College Blues
Film: Classmates (Marathi with English subtitles)
Cast: Ankush Chaudhary, Sai Tamhankar, Sonalee Kulkarni
Directed by: Aditya Sarpotdar
Duration: 2 hrs 40 mins
Rating: * *
On one hand there are some outstanding offbeat films being
made in Marathi and on the other, there are the crowd pleasers and middle of
the road films. Classmates directed by Aditya Sarpotdar is in the latter
category and this film is a remake of the Malayalam film of the same name made
in 2006.
While that film was a huge box office success, surely we
could have done without a Marathi remake of the same.
Classmates is one of those college campus films that don’t
really go anywhere for a long time, the time that it takes to establish the
setting is too long. A bunch of guys and girls meet after ages at their college
reunion where one of them dies under mysterious circumstances. In flash back we
are told about their background – Satya (Ankush Chaudhary) is a good Samaritan
but his affiliations are with a dubious political party. Appu (Sai Tamhankar)
has a soft corner for him but can’t spell it out, he meanwhile likes Aditi
(Sonalee) who has political affiliations with another party. Anni (Siddharth
Chandekar) is their friend who loves music while Rohit ( Sachit Patil) wants to
stay away from politics but gets dragged into it.
The first half just meanders around without really getting
anywhere, the college scenes and gags are also a drag. The film also falls in
the trap of the song and dance routine trying to ape Bollywood films.
While the basic story had the potential to be a taut
thriller, it is frittered away by becoming predictable and long drawn.
Published in The Navhind Times on 18th January 2015
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