Nashibvaan Movie Review: A Flawed film about Flawed People

Review: Nashibvaan
Cast: Bhau Kadam, Mithali Jagtap, Neha Joshi, Atul Aaglavey, Jaywant Wadkar, Yatin Karyekar & Rajesh Shringarpure
Director: Amol Gole
Original Story: Uday Prakash (Based on ‘Dilli Ki Deewar’)
Quick Viewpoint: ‘Nashibvaan’ is a film that loses it’s a charm because of not being clear about what it wants to be & where it wants to belong? It starts like a non-commercial festival suited film but later throughout feels more in the commercial zone, in both types it succeeds to average extent.
What Works? 

• Bhau Kadam! For the major part of the film! He plays a man who starts off being the usual innocent Bhau we are familiar with but later he has been presented in grey shades in a non-judgemental way, where his evolution over the course of time (however there’s a big issue with ‘the course of time’) does feel believable! In fact, almost every character in the film can be looked as grey characters.
• The first half of the film even after being slightly repetitive manages to keep us invested completely. The refreshing aspect here is how ‘Nashibvaan’ has portrayed poverty! It isn’t melodramatic as it is mostly seen in other recent Marathi films.
• The film isn’t bothered to give a moral lecture about anything. Though it also means the film had to work harder on what exactly it wishes to say.

What Fails? 

• ‘The course of time’ has a major logical issue. Though the change of Bhau’s character is believable the period in which it happens doesn’t make sense. Beyond his character, even the transition that takes place in his house & their family’s lifestyle in so much less time just doesn’t make sense. The time period is the issue (it is of about three weeks, where it could have been of at least 6 months) not the plot point that changes their life!
• Bhau Kadam being the principal protagonist of the film, doesn’t get any defining moment by the end of the film. It feels the film only uses him for the sake of the plot & then leaves him with its consequences without making a definite closure for him in terms of what it wishes to say through the consequences.
• As said about Bhau’s lack of closure, the overall film too lacks the same. It’s not compulsory for every film to say anything specific but then those films are throughout constructed in the same way. ‘Nashibvaan’ is never an escapist or artistically dominant film, it is about the humans it deals with & hence a definite conclusion was essential.
• The film could have been much more sharply edited! At many occasions, scenes are repetitive & don’t contribute in taking the narrative forward. In fact, even within the scenes, there are countless shots that make us wonder why are they there? Maybe the filmmaker wished to capture the realism of that scenario but then as said earlier it is inconsistent in being a festival suited film.
• While Bhau Kadam’s performance might not be different from his usual style of acting, it works well. But Mithali Jagtap who is a National award-winning actress ends up giving an inconsistent performance. In her loud emotional outbursts she feels to be very typical & fake but in the silent moments, she is effective.

Final Verdict: Amol Gole has been around as a cinematographer & even as a producer for a while, so certainly there were expectations from this film. But ‘Nashibvaan‘ doesn’t quite reward us in a way it could have, had it been more specific & confident about the things it wanted to say.
Rating: 2.5/5

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