Pune Talkies Pvt. Ltd.’s 66 Sadashiv (Marathi) is the story of a photographer who also teaches people the art of fighting for one’s rights, which is the 66th Art.
Prabhakar Shrikhande (Mohan Joshi) lives at 66 Sadashiv and is known by the name of his house. He is a photographer who owns a studio. In his free time, he teaches people the 66th art, which is the art of asserting oneself and fighting for one’s rights. His wife is Meenatai (Vandana Gupte). Their daughter, Kadambari (Apurva Modak), helps her father in teaching the 66th art. She learns singing under Gayatri (Vishakha Subhedar) and is also an accomplished singer. She falls in love with Abir (Yogesh Deshpande).
One day, politician Nagare (Pravin Tarde) raises an objection to the classes being run by Prabhakar Shrikhande. However, Prabhakar is unwilling to close down the classes even after the court passes a stay order in favour of Nagare. In the end, Prabhakar musters support for the classes and restarts them. Kadambari and Abir get engaged to be married.
Yogesh Deshpande’s story and screenplay are boring and they border on the ridiculous because no purpose is served by the drama which often becomes directionless. His dialogues are okay.
Mohan Joshi acts ably as Prabhakar Shrikhande. Apurva Modak is alright as Kadambari. Vandana Gupte lends decent support as Meenatai. Yogesh Deshpande is not hero material. His performance, as Abir, is so-so. Pravin Tarde has his moments as Nagare. Vishakha Subhedar is okay in a brief role as Gayatri. Mahesh Manjrekar (as Abir’s father), Jayant Savarkar, Asawari Joshi, Vijay Nikam, Pranav Raorane, Ashutosh Wadekar and Yogini Pofale are adequate.
Yogesh Deshpande fails as director just as he fails as script writer. Narendra Bhide’s music is quite good. Lyrics (Vaibhav Joshi, Milind Deshpande and Yogesh Deshpande) are nice. Ajit Reddy’s camerawork is eye-filling. Sandeep Inamke’s art direction is routine. Sanket Kulkarni’s editing leaves something to be desired.
On the whole, 66 Sadashiv is a flop show.
Released on 10-5-’19 at Plaza (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru AA Films. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor.