By: Keyur Seta

Director: Chandrakant Kulkarni

Production: Puja Chhabria for White Swan Productions

Writers: Ajit Dalvi and Prashant Dalvi

Cast: Sachin Khedekar, Mahesh Manjrekar, Rishikesh Joshi, Ashwini Bhave, Pushkar Shrotri, Anand Ingle

Music: Ashok Patki and Mangesh Dhakde

Genre: Political Drama

Rating: * * ½

Story Outline: The movie is based on the old Marathi play Mukhyamantri. Chief Minister of Maharashtra Vishwasrao Mohite (Sachin Khedekar) will do anything to walk the righteous path. When he unintentionally insults an aged and blind singer, he feels guilty. He also gets to know that the singer had applied for a flat in Mumbai under a government scheme eight years ago but is still to receive its allotment.

In order to penance for his wrongdoing and give justice to the singer, Mohite pulls up his socks to allot the flat to him and that too before sunrise. His adamancy also brings him face-to-face with the dishonest IAS officer Rehmatpurkar (Mahesh Manjrekar).

Review: Politics has been one of the favorite topics for Marathi filmmakers but there has hardly been a film portraying an example of an ideal, honest politician. Chandrakant Kulkarni’s Aajcha Divas Majha should be seen for this reason. But other than this, it is only Sachin Khedekar’s delightful act that turns out to be the next plus point since the film lacks a watertight story and narration.

From the positives, it is very refreshing and heartwarming to see an honest Chief Minister literally worshipping his duty towards the citizens. Kulkarni attains high degree of realism in depicting the everyday workings of a CM and his subordinates. Rightfully, this is shown the most at the start but the proceedings don’t appear uninteresting due to some smart dialogues, fast narration and the charisma of Khedekar.

As mentioned earlier about the writing, the motto of the protagonist is not convincing or solid enough. Not only because the work could have done the following day (since it is not a do-or-die situation) but also because his urgency is born out of his personal guilt. In other words, it is difficult to say whether he would have shown the same determination if he hadn’t insulted the singer. This also means that he wrongly makes his staff work whole night for the mistake committed by him alone.

The script also lacks the basic element of conflict which makes sure there is not much of drama in the second half. Due to this, obviously, you don’t get the kick from the climax either. The character of Rehmatpurkar does threat to be a thorn in the CM’s path but that hardly happens. They also shouldn’t have given too much importance to the stenographer and his ‘glucose’ adventures.

Although the scene inspired from Anna Hazare’s fast is a minor one, it deserves mention for being questionable. There is nothing wrong in criticizing or disagreeing with someone but one should refrain from making a funny spoof of the real-life social worker.

Since the movie is based on a play, Rajan Kothari doesn’t get much scope to showcase his cinematography skills. But despite that, he does his job well. The background score provides the right effect. There is not much scope for music either but Ashok Patki and Mangesh Dhakde should be praised for the theme track and the classical song.

Repeating the above mentioned, Sachin Khedekar gives a delightful act by carrying the film on his shoulders. In fact, he also manages to overshadow the not-so-perfect writing. Mahesh Manjrekar perfectly fits the bill as an arrogant IAS officer. Despite these two big names, Rishikesh Joshi shines as CM’s secretary with an utterly mature performance. Ashwini Bhave does well as the CM’s wife while the supporting cast including Pushkar Shrotri and Anand Ingle play their parts convincingly.

Overall, Aajcha Divas Majha is watchable more because of the performances. The film has a chance at the box office due to the big names associated with it. But it still needs some rapid word-of-mouth.