Director Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar’s Marathi movie Devmanus is the official remake of directors Jaspal Singh Sandhu and Rajeev Barnwal’s Sanjay Mishra and Neena Gupta starrer 2022 Hindi movie Vadh (which this reviewer hasn’t seen). The movie is a fine emotional crime drama.
The story takes place in Kopargaon in Maharashtra. Senior citizen couple Keshav (Mahesh Manjrekar) and his wife Laxmi (Renuka Shahane) are staying alone after their son Madhav (Ruturaj Shinde) migrates to the US and gets married over there without their consent.
Keshav is a tuition teacher cum farmer, who somehow managed to gather loan to get Madhav educated in the US. Along with the bank, he also had to take money from the local contractor and an evil goon Dilip (Siddharth Bodke) while mortgaging their ancestral house.
Keshav was hasn’t been able to repay the instalments to Dilip for last four months as Madhav has stopped sending money. Hence, Dilip starts harassing them in worst and derogatory ways. The couple get some help initially from the newly transferred police inspector Deshmukh (Subodh Bhave). One day, Keshav gets involved in a crime, which changes his and Laxmi’s life forever.
Devmanus takes time to get into an exciting and intense mode. The first half is largely about Dilip harassing Keshav and Laxmi. We are not given the backstory of how Keshav had to take loan from a person as horrible as Dilip. He surely must have known about the latter’s reputation. Dilip using Keshav’s house to get intimate with sex workers just because the latter hasn’t been able to pay him for last four months is a bit too much.
However, the film goes onto different level once the crime angle comes in. From here onwards, it becomes a fine mixture of crime and emotions and keeps you completely gripped till the end credits.
The film scores well in the investigation angle, which was very crucial. Care is taken to not make it look clichéd and similar to the various crime stories on TV. The whole Wari angle is nicely included in the narrative and it succeeds in moving you. The guest appearance by Mohan Agashe was smartly done. One expects such crime sagas to end in a particular way. But Devmanus surprises during this part too.
Cinematographer Amey Vasant Chavan has well captured the town. He scores high during the Wari scenes. The background score is simple, which goes with the nature of the film.
This is one of Mahesh Manjrekar’s finest acts. He lives the character of Keshav in every breath and doesn’t let the graph low at any moment. Renuka Shahane also displays her fine talent throughout, at times speaking jus through expressions. Siddharth Bodke is evil personified. You can’t stop hating him, except on a few occasions where he overdoes. \
Subodh Bhave’s character isn’t that of a typical cop investigating crime and he does full justice to it. Abhijeet Khandkekar also scores well while playing another antagonist. Vinod Vanve is likeable as a kind-hearted auto-rickshaw driver. Ruturaj Shinde leaves some impact despite playing a cameo.
Overall: Devmanus is a well-made crime drama that also moves you.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Director: Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar
Producers: Luv Films
Writers: Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Rajeev Barnwal (original film) and Neha Shitole (adaptation and dialogues)
Cast: Mahesh Manjrekar, Renuka Shahane, Subodh Bhave, Siddharth Bodke, Abhijeet Khandkekar, Ruturaj Shinde
Also read: Phule review: Pratik Gandhi excels in this decent period drama