Dr. Mohan Agashe’s Outhouse is the story of two elderly singles. Nana (Dr. Mohan Agashe) lives alone in Pune. A dog enters his life and his house — and his life changes forever. The same dog also changes the life of Adima (Sharmila Tagore), a senior graphic designer artiste. Actually, the dog, Pablo (Simba), belongs to Neel (Jeehan Hodar), the grandson of Adima. When Neel comes to spend a few days with his grandmother, along with Pablo, Adima is forced to do things she would’ve otherwise never dreamt of doing. Neel’s Pablo goes missing one day, and Neel is distraught. Pablo has actually gone into the house of Nana who lives in the building which is next to Adima’s bungalow which, incidentally, has an outhouse. Nana christens the dog Sugar. Dressed up as detectives, Adima and Neel trace Pablo to Nana’s house and manage to retrieve it after a lot of efforts. Unaware that his Sugar is actually Neel’s Pablo, Nana goes to fetch the dog from Adima and Neel under the assumption that they have stolen his dog. To save their own dog, Adima and Neel hide it in their outhouse. Meanwhile, Adima and Nana meet and get to know each other. They also talk of their children/grandchildren who are always so concerned about their well-being that they don’t realise that they are not giving them their space. While Nana’s grandson, Nikhil (Sunil Abhyankar), wants Nana to come and stay with him and his family in Bombay, Adima’s daughter, Vasu (Sonali Kulkarni), doesn’t want Adima to live alone in Pune. What happens finally? Does Pablo/Sugar live with Adima or Neel or does it go to Nana?
Sumitra Bhave has written a story which is so simple that it is good to hear as a short story but, perhaps, not good enough to make a film based on it. Sumitra Bhave’s screenplay, with additional screenplay by Sunil Sukthankar, gets repetitive after a point of time because the story line is so thin. It moves on a single track and although there is the track of Vasu and that of Nikhil too, these tracks aren’t substantive enough. The audience also wonders why Adima and Neel can’t simply explain to Nana that Pablo is their dog so that the confusion would come to an end and there would be no need to steal what actually belonged to them. Sumitra Bhave’s dialogues and Sunil Sukthankar’s additional dialogues are ordinary.
Sharmila Tagore acts ably as Adima. Dr. Mohan Agashe does a fine job as Nana. Jeehan Hodar is okay as Neel, but his over-confidence gets irritating at times. Neeraj Kabi (as Neel’s father) and Sonali Kulkarni (as Neel’s mother) lend very nice support. Sunil Abhyankar leaves a fine mark as Nana’s grandson, Nikhil. Rajeshwari Sachdeva makes her presence felt in a brief role as Shernaaz. Pradeep Joshi has his moments as Nana’s friend, Londhe.
Sunil Sukthankar’s direction is so-so. He has not been able to make an arresting drama. Saket Kanetkar’s music is not of the popular variety. Sunil Sukthankar’s lyrics are okay. Dhananjay Kulkarni’s camerawork is appropriate. Sampada Gejji’s production designing is average. Mohit Takalkar’s editing is fair.
On the whole, Outhouse is a film which will find few takers among the public as it doesn’t have commercial prospects.
Released on 20-12-’24 at PVR Citi Mall Andheri (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay by Developing Awareness Through Entertainment (D.A.T.E.). Publicity & opening: poor. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.