Review : Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy
Finally I did it, yes I watched Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy, the move which was in news for being one of the Marathi’s big budget. The one which overtook Hit Machine Akshay Kumar’s film Tasveer 8 by 10.
Me Shiavji Raje Bhosale Boltoy (I Shivaji Speaking), with Mahesh Manjerkar acting as Shiavji. I do not know who whether they had casting director, but casting an overweight Mahesh as Shivaji.was one of the biggest mistake.
Anyway the theme of movie has been there since time innumerable, a man against system. No matter how much Mahesh may deny that it is not inspired. The movie is Lage Raho Munnabhai meets Rang De Basanti. But it does not have simplicity of LRM or the appeal of RDB.
The story begins with Sachin Khedkar (Dinkar Rao Bhosale), who is working in a bank as clerk, cleary this movie does not stop taking inspiration from Hindi movies but Marathi Movies Like Dombivili Fast.He is Married and Has a son who is aspiring for engineering college and daughter who wants to be an actress in Bollywood movie.
Dinkar Rao stays in an Ancestral Bungalow at Ville Parle in Mumbai, a part of which is rented to North Indian and a Muslim. Clearly producers have to satisy every community.
A Builder eyes Dinkar Rao’s house where he want to build a tower. He offers Dinkar Rao, 50 Lakhs, a santro car and a bungalow in Badlapur (Badlapur is a far flung suburb in Mumbai) but Dinkar does not accept it.
His son seeks admission in an engineering college of his dad’s friend but is turned down and asked to pay money for the seat. His daughter is aspiring Bollywood star.
The first 30 minutes of movies shows how Dinkar is insulted, in a shopping mall, in a fish market I guess the discrimination showed can happen to any of us not because one is form particular community.
When the daughter goes for Audition, the director with Sindhi sounding surname rejects , the reason being her surname is down market.
Dinakar during this period feel ashamed himself to be a marathi , in his sleep he questions why he was born as a maharashtrian, to great marathi leaders in past.
At this moment Shivaji Arrives and guides him, from here on he takes guidance of Shivaji and fights backs, the corrupt bmc officers, the greedy builder, politicans how we overcomes the crisis and get his redemption from the crux of the movie.
The movie does not work on many levels, one of them being a problem with the film is heavy duty dialogues, the director should have understood once you have made the point he should move on.
The scene where Dinakar asks Great leaders of Maharashtra from Past , why he was born as Maharashtrian and he is ashamed, this could have done beautifully and could created impact in fact we have to suffer bad CG and over-dramatic dialogues.
The movie is clearly written in such a way that, the target audience will clap and whistle at dialogues.
The other problem is time movie takes to establish Dinakar’s drudgery and his humiliation after some point gets repetitive. The discrimination he faces is not faced due to he is from particular community, but he is from middle class.
The director feels that surname of daughter is down market, I think the director does not know a concept called Screen Name.
The son has secured good marks, so he should be able to get into any good college, why goes to private college is also not explained.
The movie may not make any direct references to any community directly for the so called problem faced by marathi people., but there are some references which is not tasteful for other community.
The scene where Sachin gifts Bike to his Son, the son makes derogatory remark about north Indian who are on rent in there house.
The scene where Daughter remarks that Marathi Girls show there back to marathi film and show their back in South Films.I felt this was also uncalled for , as an actor or actress, one has right to work in any language, one does not have limit in one language.
Infact Mahesh and Sachin have acted in many south Indian films.
The overnight change of bmc corrupt officers ,because a speech by Dinakar on maharashtrian pride, does not convince me.
The scene where Sachin comes to Siddarath Jadhav’s house and says that he has kidnapped Siddarth’s son and the scene after that Siddarath turns to a new leaf in lift off from Ghatak.
The movie should have picked up pace after introduction of Shivaji , but the movie meanders for 16 long long reels.
The movie stereotypes lot of other community , sad when the movies is a story of fighting against stereotyping a community.
The move first establishes the sorry state of the Maharashtrian , but later on Sachin at any point of tome list of names of Maharashtrian who are achievers giving a feeling that Dinakar was not victimized as he was Marathi, but due to his class or simple he did not have the desire to move up or did not have talent.
The movie has an item number (Koli Dance), which was unnecessary.
The Scene between Sachin and His friend , in college before pre-climax ,when once again seeks admission and use mobile is inspired from Mahesh’s own film Virudh’s climax.
His behaviour of friend is totally unconvincing , because the time he comes to ask admission again,Dinakar Rao has become a sensation, why should he be in his wrong book,
The scene involving Sachin and His Family being kidnapped is a big let down .
The movie’s climax was a big letdown, the movie begins with one thing and looses it’s point.If Dinakar is popular with people, why would the people not want him to stand up elections.
The fight in climax where Sachin uses Sivaji’s Sword and jumps like our prabhujee with sword I could not help myself laughing.
