‘FAAS’ (MARATHI) REVIEW | 4 February, 2022

Ma Film Entertainment’s Faas (Marathi) is the story of a farmer’s suicide.

Farmer Baliram (Kamlesh Sawant) is frustrated because of poor crops since several years. Unable to sustain himself and his family comprising wife Laxmi (Pallavi Palkar), son Vishnu (master Sarthak Patil) and daughter Soni (baby Vallavi Deshpande), Baliram hangs himself to death. Police inspector Ghorpade (Upendra Limaye) comes to investigate the suicide. The village doctor, Dr. Patil (Sayaji Shinde), is busy with his son’s birthday celebrations and pleads inability to do the post-mortem. After waiting for several hours, Ghorpade and the villagers take the dead body to the hospital. This does not go down well with Dr. Patil who now thinks of an excuse to teach Ghorpade a lesson. What happens thereafter?

Maheshwari Patil Chakurkar’s story is fairly nice but the fact remains that it is about a farmer’s suicide and, therefore, lacks novelty. Avinash Kolte’s screenplay has some emotional moments like the scene in which farmer Baliram draws a comparison between farmers and police inspectors. However, the screenplay is not consistently effective. Maheshwari Patil Chakurkar’s dialogues are fair.

Upendra Limaye does a good job as police inspector Ghorpade. Kamlesh Sawant is alright as farmer Baliram. Pallavi Palkar delivers a fine performance as Baliram’s wife, Laxmi. Sayaji Shinde lends good support as Dr. Patil. Ganesh Chandanshive (as Baliram’s friend, Namdev), Pawan Vaidya (as the village sarpanch), master Sarthak Patil (as Baliram’s son, Vishnu), baby Vallavi Deshpande (as Baliram’s daughter, Soni) and Vinay Joshi provide adequate support.

Avinash Kolte’s direction is okay. Allen K.P.’s music is ordinary; the Shiv Jayanti song is quite alright. Amol Deshmukh’s lyrics are so-so. Background music is routine. Ramani Ranjan Das’ camerawork is okay. Santosh Samudre’s art direction passes muster. Editing (by Ashish Mhatre and Apoorva Motiwale) is crisp.

On the whole, Faas has some entertainment value, but lack of novelty is its biggest bane.

Released on 4-2-’22 at Glamour (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Pickle Entertainment. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor.