KAAGAR (Marathi) | 27 April, 2019

Viacom18 Studios and Udahara­nartha’s Kaagar (Marathi; UA; mean­ing ‘A new beginning’) is a love story against the backdrop of politics.

Yuvraj (Shubhankar Tawde) is a software engineer but works for Guruji (Shashank Shende) who is a political mastermind. Yuvraj is in love with Rani (Rinku Rajguru) who is the daughter of Guruji. However, Guruji doesn’t know about Yuvraj and Rani’s love affair.

Guruji is planning to make current MLA Appasaheb Gaikwad’s (Suhas Palshikar) nephew, Bhaiyaraje (Shan­tanu Gangane) the new MLA. This doesn’t go down well with Appasa­heb. How Guruji uses Yuvraj to initiate daughter Rani into politics forms the crux of the drama. For this, he creates conditions for Yuvraj to attempt to kill Appasaheb. But the one who gets killed is Bhaiyaraje. The blame for the murder of Bhaiyaraje falls on Appa­saheb. With Yuvraj in hiding, Rani be­comes the new leader for the public in the village. Before Rani, Yuvraj was the darling of the villagers.

Does Rani realise the truth about her father’s machinations? Do Yuvraj and Rani get married?

Makarand Mane’s story is interesting and has a lot of twists and turns. His screenplay keeps the audience interested and engaged. The viewers are always eager to know what would be following as the drama is quite engrossing. But it must be added that the film loses a bit of its grip after interval. Dialogues, penned by Sanjay Pawar and Makarand Mane, are okay.

Rinku Rajguru does a fine job as Rani. Shubhankar Tawde makes a good debut in the role of Yuvraj. Shashank Shende performs ably as Guruji. Suhas Palshikar is alright as Appasaheb Gaikwad. Vitthal Kale lends good support in the role of Bhavdya, friend of Yuvraj. Shantanu Gangane is okay as Bhaiyaraje. Bhar­ati Patil (as Rani’s mother), Umesh Jagtap (as police inspector Yogesh Nikam), Milind Pathak (as secretary of Lok Vikas Party), Mahesh Bhosale and the others lend fair support.

Makarand Mane’s direction is prai­seworthy. He has handled the subject with maturity. A.V. Prafulla­chandra’s music comes as a hind­r­ance to the flow of the drama al­though it is fairly good. Lyrics (Vaibhav Deshmukh, A.V. Prafullachandra and Jai Aatre) are appropriate. Vitthal Patil’s choreo­graphy is ordinary. Background music (by A.V. Prafulla­chandra) is impactful. Abhijit D. Abde’s camerawork is of a good standard. Ranjit Desai’s art dir­ection is quite nice. Suchitra Sathe’s editing is sharp.

On the whole, Kaagar is a fair entertainer.

Released on 26-4-’19 at Bharatmata (daily 3 shows) and other cine­mas of Bombay by Viacom18 Motion Pictures. Publicity & opening: good.