#FilmFasterFilm
In this age and day
if someone gives you all the small little goodies which you cherished in your
childhood/ teens, like the colorful scented erasers, animal faced bite size
confectionary, the stickers you collected from a loaf of bread, cricket balls
made up of tire-tubes….The list is endless, but if you get these and even
better - wrapped in today's packaging like that of a Ferrero Rocher box of
goodies...WOW - Amazing isn't it?
Well that’s what the
exact same feeling I was going through during the 130 minutes screening of the film -
Faster Fene (#FaFe). Now many who are reading this unfortunately might not know
about #FaFe. So need to spend a few KBs;) giving a gist on FaFe:
Sometime in 80s: I was an avid reader of
Marathi literature in my teens, and like any other teen the appetite was more
for the detective, thriller genre. Amongst others were Sherlock Holmes, Suhas
Shirwalkar's Dara Buland, Barrister Amar Vishwas, Firoz Irani; Satyajit
Ray's Feluda and so on. But someone got very close to my heart was a brave guy
of the same age, having the usual name as boys around, and talking the same
language (Marathi) - Well none other than immortal character of Faster Fene
penned by legendary author Bha. Ra. Bhagwat. The guy was so adorable and almost
became an idol due to amazing quality he has of unearthing the crime sheerly
capitalizing on his super intelligence and smartness. Used to get goosebumps -
I am sure most of the teens in 80s must have decided to become detective by then to help people and society:-)
In September '17,
when released, the first promo was quite appealing and subsequently the trailer
endorsed huge potential in the movie. Got to watch #FaFe on first Sunday of the
release, regardless to say in a the hall filled upto the brim. The story is a
completely reincarnated, contemporary, gadget-savvy #FaFe. Obviously it's a
brand new story with even fresh streak of characters. As usual I won't reveal
the story but touch upon all the other facets which made this quite remarkable.
Story: When Bha. Ra. Bhagwat meets Salim-Javed :-)
More than full marks
to Kshitij Patwardhan for keeping #FaFe true to its character (A bit grown up
than original though), and then building onto it to make him the super-smart
gadget, technology and social media-savvy teen detective of this era. This story looks so real and blended in today's situations. Awesome uses of today's abbreviations like LOL, MOM and alike. Thankfully no romance, no
sub-tracks. But importantly masterpiece is the inclusion of mammoth of a villain:
Appa. It’s the most quintessential villain ever crafted in the history of Marathi movies well above
#TatyaVinchu. There's also a unique & funny character of rickshaw driver
called Ambadas. In summary this story has laid an awesome foundation towards the
success of #FaFe as franchise.
Amey Wagh at the
first glance looked a bit odd portraying #FaFe, but this could be with folks
who have read #FaFe or watched the TV serial by same name in 90s where #FaFe
was played by Sumit Raghavan. I would have still preferred a more younger,
lankier and sharp featured actor, but Amey gives full justice with his more
than 100% efforts making you believe in the acts of #FaFe.
Dilip Prabhavalkar
plays Bha Ra Bhagwat in the usual stride - Quite convincing. Parna Pethe is
promising and has been consistently delivering through plays, web shows, and
movies.
Ambadas played by
Siddharth Jadhav is funny and unique - A rickshaw driver who is skilled in
driving the rickshaw in reverse and so is called Reverse King. However I
believe this character can have a lot more footage for even larger success of
the movie.
But the unbelievably
epic character written and portrayed in equally powerful manner on screen is of
Appa. Girish Kulkarni delivers Appa in style, which is unseen and unmatched at
least in the history of Marathi Cinema. You'd be in awe, experiencing the commendable
show using expressions, dialogue delivery, tonality, laughter, and the overall
body language. You feel intense anger on every entry of Appa on the screen.
Appa / Girish Kulkarni I believe has gone past #TatyaVinchu / Dilip
Prabhawalkar to become #1 villain of Marathi. In fact it's quite in league to
be called as #GabbarSingh of Marathi.
Milind Jog
Cinematography complements the Director's vision. Some great drone shots of
Pune and outskirts.
Troy-Arif music,
mainly the background score is just ok, probably the weakest link in the whole
production design.
Aditya Sarpotdar
gives full justice to the legendary literature by Bha. Ra. Bhagwat. Not easy
task when the story is completely overhauled. His command over the craft is
unparalleled, giving one of the best Edge-Of-The-Seat thriller in Marathi. I
believe he, Kshitij Patwardhan and team
must have spent good amount of time in pre-production; designing every scene so as to
consume less time in Production and Editing. The initial chase scene (reminds of Hrithik in 'BangBang) and the scene in the bus is quite innovative. A Very well made movie. Period! Definitely
this will be Aditya's biggest till date at the Box Office, surpassing 2015
flick #Classmates. I hope he continues to bless Marathi cinema by directing
more true-to-the-soil content than venturing away, though he will succeed in big way in #Bollywood as well.
But this article
wont be complete without thanking enough the producers Zee Studios, Mumbai Film
Company and more of Genelia and Riteish Deshmukh and Mangesh Kulkarni. It's
easy to remake any past hit movie, it's relatively easy to make movie based on
historic events (at least to lure people into theaters), its easy to make a
Rom-Com, but its very brave of Riteish and Genelia to select a subject which is
worthy but may not be mainstream (to entice people across demographics). And
then being true to it by not including any romance, songs, item songs etc.
Wishing Mumbai Film Company the best for getting the hidden gems from Marathi
literature to the fore - be it TV, Web or Cinema. Golden days ahead for the
Marathi Cinema!
The script is quite
flawless, barring a few which need not be mentioned. However few key aspects
missing here are:
- Theme Music: Running across the length of the movie (Like James Bond movie, Karamchand) to create brand recall
- Signature music piece: Every time Appa is on the screen, there could have been a creepy piece of music to increase fear level
- FaFe Anthem Song: Producers can definitely get this redone leveraging specialist musicians + singers to create brand recall
- Length of the movie could have been shorter by 20 minutes
- Appa scenes could have been trimmed, to make Appa more intense
- Ambadas role definitely definitely need to be rehashed - This character has huge potential to lure masses to the screens
Its a must must watch. You may not be able
to relive the complete nostalgia while watching this flick, but you'll recall a
few forgotten fragrances and flavors of the scented erasers, or the Rawalgaon
candies, while you are rest assured to experience the new age content wrapped
in Godiva / Ferrero like taste and packing to get soaked in a proud feeling of
seeing Marathi Cinema reaching Global levels. While you relish on
this, I believe Mumbai Film Company already must be busy working on the Part 2
of FaFe - Faster ;) than we think.
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