पेट पुराण

Pet Puraan (2022) Review -

Neither Bollywood nor Hollywood is old to the idea of pets/animals in films having emotions. I can't describe how much I cried watching "Hachi : A Dog's Tale" (2009) or, to go back to my childhood days, I remember watching "Haathi Mere Saathi" (1971) and "Teri Meherbaaniyaan" (1985) multiple times on television. These three are tragic tales, by the way, while Pet Puraan is vibrant and very difficult. Coming from Marathi cinema, it becomes even bigger and more important than what it is because nobody has attempted it before. The idea of pet parenting is new to Bollywood and Indian cinema too, so you can imagine how advanced Pet Puraan is story wise. This humourous tale of pets and their parents is here to break several myths and multiple stereotypes of family entertainers. Pet Puraan is indeed a nice blend of organic comedy, intelligent humour, a unique storyline, and social goals.

The 6-episode series is about a couple, Atul (Lalit Prabhakar) and Aditi (Saie Tamhankar), who have no plans to have kids. Despite the family pressure, the modern couple decide to adopt pets and become pet parents, which may spoil their careers, reputations, and relationships with relatives. Pet Puraan brings to light the clash in mindsets and priorities between a modern-day, working couple who have a more traditional approach towards what completes a family and what they learn about humanity and pet parenting during the process. I must say, this is a very unique idea, even though it's not really outstanding. It has those typical flaws, but recovers quickly from the damage and comes back on track to keep your ride steady.

Lalit Prabhakar is one of the most versatile actors in Marathi cinema, and he brings something new to the table every single time. He has done comedy, drama, and biopics earlier and has played many different roles, and with Pet Puraan he continues his fine innings. He brings another new character and a new concept and does a big talk through his acting. Atul is just like any other average working class man, but his thought process is different. His yearning for the pet, a dog actually, I mean like - whatever happens, I must have a dog pet - kind of things add so much reliability to the character and how effortlessly he does it. Saie Tamhankar, I believe, is one of the most underrated actresses of her time. I mean, many people have failed to understand her potential. I remember hooting at her entry scenes and dialogues in commercial blockbusters like Balak Palak (2012) and Duniyaadari (2013), but the glamour portion overtook her acting talent. The same happened with many of her films that I shall avoid naming here, but then came films like "Girlfriend" (2019), "Dhurala" (2020), and "Pondicherry" (2022), which gave a perfect stage for the actor in her. Although the films weren't that great, I liked her performances, and now I'm happy to say that Pet Puraan just surpassed them all-even though it wasn't a challenging role physically or mentally. Aditi is nothing extraordinary. She is very simple and common from the outside, but on the inside, she is a tough nut. "Kiti cute ahe ha," she says with that accent, and my heartbeat almost stopped for a moment, and she goes on saying the similar dialogues again and again, causing several semi-heart attacks. Look at her accent, look at her dialogue delivery, look at her attitude, look at her beauty, look at her cuteness, and overall, just keep looking at Saie throughout the series and you will be highly impressed.

The supporting cast of Pournima Manohar, Asmita Ajgaonkar, Rushi Manohar, Deepti Lele, Kshitij Date, Rasika Agashe, Satish Alekar, Ninad Gore, Aarav Khot, Sneha Majgaonkar, Ketan Visal and others are good in their roles. Talking about the technical aspects, Pet Puraan seems like a well-balanced flick. The pre-production work has been done with great effort and it shows up in the post-production results. The writing is top-notch as far as breaking this new idea stuff is concerned. What impressed me the most was the dialogues. Pet Puraan's dialogues have such a unique and intelligent humour that I haven't seen in any Marathi film recently. Every dialogue has subtle humour, whims and social speeches against animals. This certainly challenges pet parenting myths that haven't been broken yet, and that too, in such funny ways. Yes, it was over the top in some scenes, but that doesn't harm much because it's a believable story anyway.

Pet Puraan is by far Dnyanesh Zoting's most entertaining and mass-friendly flick to date. He comes out of that intense and dark world of his previous works, which was very difficult for family audiences to understand, and I hope he continues doing the same. I am not sure how many people can really understand the metaphors and deep thoughts here, but they will surely enjoy the fun ride. The comedy is organic and easy to understand, and so are the characters. That little flawed drama could have been avoided as they were really making a fresh film, but let's just forget that. As a whole, Pet Puraan is a perfect blend of a new concept, drama, comedy, emotions, social awareness and self-realization.

RATING - 6/10*