FENIL SETA recommends DOMBIVLI FAST (Marathi Film)
Most of the Marathi movies are comic entertainers which are a treat to watch inspite of being little nonsensical. However, recently, Marathi movies are gathering momentum and becoming immensely popular since the quality of movies have increased manifold. This explains why a person like Subhash Ghai happily produced a Marathi film, Valu-The Wild Bull, which went on to become one of the biggest hits of Marathi cinema!
However, there’s one Marathi film which will remain as one the most remarkable flicks of Marathi cinema-Dombivli Fast! The movie has wowed audiences and has traveled to many international and national film festivals. It received the prestigious National Award in the Best Regional Film-Marathi category in the year 2005! Further, it was remade in Tamil and was named as ‘Evanu Oruvam’ in which Madhavan played the lead. And now, Abbas-Mustan are all set to remake it in Hindi!
The story of the film: Madhav Apte (Sandeep Kulkarni) lives a lower middle class life in Dombivli area of Mumbai with his wife Alka (Shilpa Tulaskar), son Rahul (Dushyant Wagh) and daughter Prachi (Srushti Bhoske). He travels to his workplace, Nariman Point, everyday by train; and takes the Dombivli Fast local train to return home. Cheating, corruption and dishonesty are something which he hated the most. He was a man with strong morals and principles and lived life according to it. Wherever he would see injustice and corruption, he would fight and argue; be it with her wife or her daughter’s school principal or even his own boss. Alka was fed up of Madhav’s adamant behaviour and in a fit of anger, had told him that his values and morals are only worth something if he can bring a change in the society. Little did Alka know that her words would make a strong impact on Madhav! Then started the fight of Madhav against everyone who broke the rules and were on the wrong side of the law. Soon, his actions shook the entire city and brought a considerable change too. But how long will society allow Madhav to bring this change? And till what extent will Madhav succeed in bringing a change?
Dombivli Fast excellently exposes the hard truth of our Indian society. Each person, whichever class he may belong to, is corrupt or becomes corrupted in order to survive in the corrupted world. Dombivli Fast criticizes this system to which we have got used to and strives to bring a change in the society.
There are wonderful sequences in the first half of the movie which shows how people, without any hesitation, freely do the wrong things:
1. Madhav’s son Rahul was failed by her class teacher because he didn’t attend her private tuitions.
2. Every morning, a tanker loaded with water would arrive at the chawl where Madhav stayed and everyone would stand in queues and fill their buckets with water. However, the tanker-walla would open the tap only if he’s given Rs. 100. And this was the scene everyday.
3. During Prachi’s admission, the school principal found her intelligent and smart but told Madhav that Prachi would be admitted in the school only if she was given a donation of Rs. 30,000.
4. A shopkeeper would charge extra Rs. 2 on each cold drink bottle he sold on the pretext of ‘cooling charge’!
I am sure you must have seen or heard of such similar circumstances. Thus, Dombivli Fast won the audiences chiefly because it throws light on events with which they can relate to.
The first half of Dombivli Fast is powerful and registers a strong impact. The scene where Madhav Apte bashes up the shop when the shopkeeper asks for cooling charge and later attacks the local corporator was a treat to watch!
However, in the second half, things tend to get little slow. Also, the way the character of Madhav Apte transforms into an extreme psycho was interesting but unacceptable at times, especially in the hospital scene. The climax was strong. It was so touching and moving that I can’t get it out of my mind even though I saw the film 2 months back! It was Madhav Apte’s dialogue which moves you-“Officer, ayusha gela ithay choutha seat var basun. Zara khidki var basu?” (Officer, I spent my lifetime sitting on the fourth seat. Can I please sit on the window seat?)
The film has three main characters-Madhav Apte, her wife Alka and the police inspector Subhash Anashpure (Sandesh Jadhav). The film is entirely on the shoulders of Sandeep Kulkarni who played Madhav Apte. What works is that he has a ‘common man’ look. He was totally terrific in two scenes-where he makes a confession to God and the climax. He was also there in Madhur Bhandarkar’s film Traffic Signal and the Marathi film Shwaas (which was nominated for Oscars). But in Dombivli Fast, he gives the best performance of his lifetime till date!
Shilpa Tulaskar does a great job, especially in her entry scene. However, she does a decent job in the emotional scenes as well. Sandesh Jadhav looked every inch like a tough police inspector. His authoritative voice and angry eyes is what makes his performance excellent. Dushyant Wagh and Srushti Bhoske played their parts well. The one who played Madhav Apte’s colleague was okay. Others were good.
Dialogues were the plus-points of the film. Some of the dialogues are truly unforgettable. Sanjay Pawar’s screenplay was gripping and manages to keep the interest alive.
Nishikant Kamat, who earlier wrote the screenplay of Hindi film Julie, did a great job as a director. He expressed a lot through this film and wonderfully succeeds in handling this out-of-the box concept.
Some of the best scenes of the film:
1. The first scene of the film (Brilliant!)
2. Alka’s entry
3. Prachi’s admission
4. The cold drink sequence (wonderful!)
5. Madhav in jail
6. Madhav attacking the corporator
7. Madhav making a declaration to God
8. The inspector explaining Madhav cannot be counted as a criminal
9. The climax (touching!)
On the whole, Dombivli Fast is a powerful film that deserves the highest appreciation. If only it didn’t had some flaws in the second half, it would had surely be termed as a ‘classic’. The film is already been remade in Tamil and a Hindi remake is soon going to hit the screens. Watch the film and strive to get a change in society-if you cant understand Marathi, no problem since the DVD comes with subtitles. Don’t miss it!
My rating-**** 1/2 out of 5!
ALSO DON’T MISS DOMBIVLI FAST’S DIRECTOR’S FIRST HINDI FLICK, MUMBAI MERI JAAN, WHICH IS RELEASING ON THIS FRIDAY, AUGUST 22. THE FILM IS BASED ON THE JULY 11, 2006 MUMBAI TRAIN BLASTS AND SEEMS IT WOULD BE AS POWERFUL AND THOUGHT-PROVOKING LIKE DOMBIVLI FAST. I AM NOT GOING TO MISS IT FOR ANYTHING; YOU ALSO DON’T MISS IT!
Click here to see the scene of Madhav Apte’s declaration to God: http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=ZeS_fXE8lHQ
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