Altun Paltun film review

REVIEW

ALTUN PALTUN (Marathi)

Producers- Bhavesh Ramdas Janvalekar, Sandeep Manohar Navre and Meenal Rakesh Mhadnak- Pate

Director- Sanjay Manohar Navre

Star Cast- Ashok Saraf, Bhau Kadam, Sandeep Pathak, Milind Shinde, Jayant Sawarkar, Kishori Ambaye, Sunil Tawade, Smita Shewale, Abhidnya Bhave and Namrata Sambherao Awate

Genre- Social

Rating-**

Predictably obsolete!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Dhananjay (Ashok Saraf), who has remained a bachelor all his life, is desperate to get his middle-aged auto rickshaw driver brother Yashwant (Bhau Kadam) married at any cost. The quest to find a suitable match for Yashwant keeps Dhananjay busy where he hears audacious demands from the parents of the to-be-bride to go ahead with the marriage. One of the reasons that he is not getting a bride of his own is that the bridegroom is bereft of a roof of his own. The brothers are on a house-hunting spree and are thrilled to buy a dilapidated old bungalow at an affordable price. Little do they know what the haunted house has in store for them!

What mars the silly and predictably obsolete script is that there is absolutely no element of novelty in it and it looks like a rehash of several Hindi spoofs like Gangs of Ghosts and the film lacks intelligent writing. The film caters to the dimwitted audience of the 80’s and 90’s and to add to your woes it goes on and on without hitting the target.

Ashok Saraf literally saves the film from being an exercise in boredom with his brilliant sense of timing and flair for comedy while Bhau Kadam rises above the role and fits his part to the T.  While Abhidnya Bhave passes off in her role as the auto rickshaw deriver, she has hardly any scene for herself whereas Namrata Sambherao Awate is a pain in the neck necessarily and hams to the core. Kishori Ambaye, Sandeep Pathak, Sunil Tawade and Snita Shewale look like decorative pieces in the photo frames Milind Shinde hams thoroughly. It is a pity that the otherwise talented director has been let down badly by his own story and screenplay and the film looks like its dated and the product has come after the date of expiry.

If as a Marathi film-enthusiast, you are wondering if Altun Paltun is an adaptation of the popular play by the same name, it isn’t. While most storytellers from the South-Indian entertainment industry have exhausted many variations of the horror-comedy template, Marathi industry seems to wake up to the joys of the wacky genre of horror cum social films like Kanchana only now.  Catch it definitely on Zee 5 or Zee Talkies since it would not cost you a penny