Dhudgus (2008)
The movie “Dhudgus” was released on 21st November 2008. Five days later, Mumbai was attacked. The release could not be at a better time because the situation and the characters in the movie reflect the current social and political situation. It reflects the death of morality in today’s society.
“Dhudgus” which literally means chaos is a Marathi movie about a small unnamed village in Maharahstra. An army officer from the village marries a girl of another village. As it is a typical arrange marriage, the couple meet for the first time at their marriage. Even before they could start knowing each other, he is called back to the border.
Unfortunately he is killed in the war. Barely married a few days, she is called ill-luck by her husband’s family, her parents too don’t want to take responsibility of their daughter. The boy’s family doesn’t want her neither does her own family. She is shocked beyond measures to do anything. She had lost a husband she barely knew.
The Village head man and former head man wants to cash on the death of the soldier and try to get political mileage out of the situation. The widow of the soldier is not wanted by anybody when the state political leader announces a compensation of 25 Lac rupees along with a few acre of land for the widow of the solider.
What follows is chaos as people try to lay their hands on the money with each character trying to take advantage of the situation. Both family along with the village politicians try to lay claim on the compensation money. The village politicians try to outdo each other in building a statue and a school in the name of the soldier.
Suddenly the people lay bare their inner weaknesses as they try to outdo each other using whatever means possible. What exposes is the ugly side of human behavior.
As I sat there watching Dhudgus, I couldn’t help but compare it with the current situation in India. Politicians are trying to get mileage of the situation as the dead soldiers and policemen are used to promote their own interest. It seems Dhudgus was written for the situation after the attack on Mumbai.
Although the movie is about a death of a solider, it does not fall into the familiar trap of invoking love for the country nor does it tries to glamorize the death of the soldier. Infact the death is just the start of the whole drama.
Instead it concentrates on people and their mentality spicing the movie with dark humor. The movie does not have a hero or heroine, neither does it tries to make anyone a hero. Even the climax is subdued without being over melodramatic but highly effective. The director and story have managed to control the drama and tell a simple story. It does not make any comments neither passes any judgement but makes us think of what we have become.
Dhudgus set up in rural Maharahstra captures the essence of a typical Marahstrian village. After Valu, this was another songless movie which made quite an impact with its characters and observation of village life.
Dhudgus has many characters played by many veterans of Marathi Cinema and theatre. Standing among them notably are Sanjay Narvekar as the young headman of the village, Nirmiti Sawant as the only person who helps the young widow and Suhas Palshikar as the former headman of the village. Hemangi Kavi plays the young widow and plays it quite effectively. Other notable actors include Ravindra Berde, Avinash Narkar and Uday Sabnis.
The screen play is Girish Salvi and Ganesh Deshpande and they have kept it short. The director Rajesh Deshpande succeeds in making a great movie and hopefully commercially viable. Although it does succeed in attacking the fall of morality of the society.
Rating: 8.5/
Tags: Dhudgus, Marathi
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Tried to get more info to read more @ this film but not much available on the net. Infact your write-up is the first search result..
Barely nethg @ this in the media….
Thanks for this,Full2Faltu.
A few years back Marathi cinema was almost stagnant with some few B grade films being churned out but now things are getting better I think.
Some multiplexes in Mumbai are still showing the movie but unfortunately the only show of the day is at some odd hour like morning 10:30. It seems to be at the last leg in the theaters.
-Punds
i guess u r the only guy reviewing marathi films on PFC….u had mentioned 1 Gajendra Ahire’s movie earlier starring Ravi Kale…i hv been Ahire’s fan since “Not only Mrs Raut”….but havent seen much of him except for Shevri and Sari var sari….Btw thanks for reviewing Dhudgus….looking forward to more Marathi movie reviews
thnx a lot for this..i will surely try to cath up on it…it was promoted badly…i thought it will be another cheap comedy…the name also suggested such reactions…but now i will surely try to watch it in a theatre…
@Full2Faltu
tu mast lihile aahes, (nicely written,. thanks)
but I didn’t like the title of the film “Dhudgus” (Chaos)
sounds like old Laxmikant Berde, Ashok Saraf comedy films,.
anyway I’m going to watch it
Thanks for the review ….as every one is saying here the name dhudgus gives wrong impression….anyways will try and watch it….marathi cinema is really making some quality movies lately..i guess it started with shwas…the other day i saw a movie called “evdhasa Abhal” it is a simple movie with its heart at the right place depicting what a kid goes thru when his parents divorce…Pratriksha Lonkar did a very good job ..
