Ranangan Marathi movie: Review, Cast, Director

Film: Ranangan

Cast: Sachin Pilgoankar, Swapnil Joshi, Siddharth Ghanekar, Pranali Ghogare, Anand Ingle, Suchitra Bandekar, Prajakta Mali, Santosh Juwekar, Vaibhav Tatwawadi, Mukta Barve, Prarthana Behere

Director: Rakesh Sarang

Rating: * *

An attempt at taking a leaf out of the Mahabharata, adapting it to a present day scenario set in Pune, comes unstuck mainly because there’s not much thought behind this reprisal other than an obvious attempt to cash in on the perceived clash between giants. A dramatic thriller, the film weaves a tale of discord which emanates from criminal omissions and commissions form the past. Shamrao Deshmukh (Sachin Pilgoankar) who is aiming for a Rajya Sabha seat proposed by a saffron party suddenly finds himself on a sticky wicket. His decision to get his legitimate son Varad (Siddharth Chandekar) married to his Guru’s pregnant Daughter, Sanika (Pranali Ghogare) as part of an appeasement strategy, misfires because Shlok (Swapnil Joshi) his adopted son, happens to be the same person who had despoiled Sanika. There are many more revelations in the offing if you stay interested in the convolutions and turbulence the writer designs as mystery and thrills.

Nothing really makes sense here. Women in love with Shlok are inevitably drawn to the sound of his flute. What was the director trying to convey here? No prizes for guessing that one. The opening sequence itself pulls off a shocker but it’s so clumsily orchestrated that you feel totally confounded. The narrative is ham-handed, to say the least. The criminal bent of the antagonist is brushed away as easily forgiven. Shamrao’s domineering autocracy, Shlok’s deceitful turns, Sanika’s extreme malleability, Varad’s overt sensitivity don’t make sense at all. Here some characters are overtly virtuous and naïve while others can have sex, procreate illegitimate offspring and kill at will. Contrivance is the name of the game here. Otherwise, how would you explain Shlok’s involvement in Varad’s marital issues when he should have been engaged in fruitful work in Hyderabad where he is supposed to be stationed permanently?

The sparring between Shamrao and Shlok is fun initially but later on, it begins to get tedious and meaningless. There’s a moral ambiguity to the byplay and a gender-related regression that is all too appalling. The actors try to weigh in with their performances but even they cannot make sense of the nonsense they have to spew here. This is not the high-powered drama that we were expecting. It’s merely an overtly melodramatic and inept effort at a Mexican stand-off.