Short Summary:
Faster Fene is the tale of a tech savvy and adventurous teenager named Banesh Fene who has keen interest in forensic Science as well as Law. He is also passionate about solving mysteries and crimes that he comes across. While appearing for a medical entrance exam he is witness to something that shakes him from within and thus begins the thrilling and nail-biting journey to bring down the evils that plague one of most the important pillars of a society.
Info:
It is based on the characters from Faster Fene series of Marathi books(similar to Famous Five) by renowned writer Late. B.R. Bhagwat.
Extended Review:
Nowadays there's a trend of "No logic/time pass/love story" movies in India. Mediocrity is the name of the game. Movies have become a tool of money multiplication rather than provide qualitative entertainment.
In such times, when I heard that my beloved childhood character Faster Fene from the Marathi storybooks of the same name was being adopted into a movie, I felt a sudden bit of anger and despair. I said to my self.. "Here we go...Now they'll ruin yet another classic to milk the nostalgia monies..."
But then I saw the teaser on YouTube & immediately felt a sense of hope! It didn't seem like a quick money grab movie; but something thoughtful and made with respect to the original material.
Still the thought, that they might add other stuff just to widen the mass market appeal (dance numbers and love stories) did make me wary.
THEN..
The day came. Movie released...Here I was at the theaters. Waiting eagerly.
And then it started. And BOY! IT DIDN'T Disappoint!
All my worries and doubts were quelled just by the first few minutes of the movie! I knew..from that moment on, this was going to be something special!
From the opening shot to the climax, Faster Fene and his gang have you on spell!
The movie is cast to perfection. Be it the "Bhu Bhu" of Master Shubham, Or Parna Pethe's Aboli or Siddharth Jadhav's Ambadas, and so on; Each and every person has a unique personality. All the actors have done such a splendid and effortless job that it feels like the actors on the screen are real people in a real world rather than characters in a movie. With respect to that, there are some show stealers. The ease with which Girish Kulkarni has played the sarcastic sly villain 'Appa' is highly commendable and is clearly the best performance in the film. Ameya Wagh has done faithful justice to the Role of a modern world's Faster Fene. From the phonetics to the mannerisms and then to the searching eyes. It's all exactly the way I've experienced from reading the books in my childhood! Sir Dilip Prabhavlkar's loyal portrayal of Late. B.R.Bhagwat is a great homage from one legendary writer to another. They are all well written and very well acted memorable characters.
The direction and cinematography is Top notch. The camera angles and close ups of face and eyes add that extra emotion to a scene.
The locations in the movie are also well- chosen and have been filmed with artistic flair.
The music and background score are also very well done. The Super heroesque tune is nothing short of classic, and gives you goosebumps in those big moments! The background music has been used masterfully and only as per the need of the scene adding to actions on the screen rather than blaring over it.
The story is innovative and the screen play is very exciting; add to that, powerful and very well written and delivered dialogues which take the movie to the next level.
Technical side is usually where many Indian films fall short. But Faster Fene is a strong exception to that. With the polished and flawless execution, the film sets very high standards for a regional film.
It is very rare for a film to be really fun and still be sensible and provide food for thought. But believe me, Faster Fene does just that!
Hats off to the team of Faster Fene!
Do watch it even if don't understand Marathi. Many theaters are running it with English Subtitles.
Tokk!!