Also there is this good movie called “kadachit” ..Ashwini Bhave after a long time…
@Full2Faltu — Thanks for the review. I can dare to watch it now…
@6 Anand –
‘Evdhasa AabhaL’ was good, however my fav from Bipin Nadkarni remains ‘UttarayaN’.
Watched ‘Tingya’.. I loved it…
It had a very real maharashtrian village flavor.
@6 Anand — along with a few quality movies there is also a spate of worst ‘quality’ ;-) films.
Tried to watch ‘Galgale nighale’, but couldn’t go beyond 15-20 mins. Was (sadly)surprised to see ‘Ketaki Thatte’ in Galgale.., i had seen her before that in the play ‘Samudra’ with Atul Kulkarni..
‘De Dhakka’ — the ‘Little Miss Sunshine’ ripoff was just as bad.
‘Jatra’ — most of ‘Kedar Shinde’ films after ‘Aga Bai Arrechha’ are BAD.
Dunno if anyone has attempted ‘Aaila Re’ — i would love if someone could watch it fully and write a ‘torture’ series article..
I just can’t…
@Sammy — Watch ‘PanDhar’ by Gaj Ahire..
It was for free viewing on bigflix.
Satya,
yes Uttarayan was very good …Nina Kulkarni was mind blowing there…she is a brilliant actor but very underused ….De dhaka was not that Bad ..but i am tired of Makarand Anaspure..he does the same damn thing in every movie …
you should watch Kadachit a very good movie….
Nice. I would like to watch more Marathi films, after I saw Maati Maay. I keep looking for Marathi films in the stores here in B’lore but haven’t had any luck.
Arthi
Marathi still has some crappy movies but an occasional movie does come along.
Sammy
Sahi Re Sahi was a good movie, pretty unusual stuff that challenges a typical Marathi convictions
Rasik
The problem with Dhudgus is that if it would have been promoted with the scenes from the second part of the movie, it would give away the story. The scene in the trailer happens withing the first 10-15 minutes only.
Shekhar
It does feel like the old Laxmikant movies like gholat ghol, bombabomb and such stuff but the title fits the movie perfectly
Anand
Yevdasaa Abhal is a marital drama and still have to see it. “Kadachit” is good. No songs, kind of thriller.
Satya
Kedar Shinde could not live up to the hype after “Aga Bai Arechya”. I could give you more example of rip-offs of hollywood-bollywood movies. I even saw a “50 First days” rip-off and even a “Chupke Chupke” ripoff. I have seen “Aaila Re”, except the nice twist in the climax, everything else is cheap comedy.
Anand
Uttarayan was good. I have its review on PFC
Makrand Anaspure has one style of acting which will taken over by mimicry artist 10 years from now.
Tushar
Maati maay I have to see. Its a more serious kind of movie and I will watch it for Atul Kulkarni. Also searching for “Kairi” by Amol Palekar. Haven’t found that either.
- Pundalik
The last Marathi film I saw was Devrai – because of Atul Kularni and Sonali K. Was a good one I remember..Me too want to see AK’s Kairi and also Kadachit. But somehow I’ve lost the interest for watching Marathi films frankly since some time. Got to catch up with some mentioned here now….thanks ppl..
Satya
could not find PanDhar on bigflix though for me Shevri is Gaj Ahire’s best so far
Full2faltu
i think u r talking about Sari var Sari..ya its pretty unconventional for a Marathi movie in terms of subject
Full2Faltu — Dhudhus baghitla ani awadla… thanks..
Sammy: Watch PanDhar now, here:
http://broadband.bigflix.com/bigflicks/faces/jsp/bfTrailer.jsp?titleId=434
Click ‘View Free’…
Movie is too good & that to it came while all other marathi movies go in same flow of mad laugh riots
This movie is different & I thought like watching 70s or 80s marathi movie with actors like Nilu Phule, Ashok Saraf
Too good movie