Dhurala Movie Review: A Brilliant Political Drama that Appeals in a Very Humane Way!

• Movie : Dhurala (2019) | धुरळा
• Producer : Zee Studios, Anish Joag, Ranjit Gugle
• Director : Sameer Vidwans
• Star Cast : Ankush Chaudhari, Sai Tamhankar, Siddharth Jadhav, Sonalee Kulkarni, Amey Wagh, Prasad Oak, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Umesh Kamat & Alka Kubal-Athalye
• Story, Screenplay and Dialogues : Kshitij Patwardhan
• Background Music : A V Prafullchandra

Viewpoint: Marathi cinema has had very few but great political films over the years. Most of them have lasted the test of time and are considered classics. Moreover we as a culture are very politically inclined and find day to day political incidents fascinating and exciting with our strong opinions about it. The recent chaotic political atmosphere also fueled the same, and in between all this ‘Dhurala’ is a brilliantly crafted political film that we all deserved!

What Works? 

• Unlike many other recent Indian political films, the political canvas of ‘Dhurala’ is smaller. It’s not about state level or national level politicians but about a political family working within the boundaries of a village. But the makers of this film have proved that the stakes are equally high here! In fact since the focus remains on a family and their internal as well as external politics the film becomes very character driven and we get to know all the primary characters in & out!
• The dialogue writing of the film strikes the right balance of being slightly filmy yet extremely believable! ‘Right’ because that’s what we see politicians doing too! Dramaticness or ‘filmyness’ has become an inseparable part of our politics.
• The film gives an inside view of how a political family functions from within. How in a strange way their privilege might actually be more of a curse. We understand the ruthlessness and the ugliness of the political games they have to play to survive or go forward.
• All the lead actors get an equal opportunity to shine! Siddharth Jadhav and Sonalee Kulkarni in particular get to play characters which they had never played before and shine in them! Ankush Chaudhari matches the subtle smartness of his character perfectly and Sai Tamhankar again hits it out of the park with her extremely sensitive performance!
• Technically the film is good at all levels. But it’s the background score that stands out bright and bold! The score gives context to many simpler scenes and makes us more interested than otherwise. It’s not just the quality of the score but the timing of it that makes the difference I believe and this film has so precisely got it right!
• Eventually ‘Dhurala’ works as a basic human drama. The setting is all of a political film, but somewhere we see ourselves in the film, that is what cinema is supposed to do! It has to speak to us in a very human way beyond all of it’s outer layers!

What Fails?

• No real major flaw in this film. Except a little one, I feel many a times the film doesn’t build an atmosphere. It feels a little too focused on it’s characters alone (which is great) but visually it could have done with building scenes in such a way that we feel where exactly is it happening, and we are a part of it.

Final Verdict: Post Sairat Marathi cinema has been in search of a film that works easily with a broader audience and is also brilliantly crafted. ‘Dhurala’ has that potential in my opinion. It surely feels like a hopeful resurrection of good Marathi cinema at the box office!

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