‘PICCOLO’ (MARATHI) REVIEW | 26 January, 2023

Fortigo Motion Pictures Pvt. Ltd.’s Piccolo (Marathi) is the story of a village and a music band there.

Victor (Pranav Raorane) heads a music band in a village which has Maharashtrian and Christian people. In spite of being a Christian, Victor is in love with Priti (Ashwini Kasar), a Maharashtrian. Priti is also part of Victor’s music band and she loves Victor too.

Both the communities lose several of their members when two fishing boats sink into the river one day. In spite of so many deaths, Victor and his band keep practising. This infuriates the Maharashtrian community no end. However, Victor wins over the villagers. Unfortunately, he dies suddenly while performing with his band one day. Dashrath (Harshad Parab), an orphan kid in the village, takes Victor’s dream forward.

Pramod Shelar’s story is of the kind which would appeal more to the class audience. Victor not giving the practice sessions a break in spite of his own father and Priti’s father dying in the boat accident looks weird. Victor winning over the villagers looks unconvincing. Abhijeet Mohan Warang’s screenplay is not very engaging as its moves on the predictable path. His dialogues are average.

Pranav Raorane is okay as Victor. Ashwini Kasar is average as Priti. Vishwajeet Palav is so-so as Rodricks. Namita Gaokar lends ordinary support as Victor’s mother, Maria. Kishore Chougule is okay in a brief role as Victor’s father, Rometh. Abhay Khadapkar provides routine support in the role of Priti’s father, Bhagwan. Diksha Puralkar (as Rozy), Ramesh Kanekar (as Peter), Raghu Jagtap (as Santosh), Harshad Parab (as Dashrath), Vivek Walake, Padma Vengurlekar and Milind Gurav provide reasonable support. Others are adequate,

Abhijeet Mohan Warang’s direction is dull. Anand Lunkad’s music is only instrumental, without songs. It is quite alright. Karthik Parmar’s cinematography is of a fine standard. Narendra Bhagat’s art direction is nice. Parag Sawant’s editing leaves something to be desired.

On the whole, Piccolo is a flop show.

Released on 26-1-’23 at Gem (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Filmastra Studios. Publicity & opening: poor.