Sangeet Manapmaan Review: Iconic Marathi Play Comes To The Silver Screen With Dramaticism and Expressionism

RATING - ⭐⭐✨ 2.5/5*

Sangeet Manapmaan Review Movie Talkies:

Sangeet Manapmaan's story has lived for years and will continue to do so. Krishnaji Prabhakar Khadilkar introduced Manapmaan in 1911, and the story has transcended itself over the decades without credit. I can easily recall hundreds of old Hollywood, Bollywood, Tamil, and Telugu movies that have copied scenes from this original material, including modern mega blockbusters like Bahubali. Subodh Bhave decided to bring this heavyweight story to life again on the silver screen, only to achieve subpar results. Sangeet Manapmaan has some good moments, but it is dragged down by overly dramatic scenes and the utter expressionism that we witnessed in silent movies back in the 1910s-1920s, which we now see in daily soaps.

Sangeet Manapmaan is a great story that beautifully mixes multiple themes such as love, ego, jealousy, courage, arrogance, honor, revenge, and humiliation. It begins with a simple lower-class man, Dhairyadhar (Subodh Bhave), who finds an expensive ornament belonging to the princess, Bhamini (Vaidehi Parashurami) which he fails to return at that moment. The third side of this love triangle is formed by sub-commander Chandravilas (Sumeet Raghavan), who loves Bhamini and wants to marry her. Bhamini rejects his proposal, and the next moment her father suggests that she should consider Dhairyadhar, who has recently been taken as a soldier in the commander's army. High on the ego and arrogance of her beauty and wealth, Bhamini becomes furious with her father's suggestion and insults Dhairyadhar's mother. After calming down, when she goes to apologize to Dhairyadhar, he insults her in rage. Bhamini now must take revenge on Dhairyadhar by exposing his secret agenda, and for that, she disguises herself as a kitchen maid named Vanmala. Will she be proven right?

Those who have seen the original play know that Manapmaan is more about Vanmala than Bhamini because it is only after becoming Vanmala that she realizes what Bhamini lacked. The first half hour of the film is filled with over-expressionism that does not suit modern cinematic standards. After an hour or so, things start to improve, and then the intermission comes at just the right time. The second half feels much better than the first half, but the finale is again dragged out and overly dramatic. For a moment or two, I couldn't believe that Subodh Bhave, who directed the masterpiece Katyaar Kaljat Ghusali, could make so many directorial mistakes while adapting another iconic musical play. He is not the only one to blame, but we must all accept that the story has become outdated for today's audience. Bhave was allowed to make those mistakes since the story was dated, but he could have modernized a few elements, which he failed to do. Even though it has lovable moments, one can't overlook the overly dramatic treatment of the narrative. Additionally, the overuse of sound design and background score further detracts from the viewing experience. In short, it's half a movie and half daily soap material.

Subodh Bhave is such a lucky fella! First, he gets to portray the female role of Bhamini while playing Balgandharva on screen, and now he portrays Dhairyadhar in the movie, opposite the female role made memorable by Balgandharva. In my opinion, Dhairyadhar is the true hero of this tale. I'd like to disagree with a large portion of the audience, who have portrayed Bhamini as the true hero over the years. Dhairyadhar is smart, brave, and kind. He hasn't done a bad thing in his life, unlike every other character in the story. Bhave portrays him with honesty, but it's nowhere near his own standard. He played Sadashiv much better than this. Vaidehi Parashurami has a meaty role, but I can't really imagine anyone else playing Bhamini and Vanmala after knowing that Balgandharva has made it memorable with his elegance, beauty, and voice, despite being a man. Nevertheless, Vaidehi deserves a few words of appreciation for her dedication and sweetness in portraying this character. I liked her more as Vanmala than Bhamini, just as the writer envisioned while creating this character. Many actresses have played similar roles in countless rom-coms, screwball comedies, and such, so there wasn't really much substantial to carry. Sumit Raghavan and Upendra Limaye's negative roles stand out much better on many occasions, which is a significant achievement. Neena Kulkarni, Nivedita Saraf, Archana Nipankar, Shailesh Datar, and others have done decently.

Sangeet Manapmaan lacks the musical magic of Katyaar, despite the same team. Thanks to Hrutu Vasant and some songs like Nahi Me Bolat, Mala Madan Bhase, and Shura Me Vandile from the original play that keep it afloat. The new original numbers should have been better. In the play, the songs are sung by the actors, so they cannot engage with the moving narrative. Here, playback makes it easy for Bhave and Parashurami to have their own moments of romance, love, dreams, and action. The action sequences here are poorly designed and fail to impress. In some scenes, the visual effects look grand and great, but the rest are strictly average. Shankar Mahadevan appears in a cameo and brings his magic yet again. I had high expectations from Subodh Bhave as a director, especially after what he achieved in his debut, Katyaar, but unfortunately, Sangeet Manapmaan didn't live up to my expectations. It's an okay project, but "okay" is not enough when you are adapting an iconic play, especially with such a good team and excellent production value. There has been a shift in audience preferences as well as our filmmaking since 2016, and the results are apparent to everyone. Today's audience doesn't really want to see any musicals. Katyaar got lucky that it came during the golden phase of Marathi cinema, and moreover, it was a great film. I doubt Manapmaan will come anywhere close to that!

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