Filmmaker Paresh Mokashi’s Mukkam Post Bombilwadi is based on his own Marathi play of the same name. The story takes place in 1942 when World War II is in full swing. Adolf Hitler (Prashant Damle) is under pressure for not having won the war despite fighting it for years, especially from his wife Eva (Deepti Lele). Winston Churchill (Anand Ingle), the Prime Minister of Great Britain, is making things more difficult for him.
Meanwhile, in Bombilwadi village in Maharashtra’s Konkan, Varvante (Vaibhav Mangle) heads a theatre group. He is struggling hard to rehearse for a play with the members of his troupe (Devendra Pem, Geetanjali Kulkarni and Ritika Shrotri). Vaidya Buwa (Sunil Abhyankar) and Bhaskar (Pranav Raorane), who are also a part of the theatre group, have made a bomb to blow up Britishers.
Back in Germany, Hitler gets to know that he can lay his hands on the secret formula of an atom bomb in Japan. He decides to take matters in his own hands and visit Japan all by himself. But his plane crash lands in Bombilwadi and this creates more madness and mayhem in the village.
As evident from the above synopsis, the story of Mukkam Post Bombilwadi is fully absurd and one requires suspension of disbelief to enjoy it. Frankly, it doesn’t take much effort to do that as the movie starts on a hilarious note. To see Hitler, Churchill and others speak in Marathi gets you in splits and so do some other moments in Bombilwadi.
However, the level of humour goes downhill later on. Of course, there are plenty of one-liners, jokes and situations aimed to make you laugh. But they only produce occasional humour and giggles. This is simply because this type of comedy suits more to the medium of theatre instead of cinema. In other words, the film remains theatrical and is not cinematic enough. The makers could have exploited the medium of cinema more.
The performances fall in the positive though. Prashant Damle is hilarious as a Marathi-speaking Hitler. He excels even in scenes where his character is troubled or confused. Anand Ingale too shines as Winston Churchill, despite limited screen time. Vaibhav Mangle, Devendra Pem, Geetanjali Kulkarni and Ritika Shrotri also succeed with their comic timing.
Adwait Dadarkar as the British Inspector Cook is impressive and he holds various scenes on his own. The rest of the supporting cast, including Sunil Abhyankar, Pranav Raorane, Deepti Lele, Rajesh Mapuskar and Ganesh Mayekar, are fine too.
The film scores well in the production designing, more so when it comes to the recreation of Hiter’s office in Germany.
Overall: Mukkam Post Bombilwadi is a decent entertainer, more because of the performances than the content. Because of its family entertainment genre, it is expected to do well at the box office.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5
Director: Paresh Mokashi
Producers: Vivek Films and Mayasabha Karamnuk Mandali
Writer: Paresh Mokashi
Cast: Prashant Damle, Anand Ingale, Vaibhav Mangle, Geetanjali Kulkarni, Devendra Pem, Ritika Shrotri, Adwait Dadarkar
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