Simhasan

Simhasan ("throne") was a gem of a movie set in the seventies in Maharashtra, against the backdrop of a political struggle for Chief Ministership. The story is told through the eyes of a journalist who witnesses the now-cliche nexus between politicians and criminals. The black-and-white treatment made the realism even more believable. The dialog was also very realistic: famous line: aamchya maage adusashta ahet, adusashta -- sixty-eight!

The movie movie offers the best story and brilliant actors. This is one of my all time favorite. The story revolves around Indian politics and its effect on common man.

As pointed out by another reviewer, it really is a gem of a movie. While Bollywood was waking up to the genre of hard-hitting political films, this film comes out trumping all of them, as well as the rest of the Marathi movies. The cinematography, music, dialogues and the closely-knit story having an array of strong realistic characters, portrayed by the most gifted Marathi actors who were fledglings at that time-Mohan Agashe, Nana Patekar and some others as well as the senior ones-Arun Naik, Dr. Shreeram Lagoo complete this compelling and tragic portrayal of the political scenario.

It amazes me how the film entrains so many themes-coalition governments and resulting instability, trade union strikes, new- found socialism for governments of the day, the degrading morality among people, dalit atrocities, urbanisation problems faced in Mumbai, etc. and still manages to spin a truly moving tale.

This movie is a must-watch for anyone who intends to understand India and its political equations.

This is one of the best movie on politics in Marathi. I am not comparing with hindi because hindi movies based on politics are nowhere as compare to regional languages movies . Actually it deserves 10+

Over the period of last 12 years, whenever I wanted to compare the acts between top actors in India, I always viewed this film. There are so many amazing incidents shot for this film which can still be related to the current political situation in India (at least in Maharashtra). The script by Tendulkar is a gem, so is the base written by Sadhu.

If you want to have a look at this film with a political mindset, please read some history of Maharashtra politics from 60s and 70s. Also, try to watch some documentaries regarding the drought conditions in Maharashtra during that time. The kind of corruption and arrogant politics was played that time is brilliantly reflected in the film. This was the same time when leftist became some what stronger in Maharashtra and the rise of shiv sena was on the page. The importance of free journalism and its political handling is shown in a pun way, which is very well presented. Technology changed, so did people but the Maharashtra govt and politicians are still act the way Jabbar Patel could portray them in the movie.

Artistic way: acting is top notch, not a single exception. I think, Patel made sure to have as many takes as it take to get a satisfactory outcome. Lagu, Dubhashi, Sarpotdar, Phule, Toradmal and almost all other top theater personalities from that era were so natural in their acting that I have not seen such a character personification from no other movie. Director might have released this movie as a fiction but i think the actors also knew that this is a non- fiction and they studied the character of the politicians/union leaders/reports they are portraying. I just wished they could have shown some visual activity from Delhi, but I think it was emergency era or just after that and wanted to remain on a safer side from strong hand of central politicians (at least for censor clearance).

The script and dialog writing is one of the most important part of this movie. Nowhere in the movie you feel academic language or pune-based Marathi language taking over the movie. The justice has been done to most of the regional characters including the situation there.

Dialogue of Dubhashi: "Tumha aristocratic porinna..." well, a kinda universal generalization at its best... some of the monologues are pretty superior in every way.