The heart’s again, like in many movies, in the right place. The protagonists, a retired postmaster, Anant Bhalerao (Ashok Saraf) and his ambitious wannabe-star grandson, Aditya (Sankarshan Karhade) are the pivots around whom the story revolves, with a vital angle of Gayatri (Sakhi Gokhale) coming in as Anant’s colleague’s daughter, who the two men happen to meet while returning home one day.
Gayatri is a passionate social worker, while Anant, a devoted grandfather obsessed with Aditya, cares so deeply for him that he often goes wherever he is working with the latter’s favorite lunch, varan-bhaat (dal and rice), embarrassing the younger man.
Their relationship remains very intimate, and the two form each other’s emotional universe. Aditya is struggling, getting very little and insignificant work and his grandfather, a devotee of Lord Dattatreya, suggests that they visit Narsobawadi, a place of pilgrimage, for divine blessings. They are accompanied by Gayatri, but Anant has a mishap there and gets restricted to his bed. Aditya has received a call—his first for a major role, and he must refuse it as he has to look after Anant and cannot leave town for the shoot’s location.
Gradually, his frustration builds up, and he even berates his grandfather about h. What happens next?
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While the film has completely relatable characters, it falters in the script, which is both slow and uneven. Certain aspects do not make sense in the way they are shown, and the melodramatic pre-climax does not leave a pleasant taste in the mouth and should have been changed totally. In a film on such a strong bond between grandfather and grandson, this was not needed. And after that, the last sequence looks very manufactured instead of spontaneous.
Sakhi Gokhale is excellent as Gayatri, and so is Yogesh Shirsat as Mithun. Whenever she appears, Kavita Lad steals the show as the absolutely cold-hearted ‘Aatya’ (paternal aunt). Sankarshan himself is a weak spot as an actor because of his own writing. He not only looks too old to be an aspiring lead actor but also not charismatic enough to be a future star.
Ashok Saraf remains the wunderkind—he is plain fabulous. For a man who has made a career for almost six decades largely as a funnyman, his portrayal here of a very affectionate, emotional and single-minded old man is deserving of at least one award.
Mahesh Limaye’s direction and camerawork are okay and good respectively, while the technical side is on par. The music also works, and Rahul Deshpande fabulously renders Avinash-Vishwajeet’s Digambara Digambara, an outstanding composition.
Rating: *** (A full star extra for Saraf)
Panorama Studios’ Aadi Anant Produced by: Kumar Mangat Pathak, Abhishek Pathakk, Murali Chattwani, Sameer Hampi,Mahesh Limaye & Aniket Marathe Directed by: Mahesh Limaye Written by: Sankarshan Karhade Music: Avinash-Vishwajeet Starring: Ashok Saraf, Sankarshan Karhade, Sakhee Gokhale, Aarav Aeer, Yogesh Shirsat, Kavita Lad, Vaidehi Parshurami, Nivedita Saraf, Shrirang Godbole & others
