Review: 'Sambha: Aajcha Chhava' (Marathi)

Film: Sambha: Aajcha Chhava
Scene director: Sanjay Todkar
Cast: Devendra Chougule, Deepali Sayyad, Madhu Kambikar, Kuldip Pawar, Miling Gunaji, Mohan Joshi, Junior Johnny Lever
Rating: Nil

What happens when someone has a lot of money, free time and a lifetime membership into a gym? A terrible film is one of the possibilities. I don’t know what Mr Chougule does for a living, but he sure has a passion for making bad cinema. And in this bad cinema he seeks innovation. His film — third one to be produced by him I am told — doesn’t have a director. The film has a scene director. Apparently, the concept is entirely his, and hence the execution of the screenplay that I seriously doubt existed onto the screen is merely “scene direction”. Mr Face meet Mr Palm!

Okay so the credits roll and we are told ‘Casting’ is by Milind Gunaji, Mohan Joshi. Wait a second. These are members of the cast, who are about to be ‘casting’ the spell of boredom upon this poor scribe who runs between Marathi films in hope of discovering a good watch. Anyhoo, we watch as people repeatedly crib about the shortage of ‘rockel’ in the local rationing shop. And the Sheth denies them rockel and proceeds to attack a customer who snaps at him. Aces.

Enter a man with a tattoo on his fore-arm. As his muscles wiggle and jiggle and bash up the gundas of the sheth, we have to cheer of course, Sambha (Chougule) has arrived. I cower down under my tiny notebook. It gets worse as we are introduced to the cronies of Sir Sambha. One of them is a duplicate of Johnny Lever, for real, from hair to expressions, he apes the legendary Hindi comedian.

Anyway, soon a nexus between the sheth, local MLA and the Police becomes obvious and Sambha wants to be a saviour of the common people. Yeah, right. With his muscle deformity, the producer, seems undecided if he wants to be Chulbul Pandey or Shahid Kapur of Mausam. No sir, even Salman Khan had to shed the chocolate boy avatar to be able to be a masala action hero. Much yawning and stretching follows, but the jarring background score (extremely similar to the recent Swarajya) won’t even let you cash in on the zzzzz to make up for the sleep debt you’ve accumulated. 

Then arrives Manali (Sayyad) whose red lipstick matches her red talons, however, she can’t manage to find a T-shirt that’d complement her animal print skirts. So much for being an heir apparent to a Marathi media tycoon!

Let’s not even mention how the rendezvous begins between the girl and the boy. The producer finds some songs to dance to. Hip-hop and all included. But what is the friggin point, yo? Forget songs, some scenes have absolutely no relevance to the rest of the film, but I am guessing the producer/actor’s “facing” was looking nice. So our man continues to roar as he bashes up bad guys, remind you of Singham much? And there is some amateurish dialogue like “Raste ka gajra saasta aur khusboodar hota hai,” which induces some giggles, albeit out of helplessness. But the ultimate gigglefest happens when our man hits bad guys while tangoing with Sayyad. Yes, now we have seen it all!

As the man starts to dance in a bright red, shiny leather, outfit — ripped at the crotch while he does splits on the floor, I write off the film as Chinese torture.

Yes, Marathi film reviews were started for DNA with the hope of highlighting the interesting films that come out of the industry, but when such films blatantly waste money, and more importantly my time, one feels the need to reconsider, because for every ten Gol Gol Dabyatlas, Golaberij or Bluffmaster you get to watch one Yedyanchi Jatra or Deool. Mediocrity is a plague that is making low-grade, bland and absolutely atrocious films acceptable in the market. Come on guys, the audiences aren’t so dumb. Take the quality a notch higher!