Goshta Eka Paithanichi

Goshta Eka Paithanichi (2022) : Movie Review -

Shantanu Rode's "Goshta Eka Paithanichi" grabbed the Best Marathi Feature Film award at the 68th National Film Awards and came into the limelight. It would have been difficult for the film to grab attention without the national film award trophy. Well, frankly speaking, many undeserving films have got recognition and hype due to award shows. Take the Oscars, for instance. It's not an indirect taunt to this Marathi movie, but yes, somewhere, the hype is too high to satisfy the hunger. Goshta Eka Paithanichi comes with its own good moments that deserve to be seen and learned from, but it does come with its own bundle of flaws.

The film is about Indrayani (Sayali Sanjeev), who does fall bidding on sarees, and her husband, Sujit (Subrat Joshi). The couple is living in a remote village as they barely manage their daily expenses due to their lukewarm income. Indrayani wishes to have a Paithani (an expensive variety of saree), but she can't afford one. One of her clients gives her an expensive Paithani, worth approximately Rs. 1.25 lacs, for a fall bidding, which Indrayani wears for a moment and ruins with an oil stain. Having lived their entire lives with only wealth-honesty-Indrayani and Sujit decide to repair the mistake and start searching for a similar Paithani. Indrayani travels literally across Maharashtra to find one but misses it, but yes, she does get to learn a lot of inspirational and positive stuff during the expedition.

Written by Shantanu Rode, Goshta Eka Paithanichi is a simple story with some excessively dramatic conflicts. It starts off with a simple problem, which may not look big, but you can smell what's coming. In the second half, it gets too dramatic, hitting the upper level of dramatic liberty. Paithani means a lot to a woman, and me being a boy, I can't just understand that. But yes, I can feel it. It's just the same case for women when we talk about what a Shervani coat or Kurta means to us men. Only we can understand what it means, even though we don't wear it often. It's a very small subject to make a 2-hour-long film, so I can't blame Shantanu much for that. He tries his best to put a lot of things together, sometimes he hits the mark, sometimes he misses. A small stain on a saree could lead to an exploration of a lifetime. For a moment, I thought, was it really enough to make a feature film? It could have been wrapped in a short film instead, no? That reminded me of one scene from Kamal Haasan and Raadhika's masterpiece "Swathi Muthyam" (1986). Raadhika takes a white saree to her neighbour to remove the stain, and the woman paints the entire saree red with kumkum. It was that simple-spiritually and practically, both ways. Couldn't Indrayani finish it off by paying that money to Smita Tai (Mrunal Kulkarni)?

Sayali Sanjeev has appeared in several serials and movies, but the only thing she did that can be remembered or called good was "Jhimma" (2021). Pardon me for saying it directly, or just blame it on my taste. In this film, she seems to have gathered what she was missing throughout her career over the last 5-6 years. She is so cute in so many moments; she stays tough when needed, goes soft when required, holds her expressions according to situations, and what not. It would have never dreamt of seeing her in such a 'Gavathi' role, especially after Jhimma, but she crossed the barriers to challenge herself and proved what she is. Suvrat too was missing such challenging and centric roles, but this year he really had two of them- Ananya and now Goshta Eka Paithanichi. Aarav Shetye's cuteness, Mrunal Kulkarni's mature and stable support, Prajakta Hanmagar's typical village-driven accent, Savita Malpekar's sweet woman, and others' small small roles-everything adds up to great teamwork.

Susmit Limaye's music is underwhelming, whereas the background score is used very well. The framework captures a lot of moments with finesse, but Devendra Golatkar could have done a lot better with real locations available. The editing by Manish Shirke should have been tighter. There are so many since that feel useless after a while. It was the editor's job to trim them all. Shirke, are you listening? Shantanu Rode's attempt is definitely praiseworthy, but it isn't fulfilling. The same idea could have been presented with fewer twists, less drama, believable conflicts, and life-changing thoughts. Rode goofed up a little with the mixture and missed out on ratios, but is not dreadfully sorry. The film definitely serves its object and leaves a reasonable impact on its targeted audience-the people who are honest and believe in goodwill. Unfortunately, we don't have many of them left in today's world. Not an issue if this film can wake them up from sleep.

RATING - 6/10*