Bhansali Productions, T-Series and Mahaveer Jain’s Malaal (UA) is a love story.
Shiva (Meezaan) lives in a chawl with his parents (Anil Gawas and Chinmayee Surve) and younger sister. Since he does nothing except while away his time, play cricket and consume alcohol every night, his father can’t stand him. However, his mother dotes on him.
In the same chawl comes to live Astha (Sharmin Segal) with her parents (Sanjay Gurbaxani and Sonal Jha) and younger brother. Astha’s father was rich but having faced huge losses in the share bazaar, he has had to shift in the lower middle-class chawl. Astha is studying to be a Chartered Accountant.
Shiva falls in love with Astha. Although Astha’s marriage is fixed with the affluent Aditya (Ishwak Singh), she finds Shiva to be a far better person and so she falls in love with him. In Astha’s company, Shiva begins to turn over a new leaf as she sees a spark in him. Why, she even gets him a job and although it’s not a white-collared one, she prevails upon him to take it up. She also wants him to open his bank account. Shiva loves Astha so much that he is prepared to do whatever Astha wants him to do.
All hell breaks loose when Astha’s parents learn of Shiva and Astha’s love affair. Since Astha loves her father very much, she decides to not go against his wishes. She agrees to marry Aditya and sacrifice her love for Shiva. However, Shiva is unwilling to give up so easily.
What happens thereafter? Does Astha obey her parents or does she get married to Shiva? Is Shiva able to convince her parents or do they elope? Does Shiva continue with his job even after his love story with Astha ends?
The film is based on the original story by K. Selvaraghavan. The story is interesting and although it appears to be the typical love story beset with hurdles, it emerges as a fairly fresh take on a regular love story. The angle of the girl wanting to make her beloved a responsible man is a fairly novel twist in the tale. The climax is both, shocking at one point and also fresh. The screenplay, written by Mangesh Hadawale and Sanjay Leela Bhansali, with additional screenplay by Sanjeev, is quite engaging. It tries to pack in drama, romance, emotions, action, song and dance to make it a wholesome entertainer. While the romance is reasonably heartwarming, it does get repetitive at times because there isn’t much variation in what the lovers do after a point of time. The light moments are quite enjoyable but they often lack freshness. The screenplay dips at places in the first half. The general pace drops after interval. Also, light moments are few and far between in the second half, particularly in the latter part of the second half. The very Maharashtrian flavour, Maharashtrian characters and even Marathi dialogues greatly restrict the film’s appeal. The audience in North, South and East India will not appreciate so much of the Maharashtrian flavour.
On the plus side are some wonderful scenes. For instance, the scene in which Shiva shows his appointment letter to his father is one of the best scenes in the film. The first confrontation between Shiva and Astha’s dad is also very good. The start of the climax comes as a terrible shock to the viewers. The ending may be heartwarming but it leaves a vacuum inside the viewers.
Dialogues, penned by Mangesh Hadawale, with additional dialogues by Kamal Pandey, are very good. Some of the dialogues are even excellent.
Meezaan makes a superb debut as Shiva. He has fantastic screen presence and is a fine actor too. He has a lovely personality and is so easy in front of the cameras that he soon endears himself to the public. Not just in acting, he is also good in action and superb in dances. Sharmin Segal makes a fair debut as Astha. But she doesn’t have the looks of a heroine. Anil Gawas is superb in the role of Shiva’s father. In the role of Shiva’s mother, Chinmayee Surve is supremely natural. Sanjay Gurbaxani makes a fine impact in the role of Astha’s father. Sonal Jha leaves a nice mark as Astha’s mother. Ishwak Singh is just about alright as Aditya. Deepak Damle (as Jadhav), Badriprasad Chavan (as Nandu), Chetan Chitnis (as Babban) and Suyash Lata Zunjurke (as Fukya) lend able support. Radha Sagar has her moments as Swati. Sunil Tavade (as Mr. Bhonsle) is good. Samir Dharmadhikari is wasted as Sawant. Others provide the required support.
Mangesh Hadawale’s direction is sensitive. He has handled the subject with the maturity it required. Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s music, with additional music by Shail Hada and Shreyas Puranik, is a major plus point of the film. ‘Aila re’, ‘Udhal ho’, ‘Ek malaal’ (all three composed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali) and ‘Zara suno’ (Shail Hada) are the best songs and have excellent tunes. The other songs are also melodious. Lyrics (Prashant Ingole, Vimal Kashyap and A.M. Turaz) are weighty. Song picturisations (by Ganesh Acharya and Kruti Mahesh) are eye-filling. Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara’s background music is terrific and heightens the impact of the scenes. Ragul Dharuman’s cinematography is very nice. Vikram Dahiya’s action and stunts are real. Akriti Piplani Bajaj’s production designing, and Vilas Atmaram Panchal and Hansraj Bhaktawala’s art direction are appropriate. Rajesh G. Pandey’s editing is sharp.
On the whole, Malaal has some good songs and a lovely hero in Meezaan, but it is low on the entertainment quotient, especially for the audience outside of Maharashtra. As such, it will not be able to make any mark at the box-office.
Released on 5-7-’19 at Regal (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru PEN Marudhar Cine Entertainment. Publicity: good. Opening: dull. …….Also released all over. Opening was weak everywhere.