Birdboy Entertainment and Kolhapur Talkies’ Vishay Hard (Marathi; UA) is the story of a girl whose marriage is fixed with a boy but who is in love with another boy.
The film is set in a village and during COVID-19 times. Dolly’s (Parna Pethe) parents finalise her marriage with hawaldar Kishore (Vipin Borate). However, Dolly loves Sandya (Sumit Patil) who is in quarantine as he has just returned from Pune. Sandya is cash-strapped. Sandya gets to know that Kishore will marry Dolly and hence he escapes from the quarantine centre. Unaware that Sandya loves Dolly, Kishore goes in search of Sandya with the village police chief (Nitin Kulkarni). Matters keep getting more and more complex: Dolly gets restless; Sandya tests positive for COVID-19; Kishore learns of Sandya’s affair with Dolly; the battery of Sandya’s cell phone gets discharged; Dolly runs away from home but loses her cell phone. What happens finally?
Sumit Patil’s story has been stretched beyond limits with a view to making it more and more complex. Although the light moments are entertaining, the screenplay looks contrived at many places. Screenplay writers Sumit Patil and Deepak Madekar keep adding twists and turns to prolong the drama but most of the twists and turns appear quite kiddish. Therefore, even though the comedy is interesting, the drama starts to irritate the viewers after a point. Sumit Patil and Deepak Madekar’s dialogues are okay.
Sumit Patil does well as Sandya. Parna Pethe is good in the role of Dolly. Vipin Borate is okay as hawaldar Kishore. Nitin Kulkarni evokes a lot of laughter as the village police chief. Hassan Sheikh is alright as Shrinya. His comedy is reasonably entertaining. Pratap Sonale lends average support as Manu driver. Anand Ballal has his moments as Dolly’s father. Chaitrali Inamdar provides ordinary support as Dolly’s mother. Atul Savekar (as Sandya’s father), Rakesh Gath (as Sandya’s friend, Amrya), Sagar Langote (as Sandya’s friend, Sashya), Ravindra Kamat (as the sarpanch), Adhishri (as the young Dolly), Nihal Mirajkar (as the young Sandya) and Bhumi Patil (as Dolly’s younger sister, Barki) are passable.
Sumit Patil’s direction is average. Sahil Kulkarni’s music is fair. The title song and Yeda he man majhe are reasonably well-tuned. Lyrics (Nandkumar Gorule, Sudarshan Khot, Sahil Kulkarni, Sumit, Rishabh Patil and Vishal Sadaphule) are okay. Omkar Shete’s choreography passes muster. Avi Lohar’s background music is fair. Camerawork (by Abhishek Shete and Jay Parikh) is alright. Swapnil Bandekar and Vinayak Sutar’s art direction is average. Sourabh Prabhudesai’s editing is quite sharp.
On the whole, Vishay Hard may be funny but it will fail to bring a smile to the faces of the people associated with it because it looks too forced a fare.
Released on 5-7-’24 at Citylight (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru August Entertainment. Publicity & opening: poor.