Ek Daav Dhobi Pachhad is the tale of Dadasaheb Dange who, as his name suggests, is the dada of his village. He is known for his illegal activities and doesn’t allow anything good to happen in the village. One chance meeting with Hema, his long-lost love and Dadasaheb does a self-introspection and is ready to go through a transformation to win her back. He hires a teacher to improvise on his diction and appoints an ‘international’ dress designer in order to look presentable as Hema criticises him for his language and looks. Meanwhile, he learns that his only daughter Sulakshana is pregnant and in love with his enemy, the opposition leader’s son who has just-returned from the US. Another girl, Sayali, claims that she is Dadasaheb’s daughter and falls in love with his accountant who, in turn, cheats Dadasaheb of his money. Amidst a lot of chaos and fun moments, Dadasaheb is happy to know that Sulakshana lied to him about her pregnancy so that she can visit US.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE:
It is after four decades of entertaining the audience with his performances that Ashok Saraf is venturing into film production. Unfortunately, the film is a take-off on the Mithun Chakraborty film Don Muthuswami, which in turn was a complete rip-off of the Sylvester Stallone starrer, the English comedy Oscar. But the adaptation to Marathi nativity has been done excellently with the two heroes Prasad Oak and Subodh Bhave using the Nagpur and Kolhapur diction effectively and raising a few laughs. Madhura Velankar has nothing to do but look beautiful. Ashok Saraf is the soul of the film, first as the dada and then as a silent lover and the frustrated father as well as the new and improved Dadasaheb Dange. Thankfully, he has not restored to his old style of overacting. In this film he has a restrained performance yet bringing in the laughter at the required places. This is Zee Talkies’ first Marathi film.

RATING:
One star for Ashok Saraf’s restrained performance and one star each for Prasad Oak and Subodh Bhave’s acting.