Movie Review: Appa Ani Bappa (Marathi)

Producers- Garima Dheer, Jalaj Dheer

Director- Ashwini Dheer

Star Cast-Bharat Jadhav, Subodh Bhave, Dilip Prabhawalkar

Genre- Social

Rating- ** (Two)

A feel good film which lacks novelty!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Appa, a middle class Puneite, takes a loan to fulfill his father's wish of performing a grand puja followed by a grand meal for a hundred people. The only way to repay the loan is to dig into his father's savings. However, the bank delays the disbursement of the amount and that's when god aka Bappa, comes to the rescue.

Appa Appa, alias Govind Kulkarni (Bharat Jadhav) is middle class man who lives with his old father Ramakant Kulkarni (Dilip Prabhavalkar). Ramkant wants to perform a grand puja at home. Without considering the financial condition of their family, they have grand celebration during the Ganpati festival. However, this leads to a huge financial burden on Appa, whose only way out of the situation is to repay the loan using his father's savings by breaking his Fixed Deposit. When thanks to red tape at the bank it gets delayed, Bappa aka Vinayak (Subodh Bhave) comes to his rescue. Shivani Rangole as Appa’s daughter is cute while Umesh Jagtap as the bank officer is good.

The film makes you remember with fondness earlier films like Yehi Hai Zindagi, released almost 42 years ago, Mee Shivajiraje Bhosle Boltoy and OMG:Oh My God, Deool Band and Thank U Vitthala in recent times. The biggest handicap of the film is its story (credited to Ashvini Dheer and Aravind Jagtap) which is illogical and lop sided. Which sane middle class guy would spend almost Rs 1, 80,000 on the expenses of keeping the deity of Ganpati at his house for 10 days? Also like in the sitcom Office Office, do you ever bump into a bank employee today who asks you to get a paan for him or cut vegetables for her in the office hours?

As far as acting is concerned, both Subodh Bhave and Bharat Jadhav excel in their roles. It is creditable that Bharat has realized that it is time to believe in the mirror and has started playing roles that befit his age. Sampada Kulkarni plays her role as Appa’s wife perfectly. Agreed that the film tries to be satirical about the topical and contemporary bank frauds but sorry no bank will ask for the depositor’s Aadhar Card as well PAN cards and also birth certificate to enable the customer to withdraw his hated earned fixed deposit.

On the whole, Appa Ani Bappa is a feel good film albeit it lacks novelty as it tackles a subject, which has been beaten to death umpteen number of times earlier on the screen

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