SOON LADKI SASARCHI

Another mother-in-law tale

Afterall it is what the Marathi film viewers wanted to see all these years. The encounters and love-hate relationship between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law! Barring a few honoorable exceptions only this kind of theme has done well recently. And there is nothing wrong if Jajiraj Vaswani brings out one more edition of in-law relationships on the screen. Vishwanath (ashok Saraf) is happy to have his bosom friend Ram's (Sudhir Dalvi) daughter, the virtuous Maya (Aishwarya Narkar) as daughter-in-law. However, his snobbish social worker-cum-politician wife, Rajani (archana Patkar) does not approve of the wedding because it does not bring in any wealth. While Rajani keeps playing the proverbial mother-in-law to the hilt, Vishwanath attempts to offer solace, but in vain. Their son and even the servants have deep regard for Maya. She even sacrifies herself to save the life of her brother-in-law. Fortunately, the viewer is spared the scenes of torture of the daughter-in-law, that seem customary in such tales. An antakshari sequence offers much required relief. The songs included aptly reflect the characteristics of the roles. The film successfully adopts elements from mega-hits like Maherchi Sadi, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun and others like Hirva Chuda Suvasinicha. It even has the wonderdog, Tuffy from HAHK. The film offers one more treacherous and arrogant mother-in-law (archana Patkar) and an equally sustainable daughter-in-law (Aishwarya Narkar). Soon Ladki Sasarchi is a tremendously lengthy film, some 17,000 ft ie. Almost 3,000 ft more than an average Marathi film. But none seems to be complaining, judging from the good response to the film at the five centre sin Maharashtra where it is been released. And unless the film had that length and as many as eleven songs, who would compare it with HAHK! As in previous films, director VK Naik is also the editor of the film. Chandrashekhar Joshi

NAVASACHE POR

WHAT'S HAPPENING? Baiscally Girish Ghanekar is an ad-mam, who is his leisure, makes Marathi films along untrodden lines, Not cinema of the arty or parallel kind, but outright commercial ventures with a difference. All his films are comedies and have won both box-office success and critical acclaim. Ghanekar's latest is Navasache Por, a family theme. It presents the story of a child, Guru, who is considered the reincarnation of his grandfather (Yashwant Dutt) whose death coincided with Guru's birth. Guru's father Dutta (Ramesh Bhatkar) and his sister Devaki (usha Naik) are fascinated by the fame and money attached to the event and they do not bother to detach Guru from her mother Shanta (alka Kubal). Shanta undergoes agonies of separation. She is helped by Dutt's brother, Waman (Sanjay Narvekar) but in vain. Although the theme is unsual, the prolonged initial build-up of the story comes in the way of the theme creating the desired impact on the viewer. The well-crafted frames with, Guru reflect the filmmakers. Viewpoint buyt the conventional ending leads to confusion--one is left wondering just what the director wish to say. Usha Naik is marvellous as a new kind of villain. But the real attraction of the film is wondergirl Rui Jadhav. Ghanekar's discovery is likely to go far. She has played Guru with utmost intensity and had aptly bagged the award for best child artiste from the state government. Sanjay Narvekar should prove to be the poor man's Nana Patekar!. CJ