Amazon Prime and Excel Entertainment’s Agni (UA) is the story of the risky and oftentimes thankless lives which firefighters lead.
Vitthalrao Surve (Pratik Gandhi) is a firefighter who heads the Parel fire station in Bombay. He leads a team of firefighters. Suddenly, there’s a spike in the number of fires in the city and although they seem to be accidental in the beginning, Vitthalrao and his team discover a pattern in all the fires. That’s when suspicion that these may be cases of arson arises. Vitthalrao’s brother-in-law, Samit Sawant (Divyendu Sharma), is a popular police inspector who is also proud of his status. Vitthalrao and Samit can barely see eye to eye even though the former is the husband of the latter’s sister. However, Vitthalrao’s wife, Rukmini Surve (Sai Tamhankar), and Samit’s wife, Sayali Sawant (Sakhi Gokhale), get along very well. Even while the matter about likely arson is being probed by the police team led by Samit Sawant, Vitthalrao hits upon a clue which is very crucial. He makes a quick phone call to his colleague, Mahadev (Jitendra Joshi), but does that help? What is that clue? Is Vitthalrao able to avert more such fires?
Rahul Dholakia has written a very heartfelt story which arrests the audience’s attention right from the word ‘go’. The life of firefighters has never been the subject matter of any film and hence the story has immense novelty value. Dholakia’s screenplay is fast-paced and so engrossing that the viewers can’t take their eyes off the screen for even a moment lest they miss something crucial. It may seem that a story about firefighters would be boring but it must be said to the credit of Rahul Dholakia that he has not let it become dull, dry or drab. He has infused so many ingredients like stunts, tension, melodrama, light moments, family emotions, etc. in the screenplay that the drama is like any other entertainer’s. The track of Mahadev in the post-interval portion is fantastic and will shake the core of the audience. It would be right to say that the story and screenplay are almost flawless. The dialogues in the film are so outstanding and such gems that writer Vijay Maurya turns out to be no less than a hero of the film.
Before coming to the performances, it must be said that the casting by Nandini Shrikent and Karan Mally is excellent. Pratik Gandhi is phenomenal as Parel fire station chief Vitthalrao Surve. He lives the role and shines with an absolutely splendid performance. Divyendu Sharma is outstanding as police inspector Samit Sawant. His acting is so wonderful that it is a delight to watch him. His nuances and cool confidence are to die for. The scenes of Pratik Gandhi and Divyendu Sharma together are a veritable treat for the viewers. Both of them complement each other so well that the entertainment value for the viewers goes up because of them. Jitendra Joshi is remarkable as Mahadev. He owns the screen for some time towards and in the climax. Sai Tamhankar does a marvellous job as Rukmini Surve, giving her character a lot of dignity. Saiyami Kher is very real and supremely natural in her performance as Avni Purohit. Udit Arora is endearing to the core in the role of Jazz. Sakhi Gokhale makes her presence amply felt as Sayali Sawant. Kabir Shah is lovely as Amar Surve. Anant Jog does a splendid job as the deputy chief minister. Abhishek Khandekar has his moments as Tawde. Kanchan Pagare makes a lovely impression as Kamble. Saurabh Sharma leaves a fine mark as Kadam. Pramod Pathak is good in the role of fire chief Pankaj Mishra. Gopal Shelke is good as Niraj Shukla. Bhushan Mahale leaves a mark as Mahadev’s fireman, Nagesh. Aatul does a nice job as Udayraj Balsara. Nimish Kulkarni (as Nipun Nagpurkar), Paritosh Tiwari (as Torch), Hitesh Chauhan (as Abdul Ali Rehman), Nitin Dhongaade (as Bittoo), Shakunt Joshipura (as Kartik Baviskar), Sajan Kumar (as Vinod Manjule), Rohit Petkar (as Namdeo Khedekar), Sushant Shetty (as Surya Sable), Pradeep Jangid (as Ashok Mule), Kundan Roy (as Nakul Ingle), Hitesh Dave (as the cop), Vijay Sanap (as Sunil Karkhanis), Aslam Wadkar (as Pandurang Parab), Susheel Parashar (as the doctor), Sanjay Bhardwaj (as Gulabchand), Jaywant Wadkar (as Ganphule), Puneet Kumar Mishra (as Amit Naik), Abhinandan Tejaswi (as the burnt man), Sayalee Sambhare (as the burnt man’s wife), Nupura Bhaskar (as the burnt man’s relative), Aditya Raj (as the dead firefighter’s son), Dhanay Seth (as Amar’s friend, Mahesh) and the others provide great support.
Rahul Dholakia’s direction is superb. He has made a film which appears to be straight from his heart. John Stewart Eduri’s background music is pretty impactful. K.U. Mohanan’s cinematography is fantastic. Dr. K. Ravi Verma’s action and stunt scenes are breathtaking and very realistic. Production designing (by Acropolis — Sumit Basu, Snigdha Basu and Rajnish Hedao) and art direction (Rachna Mandal and Bidhan Guha) are of a fine standard. Deepa Bhatia’s editing is super-crisp.
On the whole, Agni is a wonderful film which entertains and even shocks. After watching it, one will hold firefighters in high esteem for the risky lives they lead and for being the unsung heroes they are.
Released on 6-12-’24 on Amazon Prime.