REVIEW: ADRUSHYA (Marathi)

Producers- Ajay Kumar Singh and Rekha Singh

Director- Kabir Lal

Star Cast- Pushkar Jog, Manjari Fardnnis, Anant Jog, Usha Nadkarni, Saurabh Gokhale , Ajay Kumar Singh and Riteish Deshmukh

Genre- Thriller

Platform of Release – Theatrical

Rating- **1/2

A Blind Thriller!

Jyothi Venkatesh

Adrushya marks the debut of the renowned cameraman Kabir Lal into the foray of writing as well as direction. The film has already been made in four different languages with different actors.

Like Adrushya in Marathi, Anterdrishti in Bengali, Agochakra in Telugu and last but not the least Unn Paarvayil in Tamil.

At the outset, the film is a thriller cum murder mystery and you are taken on a blindfold right from the beginning till the end by the director Kabir Lal, who, incidentally has entrusted the task of cinematography of his film to his son Shahid Lal.

To put it in a nutshell without revealing the plot is a tough task but take it from me, Adrushya is a story of deceit, murder and hidden secrets.

The plot revolves around Mrs Sanika (Fadnis), a young and prolific business leader, who finds herself caught in a huge conspiracy when her married twin sister Shailee (also Fadnis) dies one day by suicide.

Sanika’s husband Yash (Pushkar Jog) believes that Shailee took the step because she was diagnosed with progressive blindness, which gradually leads to loss of vision.

Everyone including the police Inspector Deepak is adamant that it is a clear case of suicide but then Sanika suspects foul play and decides to take the loopholes of the law into her own hands and find the actual reason for her sister's death on her own.

As she continues the investigation she comes across some discrepancies in the police investigation, even as someone who doesn't want her to find the truth is on her hot trail.

It has to be pointed out that Adrushya is an official remake of the Spanish mystery thriller Julia's Eyes (2010) and to give the credit to the director, what stands out about the film is that it never reveals the motivation of any character, which makes the viewers intrigued by the proceedings, as a result, the film does not appeal at all to the average viewer as he will find it very difficult to understand the proceedings on.

There are quite a few loopholes too which director Kabir Lal ought to have avoided. The neighbour Sujata played by the versatile actress Usha Nadkarni is a character which has been created just in order to arouse suspense though in essence she does not contribute to the film at all.

Anant Jog as Amit is a character that tends to irritate the viewer with his attempt to sexually assault a young girl. The character of Saurabh Gokhale is also very abstract as the do-gooder turned antagonist.

Manjari Fardnis is as usual good in the film but Pushkar Jog hardly gets to get into the skin of his character of her husband.

Camera work by writer cum director Kabir Lal’s son Shahid Lal is exemplary while sound department also is excellent and on the whole, Adrushya is a film made with the heart at the right place though one has doubts whether the film will find the going easy at the box office