Saregama and Yoodlee Films’ Zombivli (Marathi; UA) is a film about zombies. Sudhir (Amey Wagh) and Seema (Vaidehi Parshurami) are a married couple. Seema is expecting their first child. Sudhir works in a packaged drinking water plant owned by Appa Musale (Vijay Nikam). Sudhir and Seema live in a tower in Bombay, near the plant.
Suddenly, some inhabitants of the nearby Janta Nagar hutment colony take ill and have to be hospitalised. The doctors are unable to understand what they are suffering from and why. One of the patients becomes a zombie. He bites another person so that the other person also becomes a zombie. Vishwas (Lalit Prabhakar) lives in the hutment colony and knows that Appa Musale, who had usurped land belonging to his (Vishwas) father to erect the packaged drinking water plant, is now taking the water rightfully belonging to the hutment colony, for his plant. The plant is next to the hutment colony.
Soon, a zombie attacks Sudhir. When Vishwas tries to save Sudhir, the latter misunderstands and has him (Vishwas) arrested. Before long, the zombies attack more people in the hospital, residents of the tower, and people at the police station. How Vishwas, Sudhir and the others expose Appa Musale, who is responsible for supplying dirty drinking water in the hutment colony, because of which humans become zombies, and how Seema and some others control the zombies are revealed in the end.
Mahesh Iyer’s story has novelty value for the Marathi film-going audience as it is the first zombie film in Marathi. The screenplay (written by Sidhhesh Purkar, Sainath Ganuwad, Mahesh Iyer and Yogesh Vinayak Joshi) is interesting and keeps the viewers engaged because of the several twists and turns. The drama is quite crisp. Dialogues, penned by Yogesh Vinayak Joshi, Sidhhesh Purkar and Sainath Ganuwad, are alright.
Amey Wagh does a very fine job as Sudhir who is scared in the beginning but becomes bold once it is a matter of life and death. Vaidehi Parshurami acts ably as Seema. Lalit Prabhakar performs very well in the role of Vishwas. Trupti Khamkar is effective as Seema’s maid, Malati. Janaki Pathak leaves a mark as news reporter Anjali. Vijay Nikam has his moments in a brief role as Appa Musale. Rajendra Shisatkar is okay as the secretary of the tower in which Sudhir and Seema live. Siddharth Jadhav (in a song-dance in the end) lends star value. Pradeep Joshi (as Bhide Aajoba), Pushkar Lonarkar (as Akhilesh) and others provide average support.
Aditya Sarpotdar’s direction is impactful. The comedy is entertaining while the scenes of the zombies are effective. A.V. Prafullchandra’s music is ear-pleasing. His background music is fantastic. Lyrics (Sant Eknath Maharaj, Vaibhav Deshmukh and Prashant Madpuwar) are nice. Raju Varghese’s choreography is so-so. Lawrence Alex D’Cunha’s camerawork is eye-filling. Manohar Verma’s action and stunt scenes are quite thrilling. Jayant Jathar’s editing is reasonably sharp.
On the whole, Zombivli is an entertaining fare with novelty value. It will do good business at the box-office.
Released on 26-1-’22 at Plaza (daily 2 shows) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: good. Opening: very good.