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The Marathi movie dream run continues…
Baapya (loosely translating as a ‘grown-up man’) is a film whose title may suggest a comedy. But it actually deals with a serious issue that has almost no acceptance even today among the educated populace. Add a conversative fishing town in Maharashtra as location and the lack of awareness reaches new heights.
And what is this issue? Simply put, we are talking sex change!
Anya (Girish Kulkarni as the older adult) is a fisherman in coastal Konkan region is madly in love with local tomboy, Shailaja (Rajshri Deshpande, ditto), but Shailja is not sure if she wants marriage at all as she wants to become a doctor and is not somehow comfortable as a girl. However, her family likes Anya and they are married off. They also have a kid, Sanju (later Aaryan Menghji) and then Anya finances Shailaja’s admission to a Mumbai medical college.
But Shailaja soon files shockingly for a divorce and when the film opens, they have a grown-up son who is himself infatuated by collegemate Pranali (Shravani Abhang). Anya is married now to Vishakha (Devika Daftardar) and has two daughters through her, and Vishakha cares for Sanju as her own.
A property matter finds Anya needing to attend a legal meeting that will also involve his ex-wife, who he has never seen now for over a decade. On his best friend Shinde’s (Shrikant Yadav) advice, he agrees to go, though he is livid with Shailaja, who has also neglected Sanju. The other reason is that he will get a good amount of money that will solve his financial problems.
On the way to the government office, his bike breaks down and he is offered a lift by a man who calls himself Dr. Shailesh. To his consternation, he later finds that Dr. Shailesh is none other than his ex-wife Shailaja, who, having finally discovered her long-suppressed true identity as a man (Baapya) while doing her Medicine course, has gone in for a sex-change procedure.
Anya flounces out of the meeting, outraged and enraged, and his son refuses to have anything to do with his “mother”, who has neglected him for so long. Word spreads and Anya and his son become targets of social media ridicule and Sanju has to bear the brunt of being the son of “two fathers”. Vishakha tries to be a calming influence and Shinde tries his best to make Anya see sense. Dr. Shailesh also has to deal with his own family, including a bedridden grandmother, Aaji (Asha Joshi), who was the main driving force behind the Anya-Shailaja wedding.
What all happens next is what this highly entertaining and elevating film is all about. The script is light, fast-paced and resorts to the right amount of humor to balance the seriousness of the issue it is tackling, but in a very realistic way. A couple of permissible tropes like an accident and a death help in the unique resolution.
The film is brightly textured with the technical aspects such as the camerawork (Nandakishore Neelakanta Rao), production design (Santosh Phutane) and art direction (Rakesh S. Kadam and Eemanus Marathe) ensuring a smooth visual watch. The editing (Neel Natu) is cohesive and concise and the background score by Joel Crasto is expertly done. The songs are alright, especially Haldit maakhle and Kinare.
The performances are outstanding. Rajshri Deshpande deserves an award for her essay of Shailaja-turned-Shailesh. She is note-perfect as the confused woman, the concerned mother, the woman who cannot hurt her loving husband but is yet forced to seek her true identity. Girish Kulkarni’s Anya is a believable son of the sea, so to speak, and his understanding of his character is impeccable —for his understated turn he too deserves an award. His drunken scene at night is terrific, as is his sequence when his present wife wants to leave him.
As the hot tempered yet confused Sanju, Aaryan Menghji scores again after April May 99, that Marathi delight last year. Shrikant Yadav is excellent as Anya’s buddy Shinde, and Devika Daftardar as Vishakha is superb, especially in her well-thought of expressions and body language. Both the old women (Varsha Dandle and Asha Joshi) are lovely and the two kids Ira Parwade and Ira Alshi absolutely cute. In smaller but important roles. Gauri Kiran, Ananda Karekar and Shravani Abhang do well.
Not to be missed, this one. You take the movie home for its Entertainment Quotient alone, besides ruminating on its vital message.
Rating: ****
Working I Films’ Baapya Produced by: Muktal Telang Directed by: Sameer Tewari Written by: Sameer Tewari, Vikrant Katkar, Gaurav Relekar, Nikhil Palande, Manish Tiwari & Priti Nair Music: Joel Crasto, Abhijiet Chandrakala & Edo & Jo Starring: Rajshri Deshpande, Girish Kulkarni, Shrikant Yadav, Devika Daftardar, Aaryan Menghji, Varsha Dandle, Asha Joshi, Ila Parwade, Ira Alshi, Gauri Kiran, Ananda Karekar, Shravani Abhang & others
