Har Har Mahadev Is The Film To See This Festive Season

Har Har Mahadev

Written & Directed by  Abhijeet Shirish  Deshpande

Rating: ****

 Don’t go  by the title.Writer-director Abhijeet Deshpande’s Har Har Mahadev, in Marathi and in  a dubbed  Hindi version,   is  not  a mythological. It is  a fullblown historical with   amazing stayingpower.

Har Har Mahadev grips you from first frame to  last. At  2 hours 40 minutes,  the  plot still succeeds in being  flab-free. The narrative moves  at a businesslike  pace, brusque  barbaric beguiling and believable, this  is  the  story  of  the  bond between  Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and  his chief  of army  Baji Prabhu Deshpande.

The two actors  playing the two main parts  Sharad Kelkar and Subodh Bhave, are  compelling in the way  they draw their characters.Kelkar is  a well-known actor in Hindi cinema as well. But Subodh Bhave  largely restricted  to  Marathi  cinema, is  a revelation. He  brings to the table  a persuasive  periodicity. This  is an actor who  looks completely  comfortable in  Shivaji’s  costume. The same goes  for Kelkar  as  Deshpande who in the final blood-soaked  battle is a  force  of Nature.

 The rest   of the cast  too is  so much incharacter  they seem to be born t be part of this historic historical.More  power to these  real actors who make the  dramatized conflicts from   our past history   look not  only  believable but  also  engrossing from the first  frame till last.

 Technical aspects including the production value are  first-rate. It is  hard to  believe that so much of   an epic  vision can be achieved  in such a limited  budget.

Go fo this  disarming tryst with history with  open arms . It is  an experience  of  a lifetime. Powerful  and persuasive , with some  sequences  designed to  cause goosebumps .