Vhanshika Creations, Devaswwa Productions, Lawande Film and Vishnu Manohar Entertainment’s Once More (Marathi; UA) is the story of rebirth.
Kapil (Ashutosh Patki) and Anjali (Dhanashri Dalvi) are married. Cracks develop in their relationship because Kapil’s work keeps him away from home. Kapil has to often resort to lies to prevent his wife from losing her cool when he has to leave for work even at odd hours. Kapil works for the government and his job entails searching for ancient items, remains and studying them. His job also entails excavation of items from earth and sea.
One day, Kapil finds a chest in the sea. It contains, among other things, a dagger. He brings the dagger home and gives it to his wife. The chest also contains a map. The map leads Kapil and his friend, Rahul (Naresh Bidkar), to a cave. Rahul asks Kapil to bring the dagger from home. Once Kapil and Rahul return to the cave with the dagger, Kapil is transported to his past life.
Kapil was Ranvir (Ashutosh Patki) in his previous birth. He was the prince of Sanketpur. His father in this life (Vishnu Manohar) was also his father in the previous life. In other words, his father was the king of Sanketpur (Vishnu Manohar). Anjali was the princess of Awadhpur and her name was Aatmika (Dhanashri Dalvi). She was the daughter of Queen Satyadevi (Rohini Hattangady). In this life, her past life’s mother is Anjali’s grandfather (Rohini Hattangady). Awadhpur’s prime minister (Bharat Ganeshpure) is a doctor (Bharat Ganeshpure) in the present life. Rahul was Vinod (Naresh Bidkar) in the past life and even then, he was Ranvir’s pal.
Kapil recalls how he (Ranvir) and Aatmika were to get married in their past lives but could not. Why couldn’t the two get married?
Do Kapil and Anjali make up now? How?
Shweta Bidkar’s story about reincarnation is clichéd and, therefore, boring. Her screenplay is like the screenplay of earlier reincarnation films and hence it fails to keep the audience’s interest alive. Even her dialogues are dull.
Ashuthosh Patki makes a fairly good debut as Kapil and Ranvir. Dhanashri Dalvi is quite nice as Anjali and Aatmika. Rohini Hattangady leaves a mark as Anjali’s grandfather; in the role of Queen Satyadevi, she is okay. Naresh Bidkar has his moments as Vinod and Rahul. Bharat Ganeshpure is okay as the prime minister and the doctor. Vishnu Manohar is ordinary as Kapil’s father and also as Ranvir’s father. Purnima Talwalkar lends routine support as Kapil’s mother. Sushant Shelar (as Kapil’s boss) and Vinod Patil (as a soldier) are okay.
Naresh Bidkar’s direction is dull. Shailendra Barve’s music and Shweta Bidkar’s lyrics are just about passable. Song picturisations (by Chinni Prakash, Sandesh Chavan and Shweta-Tejas) are alright. Saurabh Bhalerao’s background music is commonplace. Sanjay Kumar Singh’s cinematography is of a good standard. Devdas Bhandare’s sets are quite rich. Prashant Naik’s action and stunt scenes lack thrill. Nilesh Navnath Gavand’s editing is loose.
On the whole, Once More is a poor fare and will meet with a disastrous fate.
Released on 1-8-’19 at Bharatmata (daily 1 show) and three more cinemas, and on 2-8-’19 at Plaza (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Sunshine Studios. Publicity: so-so. Opening: poor.