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When such movies connect, they often do so on a massive scale: Hindi cinema lovers of the 1970s will remember the resonance created by Jai Santoshi Maa (1975) and Shirdi Ke Sai Baba (1977). The Marathi outings Deoolband (2015) and the recent Deoolband 2 and the Gujarati Laalo are further examples of this.
Sammarth, too, is a devotional on Swami Ramdas Samarth, saint, philosopher, poet, mystic and spiritual master. He was a devotee of Lord Ram and Hanuman.
Vishwambhar (Pushkaraj Chirputkar) lives in a city happily with wife Savitri (Sharvari Jamenis), who is also a working woman, and son Samarth (named after the saint, played by Ayaan Darekar), a football enthusiast in his school. Fed up of the chaos and stresses of his life, Vishwambhar, almost overnight, decides to leave it all and settle in his village, resorting to discourses on Swami Ramdas Samarth and his glories. His wife willingly supports him, but the son resents this as he has to quit school, his friends and his football and cannot understand the simple life his father is now following.
When Samarth’s maternal uncle (Prasad Khandekar) comes visiting, and suggests to Samarth’s parents that the child live with him in the city and get educated, the boy is overjoyed even if the parents reluctantly let him go. Mama is married but has no issue and raises him like his own child. Samarth does miss his mother, though his resentment against his father remains.
Back in the village, Vishwambhar is content, and from the children who came to his cottage initially, has now extended his followers even to adults. Among them is Samarth’s close friend in that limited span, Goku, and a girl, Suma, who is devoted to the couple. They are now grown-ups.
The scene shifts to the go-getter and arrogant grown-up Samarth (Bhushan Pradhan), who climbs rapidly up the corporate ladder as a civil engineer. He even smokes, drinks and has a disregard for Samarth’s teachings. Mama too is angry with him when he defies his parents on a visit to their village, and an angry Samarth leaves his home too as he is now self-sufficient.
When Samarth’s mother passes away, his father does not inform the errant son. But soon, when he falls ill, Vishwambhar instructs Suma to hand over a notebook to Samarth after his death.
Samarth, hugely successful, is soon framed for a collapsed bridge. Devoid now of job and property, he is remorseful and has no place to go other than his village, where he comes to know that his parents are no more. He is given the notebook by Suma, and defending him in court is childhood friend, Goku, now a lawyer. And thanks to Swami Ramdas Samarth’s magic, a new era dawns in Samarth’s life.
This predictable saga is overfilled with devotional music (pleasant by itself but distracting in its quantum) and stretches into 146 minutes with melodrama, old-fashioned villainy and everything dating back to bygone family dramas. There is not a shred of modern flavor and the second half becomes tiring after the plodding first half.
The actors are sincere, with, ironically, the supporting actors standing out: As Goku, both Shirjay Deshpande (especially) as the child, and Hardik Joshi as the adult, shine, and so do the two Suma’s (Abhidnya Mathvad and later Isha Keskar). Prasad Khandekar as Mama and Nikhil Raut as Marne impress.
Pushkaraj Chirputkar is sincere as Vishwambhar but Sharvari Jamenis strictly alright as Savitri. The rest of the cast is so-so, a term for ‘average’!
Sadly, one cannot say the same about the script and direction. Faith may be one thing, but Vishwambhar surely goes more than a tad overboard. Not only does he not care for his son when he takes his drastic decision to renounce worldliness, but he even makes a offer to his wife that he will not mind her remaining in the city! The devoted wife (symbolically named ‘Savitri’) is the epitome of foolish devotion to him and is again uncaring about her son’s basic happiness.
In actual Hinduism, the route to God does not traverse through ascetism but through fulfilling worldly responsibilities towards one’s family. And that is where and how the film loses that vital connect and becomes an aimlessly moralistic melodrama. There are exaggerated traits given to the son, who would have been a better and more rounded individual had he gone through a normal upbringing from caring parents.
And so, the core wisdom of Swami Ramdas Samarth’s teachings is also lost on the way. Surely his insightful doctrines did not need such maudlin stories to be given to the world—in 2026.
Rating: **
A3 Events & Media Service’s Sammarth Produced by: Ravindra Pathak Directed by: Yogesh Phulphagar Written by: Ravindra Pathak, Ashutosh Bhosekar & Manas Layal Music: Kedar Pandit & Rohit Shyam Raut Starring: Pushkaraj Chirputkar, Bhushan Pradhan, Sharvari Jamenis, Hardik Joshi, Isha Keskar, Prasad Khandekar, Rajan Bhise, Yatin Karyekar, Dissha Pardeshi, Nikhil Raut, Ayaan Darekar, Shirjay Deshpande, Abhidnya Mathvad & others
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