Viacom18 Studios and Windows Production House’s Shastry Viruddh Shastry is the story of a legal battle between a man and his son over the custody/guardianship of his grandson.
Manohar Shastry (Paresh Rawal) and his wife (Neena Kulkarni) have been looking after their grandson, Yaman alias Momoji (Kabir Pahwa), since he was three months old. A little school-going kid now, he is adorable and loves his grandparents. Yaman’s parents — Malhaar Shastry (Shiv Pandit) and Mallika Shastry (Mimi Chakraborty) — are a working couple and live in another city. They come to meet their son often. Malhaar has left his job but Mallika is doing pretty well and so sustenance is not a problem. Malhaar and Mallika are now planning to settle in the USA where Malhaar will start a business with friend Jayesh Dave (Adinath Kothare). The parents want to take son Yaman with them, but Manohar Shastry goes to court to restrain his own son from taking away his grandson to the USA. What happens in the court? Does the court grant custody of the child to the grandfather or the father?
Nandita Roy’s original story on relationships is heartfelt. Nandita Roy’s screenplay and Anu Singh Choudhary’s adapted screenplay are very engaging but having said that, it must be added that the drama is heavy and tension-ridden and, therefore, class-appealing. For the large mass base of the audience, it is unlikely that they will find the heavy drama too engrossing. The courtroom drama is quite emotional and is bound to move the weak-hearted viewers to tears. The heartwarming moments in the drama are very touching. Shiboprasad Mukherjee and Anu Singh Choudhary’s dialogues are weighty and evoke the right emotions.
Paresh Rawal delivers a brilliant performance as Manohar Shastry. Neena Kulkarni is excellent as his wife. Shiv Pandit lives the role of Malhaar Shastry. Mimi Chakraborty is fantastic in a difficult role as Mallika Shastry. Kabir Pahwa is cute and endearing as Yaman, and his acting is first-rate. Manoj Joshi plays lawyer Jitesh Mehta with conviction. Amruta Subhash is outstanding in the role of defence lawyer Shalini Patwardhan. K.K. Raina plays the judge effectively. Adinath Kothare makes his presence felt in the role of Jayesh Dave. Tiku Talsania has his moments as Sunil Doshi. Others lend decent support.
Nandita Roy and Shiboprasad Mukherjee’s direction is sensitive. Music (Anindya Chatterjee, Anupam Roy and Arindom) is melodious but lacks popular appeal. Lyrics (Swanand Kirkire, Manoj Yadav and Mayur Puri) are meaningful and weighty. There are some re-arranged songs too. Amit Chatterjee’s background music is nice. Sanu John Varughese’s cinematography is lovely. Production designing (by Indrani Pillai) is appropriate. Malay Laha’s editing is super-sharp.
On the whole, Shastry Viruddh Shastry is a sensitive and emotional film which will win a lot of critical acclaim, but its business will be very limited for two reasons — it has only class appeal, and its promotion is very dull.
Released on 3-11-’23 at Inox Metro (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Publicity & opening: very weak. …….Also released all over. Opening was dull everywhere.