REVIEW: FUNRAL (Marathi)

Producer- Ramesh Maruti Dighe

Director-Vivek Rajendra Dubey

Star Cast- Aroh Welankar, Tanvi Barve, Sambhaji Bhagat,Prema Sakhardande, Parth Nishant Gadge and Vijay Kenkre

Genre- Comic

Platform of Release- Theatrical

Rating- ***

Slow paced but erudite!

Jyothi Venkatesh

When a human being is born he cries but the whole world around him is happy. And when a human being dies, he is silent and the whole world around him cries.

Why is that? Give a smiling farewell to everyone, who is parting ways.This is the apt message that the film Funral sets out to convey to the audience.

The film has been made with the unique tile with Funral as a word play on funeral and the story of this film nicely works its way to justify the title.

The story is about four friends who are all jobless youths who are very adept sustaining on something that Indians love to do- jugaad.

Doing odd jobs, rallying for candidates during elections and, at times, cheating shopkeepers are some of the things that these boys, led by Heera (Aroh Velankar) do, to earn their pocket money.

One of the three good for nothing friends, Vinod (Parth Ghatge), tries to sell an insurance policy to a rich man. Unfortunately, the man dies of heart failure during the meeting.

With all his relatives in the US, his daughter, who herself had come down to meet him, asks Heera and his friends to help her with the last rites of her father.

After the rituals, the dead man’s daughter hands money to the four, which they initially decline, but accept later though reluctantly after she insists.

The amount is not enough to clear their debt, but Heera now decides to come up with an idea of turning this into a flourishing business.

All that a willing person needs to do is fill out a form and state his or her final wish and the four will manage to conduct his or her funeral rites.

As far as the performances go, I’d say that it is Aroh Velankar who decidedly stands out as Heera, channelling the battle with himself and skilfully organising the people around well.

Among the supporting cast, Vijay Kenkre as Heera’s grandfather, Prema Sakhardande as his neighbour and Sambhaji Bhagat as a morgue attendant leave a lasting impact, while the rest of the actors including Tamvo Barve who has been cast in the romantic lea opposite Heera are not able to leave any impact at all.

Ramesh Dighe has written a lucid plot in which the four friends set out to establish the metaphor that four people are required to shoulder a dead person on their final journey and hence the title of the film Funral is more than justified.

The major drawback of Funral is the editing, which could have been crisper and better executed with sharper cuts. The slow pace of the film hampers the flow of this otherwise good film.