Dombivli Fast

October 29, San Jose, California: The California Arts Association (CALAA) had organized the screening of critically acclaimed new marathi movie “Dombivli Fast”. For all marathi arts connoisseurs this was nothing short of a festival. Watching a marathi movie in theatre is a rare event (shooting star) and that too in a foreign country (Halley’s comet)! The houseful turn-out at the theatre underlined this fact. The show started a little after 11 AM. I and a friend were one of the last people to arrive, so had to watch it from the second row. About 200 people filled the small IMC theatre.

I had read/heard a lot about Dombivli Fast in reviews and from friends/family in India. So I had a basic idea of the story. The movie didn’t waste time in establishing the plot. Within the first couple of minutes you could feel the mounting tension in the story, even before the name came on the screen. The story is about a middle class banker named Madhav Apte (Sandeep Kulkarni) living in the over-over-crowded (you have to visit it to believe it!) Mumbai suburb, Dombivli. For the last 15 years, his routine involves catching the crowded morning fast local train to CST (Bank Street of Bombay) and back. He is an upright man who is happy with his honest life in spite of limited income. He is unable to provide a decent education to his children or a comfortable living place for his family, which is a constant source of altercation between him and his wife (Shilpa Tulaskar). The movie shows the frustration of an honest man caught in the web of corruption, deceit and greed of human beings surrounding him. The situations are straight out of life: corrupt water tanker worker demanding bribe for a bucket of water, seemingly moral school principal asking for arbitrary sum of money as “donation”, bank managers violating standard procedures for their people putting common man’s interests at risk, corrupt cops overlooking blatant law violations for petty share, hospitals refusing sick patients for lack of money. We have seen this before, but for the first time it has been depicted so powerfully in a marathi movie. His wife chastises him for being gandhian in beliefs but not in action. The final breakdown of our marathi manus takes place when a shop owner asks more than the M.R.P. price (we never even think twice about it). He smashes his shop with a cricket bat and from thereon begins the crusade of this unusual warrior. He attacks the local corporator, cops, doctor and just about anyone who fails to do his duty. A similar theme was done by Kamal Hassan in “Hindustani”.

The movie packs some powerful performances from the cast. Sandip Kulkarni is outstanding as a common marathi manus. The scene where he vents his frustration on an empty Bombay street and pleads God to take his soul intact in his body is truly poignant. The wife and the cop have played their parts well. The cinematography by Sanjay Jadhav is eye catching, accurately showcasing the bustling Mumbai local train and suburb life. This is possibly the only marathi movie with a sad ending that I have seen. The movie creates a great impact on the audience and you could see people dazed as they walk out of the hall. Finally, full marks to Nishikant Kamat (Story, Direction) for handling a serious topic with élan. The new wave in marathi cinema is definitely something to watch out for!

The movie comes at about the same time when Sanjay Dutt (Lage Raho Munnabhai) is reviving the non-violence attitude dubbed as gandhigiri. It is interesting to watch both these perspectives. No idea can be perfect; you always have to weigh the pros and the cons and make newer, better ideas from old ones. I hope a relevant philosophy emerges that is able to effectively address the problems of post-modern India.

My Rating: Don’t Miss It!