Sachin carries movie on his shoulders on his whole.The acting by rest of the cast is okay.Mahesh is a miscast, and hams all the way.The dialogue may be a strong point for the target audience but, in totality, it hampers the movie.
The production value is above average , but cinematography strictly okay,feels like watching a serial.The background score is loud.
The movie goes everywhere, instead of focusing the main point, one should be proud of one’s root.
The movie is just about average, with some average moments.The major reason which movie did not work for me, was the situation sjown are real but solution shown is simplistic and not workable in real life,
Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy.
The reason the movie was such a big grosser and still running is
- Excellent Marketing Strategy by Producers.
- The Multiplex Strike.
- The Summer Holidays.
- Current Political Situation.
Tags: Lage Raho Munnabhai, Marathi, Marathi Film Review, Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy, Rang De Basanti
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
Cinemausher…thanks for the detailed analysis…Very detailed indeed…would skip this one and hope for more good Marathi films to hit the screens…
Cinemauser: I agree with all your points…
Ram V: It is not a serious movie…it has many light moments…so if u want to watch a movie for time pass i will recommend this to you…movie is much much better than movies like paying guest, rohit shetty movies, bhatt movies…
My parents saw this and did not like it. Just as you pointed, they too felt that it was heavily inspired in a bad tatste from Dombivilli Fast, except it goes hay-wire later..
But the good thing is..atleast Marathi Industry is getting some hits after quite a long time. Its time for other good Marathi movies to be made.
I Shivaji speaking (lol) is pretty much a critic-review proof movie. It is in the real sense MASS entertainment.
“the situation sjown are real but solution shown is simplistic and not workable in real life”
Situations are real?? are you sure?? the first 20 mins, every other person calls Sachin Khedkar a GHAATI, even some marathi people. This cant be real. So, when the situations aren’t real, forget thinking about the solution.
Saying that, I still liked the dialogue, when Shivaji Maharaj tells Sachin Khedkar that “No one has stopped the marathi manoos from setting up a restaurant, no one has stopped him from starting any kind of business, why soes he have to blame the gujjus and the annas”. Now this piece of dialogue was very relevant!!
Anyways, the casting of Shivaji Maharaj was completely laughable. the shots of Mahesh Manjerejar on the horse were hilarious. The CG too was ridiculous in those shots.
But then the movie executed the ‘incite the audience and then payoff with kickass action and dialogiues’ formula perfectly. The first 20 mins built up the angst and then payoff pe payoff. The public had a gala time chanting ‘jai shivaji jai bhavani’ in the theater. It was a like one summer blockbuster
.
@Ram V
If you love the whole movie going experience, with whistles, hoots and chants, then you should definetly go. But if you are more concerned about the movie and its philosophies, SKIP it.
But I doubt if the movie would still be houseful. It in its 10th week i guess.
I watched the film from an absolute film-goer POV, rather than being from Maharashtra, or knowing the inherent political stand-off first hand. Its a MASS film, and works brilliantly from that angle, at least for the target audience.
.
the film has its own weak moments, but the fact that it has further accentuated the reviving marathi film-industry in a big way can not be disputed.
.
choice of mahesh as shivaji – maharaj was obvious coz its his home production, and he wudnt have let go of such a golden opportunity to play the undisputedly most-liked marathi icon in its entire history.
thanks for the honest review.
Thanks Ram,Anand and Uddhav.
@OM,
Yes, i hope that marathi industry does not get lure into easy and again start to make trash.The movie may be doing well for now, but i do not think this movie will be in public memory after 5 years.
This movie is Gadar of Marathi Cinema.
@Gaurang,
Bang on, the intentions of producers were not to make a good movie, but to milk out political situation and make money out of it.
@Jha,
My only problem with industry is why the industry people are hell bent only on promoting themselves or there sons and daughters even if it is a miscast.
Yes it has revived, but i hope we get to see good Marathi films this year.
cinemausher i was goona watch this movie but ur review is full of spoilers.paisa bach gaya.
This movie is Gadar of Marathi Cinema.
what do u mean by this?
kindly explain
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
@Atheist,
Go watch Gadar, you will get my point.
Well I’m yet to watch the movie but will still do so at the first given oppurtunity simply out of curiosity.Cinemausher you have certainly gone into the layers very well indeed, but would have also liked it if you could have pointed its strengths in particular.I guess Mahesh also comes across as Shiavaji very well in the getup.cannot comment on the performance as of now.All said and done its nice to see a Marathi movie doing stupendously well.
Just seen this movie yesturday night. There might be some fall backs in ti but it Rocks in totality.
@Sethu,
i also watched it out of curiosity, but alas i was disappointed.Catch it on dvd.
THIS IS VERY ENCOURAGING MOVIE TO ALL MARATHI PEOPELS, SHOWING THE GREATNESS OF KING “CHATTRAPATI SHIVAJI MAHARAJ”
@Rajesh,
Okay sir