This film does something which I wasn't sure it'd be able to do. I'd just read about and heard some interviews of Dr. Prakash Baba Amte and was surprised by how simple, soft-spoken and chilled out a person he was despite doing what he does. I was wondering how a film could bring this attitude of his to the screen and still be entertaining. The film actually managed to pull it off really well.
The credit for how good the film is, has to go to Nana Patekar and to some extent, also to Sonali Kulkarni and the support cast. Nana is in nearly every scene in the movie and how he never falters. He is known for his angry, witty, slightly off-the-rocker roles which are replete with long powerful monologues and entertaining one-liners. This performance, on the other hand, is exactly the opposite with Nana playing a calm, collected and motivated middle-aged and older Dr. Prakash Amte. Even then, he is strong, powerful and inspiring. Nana really is a pure gem.
A lot has already been written about the tacky and badly done graphics work in a couple of scenes of the movie. I personally think these scenes were completely unnecessary and if they weren't able to execute a believable job of the graphics, they should have just edited the scenes out - they wouldn't have made any difference to this excellent performance by Nana and team.
I wasn't also 100% convinced with the direction. With a larger budget and a director of the caliber of say, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra or a Raju Hirani or an Ashutosh Gowariker, this story had the potential of being an absolute classic. A great example is the huge chasm between the finish and presentation of two biopics - "Bhaag Milkha Bhaag" directed by Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra and "Mary Kom" directed by Omung Kumar. The latter looked like a B-movie compared to the former despite having an A-list star in Priyanka Chopra at the helm.
The bottom line is that this film is most definitely watchable and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to hear a beautiful and inspiring story and see power packed performances from two of Marathi cinema's most talented actors.
