famous poet Mahesh Kaluskar, Adish knows the literature as well as film medium. The film stars Rohit Kokate, Deepak Parab, Makrand Kajrekar, Saudamini Tikle and DOP is Amey Chavan.

Kaul has received Young Critics Award in MAMI 2015 and special mention from the international jury section in Pune International Film Festival 2016. The film will be releasing on 18 November all over Maharashtra.

The post Kaul to release on 18 November appeared first on MarathiStars.

• Movie : KAUL – A Calling
• Producer : Chin2 Singh, Uma Mahesh Keluskar
• Director : Aadish Keluskar
• Studio : Chin Up Films & Zinzinat Productions
• Star Cast : Rohit Kokate, Deepak Parab, Makrand Kajrekar, Saudamini Tikle
• Writer : Aadish Keluskar
• Music : Manan Munja
• Sound Designer : Siddharth Dubey
• Cinematography : Amey Chavan
• Editor : Samira Kidman
• Genre : Realistic Fantasy
• Release Date : 18th November 2016
• Runtime : 118 min

Synopsis : A school teacher in a village goes through a mind-wrecking journey without a choice. He witnesses an extraordinary supernatural event, but doubts its authenticity. Too many questions get raised in his mind. Trying to find those answers, he takes off on a mystic psychological journey with an Old Man, who is the only other person to witness that extraordinary supernatural event. As he starts exploring, he learns that, he is the ‘Chosen One’, with an assigned responsibility that might change the fate of his Universe. That puts him in a dilemma of whether he should be excited or petrified to be the ‘Chosen One’. His biggest challenge is to keep his sanity intact. The only choice left to him is to either complete the task assigned to him or get himself admitted in an asylum. Though the story is the genre of supernatural psychological thriller, the film tries to tell the story by following the cliches, but breaking the rules in which the cliches are told. A CALLING is a challenging film, which will not entertain by spoon-feeding its audience. Its narrative will make its viewers experience the film by engaging them in a puzzle, which even the protagonist does not comprehend completely. And that for us is ‘Experience as the New Entertainment’.

Kaul Marathi Movie Photos, Poster :

Kaul Marathi Movie Trailer :

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