Deool

What worked: The movie marks a fine performance by Girish. His character speaks louder than any other ones. Nana Patekar in a supporting role is fine as well. The concept and the theme of the movie is powerful, as a result the movie stands as an engaging watch. I think the movie is satirical and makes us question ourself and our actions, and our belief system. The movie is metaphorical and poetic in that sense What did not work The songs somehow disturbed the flow and the mood of the movie, making it a commercial entity. Also, the movie is a bit off somewhere at the middle, maybe it's got to do with the screenplay. Final verdict: recommended

Being an indian and maharashtrian person brought up surrounded by such religiious places I can totally relate myself to this story. The way Umesh has displayed his perspective definitely syncs with me. Perfect vision of how religion has become a business and how they play with people's mind. Must watch for people who are blindly religious

I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012. A central theme is what happens when commercialization and politics lay their mostly self serving hands on a religious event. The story opens with the alleged manifestation of a God figure, experienced by a young villager while lying asleep under a tree. He ignores friendly advice to keep it for himself, and a journalist becomes aware of the event. After that it all gets out of control. A temple is built, notwithstanding several wise men insisting that there are better ways to spend the building costs. More and more tourists visit the place. A holy city grows in the middle of the desert, totally overwhelming the once peaceful village.

We observe all this happening as a stepwise process. Clearly, most people take advantage of the growing prosperity, and prefer to ignore the negative side effects. They even conveniently forget that is was God who it was all about. All characters appearing in this film seem true to themselves, and behave natural in their assumed roles. Authenticity as it should be.

Ingenious script, and it works well for the whole 135 minutes running time. The film was never boring, in spite of its relatively slow pace. The latter blends in with the environment, as we see the villagers never do very much, and they seem to enjoy their uncomplicated lives. Also adding to my positive experience was that we hear wonderful music from time to time, that makes very good listening even to our European ears. And last but not least I admired the nice landscapes we get to see.

I don't think it is useful to summarize all characters and their relationships here. You see them appear at appropriate moments, without overwhelming the viewer, regardless of their vast number. The core theme is very obvious: the commercialization of religion in combination with how an insignificant event gets hijacked by politicians. Everyone seems to grow and prosper as a result, so who cares?

Finally, I'm not sure I understood the (hidden?) meaning of the final scene. We see a looter, visibly wounded, approach from a distance. In my opinion it suggests a 2nd coming. Maybe someone to clean out the whole godless mess that the village had become. But I'm speculating now.

I normally don't write movie reviews, but after watching this movie I was compelled to write one because this movie is a masterpiece. This movie nicely depicts village life in India where people are blindly following modern lifestyle without considering its negative effects. And importantly it shows how the politics and God's business is combined by few for material gains. It also shows peoples obsession with putting their kids in English medium schools. Movie also shows how there is no point in providing reservations based on gender as ultimately males only try to dominate. As in this movie there is a women Sarpanch 'head of village council', but she is under complete dominance of local male leader. Overall this movie does a good job in showing how the socioeconomic scenario is changing in Indian villages. Actors have done a good job, even led character got national award of 'Best actor'. This is a must watch movie.

I am a non maharastrian, but after staying here for 4-5 years, I started understanding marathi. I heard a lot from my colleagues about this movie. Then I decided to watch this movie. When I saw this movie, I was completely surprised with everything. Story, Story-telling, direction, acting and what not. Nana Patekar, Sonali Kulkarni, they are as usual superb actors. But it was Girish Kulkarni who clicked me. What an actor he is. I would never miss any of his future movies.

Overall, the bollywood movie makers should learn movie making and that to be without macho heros.

Excellent Job Team Deool.