Zee Studios, Ocean Film Company and Ocean Art House’s Dashavatar (Marathi; UA) is the story of a drama artiste.
Babuli Mestri (Dilip Prabhavalkar) is a very popular theatre artiste of Dashavatar (traditional folk theatre form of the Konkan region). Due to ageing problems, his son, Madhav (Siddharth Menon), wants Babuli to stop acting. But Babuli is unwilling to stop — also because Madhav is unemployed in spite of being educated. Madhav makes and sells toys for a living. He is in love with Vandana (Priyadarshini Indalkar). Finally, Babuli promises to stop acting when Madhav would get a job. With the village sarpanch’s help, Madhav gets a job in cabinet minister Ashok Sarmalkar’s (Vijay Kenkare) mining company. But when Madhav tries to raise his voice against Sarmalkar, his manager, Mansukhani (Lokesh Mittal), and the village sarpanch, for their devious plans, he is murdered. Policeman Parab (Sunil Tawade) projects the murder as a suicide by a failed lover. How Babuli and Madhav’s girlfriend, Vandana, expose the evil intentions of Sarmalkar and the others and how they eliminate them forms the crux of the latter part of the story.
Subodh Khanolkar’s story lacks novelty but the climax, in which the evil men are murdered by people dressed as theatre actors, is a fresh angle. Subodh Khanolkar’s screenplay is fair although it does get predictable at times. The shock value is missing. The revenge part of the drama is fairly exciting. Guru Thakur’s dialogues are okay.
Dilip Prabhavalkar is excellent as Babuli Mestri. Priyadarshini Indalkar performs well as Vandana. Siddharth Menon acts ably in the role of Madhav. Mahesh Manjrekar is alright as police inspector Michael Decosta. Ravi Kale leaves a mark as village sarpanch Aaba Tandel. Sunil Tawade is okay as policeman Parab. Vijay Kenkare lends fair support as cabinet minister Ashok Sarmalkar. Bharat Jadhav is okay as forest officer Laxman Wadekar. Abhinay Berde provides average support as Ashok Sarmalkar’s son, Monty. Aarti Wadagbalkar is okay as hawaldar Ujwala Sawant. Lokesh Mittal passes muster as manager Mansukhani. Guru Thakur (as the doctor), Akshay Chinchurkar (as young Babuli), Avaan Prafullachandra (as kid Madhav), Padmakar Oze (as Naik master), Shweta Kudalkar (as Vandana’s mother), Anil Rasal (as Bhalu), Satish Joshi (as Soman Guruji), Dada Rane Konaskar (as the bhajia vendor) and Vaibhavi Pardeshi (as Aaba Tandel’s wife) lend ordinary support. Others are passable.
Subodh Khanolkar’s direction is quite good. A.V. Prafullchandra’s background music is better than his music. Guru Thakur’s lyrics are alright. Soniya Parchure and Pooja Kale’s choreography is fair. Devendra Golatkar does a fine job of the camerawork. Bikash Kumar Singh’s action and stunt scenes are functional. Sanjeev Rane’s production designing is of a good standard. Faisal Mahadik’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Dashavatar is a fair entertainer.
Released on 12-9-’25 at Plaza (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay by Zee Studios. Publicity & opening: good.