Smita Film Production’s Kulkarni Chowkatala Deshpande (Marathi; UA; meaning ‘Deshpande at Kulkarni Chowk’) is a family drama.
Jaya Deshpande (Sai Tamhankar), who had had a love marriage, is now divorced from her husband, Avinash Deshpande (Nikhil Ratnaparkhi). The custody of their only son, Amey (master Piyush), is with Jaya. While Jaya stays with her mother (Neena Kulkarni), Amey stays in boarding. Satish Kulkarni (Rajesh Shringarpure) lives with his young son, Rahul (master Atharva Bedekar). Satish’s wife is sickly and does not live with Satish.
By the by, Jaya and Satish fall in love. They decide to get married but before taking the plunge, Satish is keen that his son and Jaya’s son develop a bond between themselves. While the two sons get along well, Amey tells mother Jaya that he would never accept Satish Kulkarni as his father. Amey, however, doesn’t stop his mother from marrying Satish. Why, Satish even offers to adopt Amey as his own son by giving him his family name (Kulkarni) but Avinash is not game for his son’s surname being changed. Jaya is in a fix, confused whether she should marry Satish or not. She even contemplates returning to her ex-husband. What happens finally?
Gajendra Ahire’s story is not at all convincing or even appealing. His screenplay is boring, especially after interval. The biggest drawback of the screenplay is that it neither moves the audience emotionally nor involves them. Frankly, the audience couldn’t care about what Jaya, Satish and Avinash want to do. Gajendra Ahire’s dialogues are ordinary.
Sai Tamhankar acts ably as Jaya. Rajesh Shringarpure is alright as Satish Kulkarni. Master Piyush does a fantastic job as Amey Deshpande. Master Atharva Bedekar excels in the role of Rahul Kulkarni. Nikhil Ratnaparkhi lends fair support as Avinash Deshpande. Neena Kulkarni is so-so as Jaya’s mother. Others are ordinary.
Gajendra Ahire’s direction is not upto the mark as he has been unable to make a heart-rending film. Music (Soumil-Siddharth, Gajendra Ahire, Sayali Khare, Chaitanya Adkar and Narendra Bhide) is average. Lyrics (Sayali Khare and Gajendra Ahire) are commonplace. Bhakti Naik’s choreography hardly deserves separate mention. Narendra Bhide’s background music is not very effective. Arjun Sorate’s camerawork is nice. The Leh-Ladakh locations are very eye-filling. Santosh Phutane’s art direction is proper. Suchitra Sathe’s editing is loose.
On the whole, Kulkarni Chowkatala Deshpande is a flop fare.
Released on 22-11-’19 at Bharatmata (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: so-so- Opening: poor.