A shield (dhaal) is made in the year 1757 by a Maratha king in the memory of his soldier Somajirao who lost his life fighting for his country. The shield made in gold thus becomes historical and is passed down the generations of the king. But to avoid it getting into wrong hands at the time of the Mughal and British rules, during one such generations, a queen decides to keep the shield in a museum for safe custody. And after 250 years Sayajirao, who the dhaal belongs to now, decides to bring it out during the Ganapati festival at his wada in the village. Amidst high security, the shield is brought out of the museum but doesn’t reach its destination as Guru, a high-tech thief, kills the guards and steals it. From then on, the dhaal travels to different hands and there are a lot of twists and turns filled with humour along with some serious moments.

TECHNICAL EXPERTISE
Since Vishwas Chitra Productions has been in the filmmaking business for over 75 years now there has been a lot of expectations from Uladhaal, which is the debut vehicle of Aditya Sarpotdar. And the young director has done a commendable job of handling a big-budget film of the actor with a multi-starcast and shooting the film on almost 140 locations in India and a song in Mauritius.

Though Makarand Anaspure doesn’t pass of as Sayajirao, the Maratha leader, because of his physical leanness, he has done a commendable job of moving from his image of a comic actor and playing a serious role. Subodh Bhave as Guru, the thief with the cowboy look, passes muster. Bharat Jadhav is, as usual, funny as Babu, the petty thief whose counterpart is the sensible Vicky, played by Ankush Chaudhary. They are supported by Aditi Sarangdar as Neha and Madhura Welankar as Preeti. Siddharth Jadhav as Sikander, the Hyderabadi kabaadiwala evolves laughter. Nirmal Pandey as Tony, a film producer and a hotel owner, looks ferocious as per his character and Mahesh Manjrekar makes an appearance in an “item” number in the film.

Cinematographer Sanjay Nair’s camera captures the moments of the film effectively. Ajay-Atul’s music score is another highlight. The introduction song in the film is worth a watch as the catchy devotional song features the Shivagarjana, a musical troupe from Pune, that is known for their dhol and tasha. The entire troupe of 30 musicians has performed in sync in the film. Uladhaal is made on a budget of two-and-a-half crores and is touted as the first ever-costliest Marathi film that has been shot in places like Goa, Kolhapur, Bhor, Pune, Mumbai and Mauritius. The film has been brought out by Video Palace.

Verdict
One star for Aditya Sarpotdar’s flawless direction. One for Ajay-Atul’s fantastic musical score and one for the performances by the main starcast.