Timelapse Productions and AJ Multimedia Productions’ Gaabh (Marathi; UA) is the story of mating of buffaloes.
Dadu (Kailash Waghmare) lives with his grandmother (Vasundhara Pokhrankar) in a village near Kolhapur. On his grandma’s request, Dadu buys a female buffalo. Dadu works for a man who also has a female buffalo. One day, the boss asks Dadu to go to Gundyappa (Umesh Bolake) with his (boss’) buffalo so that the female buffalo can mate with Gundyappa’s male buffalo. This is because Gundyappa is the only person in the region, who owns a male buffalo. Dadu used to be in love with Gundyappa’s daughter, Fulwa (Sayali Bandkar).
But the mating of the two buffaloes doesn’t happen as Fulwa demands too much money for lending her male buffalo. A few days later, Dadu takes his own female buffalo to Fulwa for mating, but learns that she has run away with the buffalo as she was against her marriage fixed by her mother.
Does Fulwa return home? Do Dadu and Fulwa unite in matrimony? Does Dadu’s buffalo get to mate with Fulwa’s buffalo?
Anup Jatrakar’s story lacks appeal. His screenplay is too ordinary to really impress the audience. Several sudden flashbacks only serve to confuse the viewers. Anup Jatrakar’s dialogues are average.
Kailash Waghmare performs ably as Dadu. Sayali Bandkar is impressive as Fulwa. Vasundhara Pokhrankar is okay as Dadu’s grandmother. Umesh Bolake is alright in the role of Fulwa’s father. Shraddha Pawar lends routine support as Fulwa’s mother. Vikas Patil makes his presence felt as Dadu’s friend, Janya. Chandrashekhar Janawade has his moments as Dadu’s friend, Kisan. Others are passable.
Anup Jatrakar’s direction is routine. His choice of subject is weird. Chandrashekhar Janawade’s music and lyrics are fairly nice. Tujha reda mi tu majhi mhas is the best song, followed by Yedu ra khula. Phulwa Khamkar’s choreography is alright. Ravindra Chandekar’s background music is average. Veerdhaval Patil’s camerawork is ordinary. Sundar Kumar’s art direction is okay. Editing (Ravindra Chandekar) is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Gaabh is a flop show.
Released on 21-6-’24 at Movie Time Goregaon (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Panorama Studios. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor.