City Woes
Film: Balkadu
Cast: Umesh
Kamat, Neha Pendse
Directed by:
Atul Kale
Duration: 2
hrs 40 mins
Rating: * 1
/ 2
Meant to be
a tribute to the late Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackrey, Balkadu is a film that
grates on your nerves and worsens as it progresses. Even without going into the
political merit of his ideology, purely as a cinematic experience it falls
flat, and hard. Worse, the politics of
it is not going to win any new admirers either for the manner in which it has
been presented.
Santosh
Manjrekar’s Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale
Boltoy did a much better job of addressing the issues faced by the Marathi manoos in Mumbai, this is just one track
in your face propaganda without taking a 360 degree view of the matter.
A cross
between Lage Raho Munnabhai where the protagonist sees Mahatma Gandhi, the hero
Balkrishna (Umesh Kamat) hears the voice of Bal Thackrey and like Shivaji Raje Bhosle Boltoy it becomes
the inner voice that urges him to stand up for the Marathi man in Mumbai and
reclaim it from outsiders. As a result he fights against builders, school
principals and just about anyone who doesn’t speak Marathi. If you don’t
comply, you get a Balkadu (a bitter
medicine) which is a form of a threat.
If at all
there is any valid point to be made, it is presented in a way which is far from
convincing. It just goes hammer and tongs and plays the Marathi card in a way
which few will agree with. In between there is some romance as well, Neha
Pendse plays a television producer who also happens to be his childhood
sweetheart.
The issue of
migration, language and the changing demographics are much more complex than
the way it is presented here. When there is a ‘live’ television debate in the
end, you hope that the screenplay and dialogues will muster up something
sensible, but alas that is not to be.
Just
presenting Bal Thackery’s cartoons in the film would have been a better tribute
and an insight into the mind of the most powerful man that lived in the city in
of Mumbai.
Published in The Navhind Times on 25th January 2015
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