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 : 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!

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• 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.

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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!

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