Its your life...Make it large!: Deool - An eye opener

Its your life...Make it large!: Deool - An eye opener: After many disappointing outings to the theater (read cinema halls and multiplexes) starting with the much anticipated, super hyped, overtl...

Deool - An eye opener

After many disappointing outings to the theater (read cinema halls and multiplexes) starting with the much anticipated, super hyped, overtly advertized and excessively breathing-down-your-throat publicized 'Badshah of Bolywood' (yeah, I know, Badshah MY FOOT!) starrer Ra One and followed by an equally depressing and disappointing Imtiaz Ali directed Ranbir Kapoor starrer 'Rockstar' (Frankly I feel the movie should’ve been christened Flopstar instead) I was finally able to watch a Marathi movie called ‘Deool.’ The movie married the two most important characteristics of a good movie – entertainment and purpose. It also does one thing that most English movies are good at doing – leaving the viewer (audience) with something to ponder upon, something to think about and analyze. Obviously, it does not have a perfect ending as such, but then again, not all endings are really perfect and it is these imperfections and the portrayal of the practicality of the situations and scenes that really stand out and appeal to the audience. While, broadly speaking, the movie portrays the transformation of a silent and peaceful village called Mangrul in Maharashtra into a commercial hub due to the building and subsequent marketing of a temple in the village.

The movie successfully and effectively tackles the depiction of the sensitive issue of commercialization of religion and beliefs of India. The movie is set against a rural Indian backdrop and the opening credits using sand animation set the right tone for the story to continue and build upon. It all starts when Keshav (), a village lad who takes the cow of the local political activist for grazing onto the hills, daydreams about Lord Duttatreya (Dutta) while sleeping under a tree on the hill on a lazy afternoon. From then on till the interval, the story revolves on how the rumor is spread across the village and how gossip mongers (read the female fraternity of the village) add fuel to fire. From the interval onwards, the story takes a political turn and from then on it is more about how Anna (Srikant Yadav), the nephew of a small time activist Bhau (Nana Patekar) harbors and nurtures his political ambitions by pressing the Gram Panchayat and the Sarpanch to build a temple at the site where Keshav first daydreamt about Lord Dutta. Soon Mangrul , the village that was previously drab, boring and underdeveloped is developed commercially and literally turns on its head over a fortnight. In the gamble, the dream of Appa (Dilip Prabhavalkar, Bapu of the Lage Raho Munnabhai fame) to build hospital to meet the medical needs of the villagers is sacrificed and the temple becomes the centre of all political and commercial activity. This, to such an extent that Appa is forced to leave the village and move to his son staying in Bangalore realizing that he could no longer stand the blatant abuse of god under the guise of religion. According to him, (the understanding of) spirituality and god should be personal and unique whereas what he saw in the village was barefaced commercialization and politicization of these very beliefs. The end very well illustrates the confusion faced by each one of us today – Is development at any cost good/justified? As Bhau, in one of his attempts to make Appa stay back at the village, puts forth that there had been many unwanted developments that had crept in due to the commercialization of the temple (like the increase in gambling, mushrooming of illegal liquor shops, propagation of fake stories about the myth of the temple, blatant corruption in the trust’s office etc.) but the village could not have just remained underdeveloped so that the urban crowd could mock at them. Since the movie has a rural backdrop, the characteristic Maharashtrian rural accent truly stands out and deserves some applause. While the lyrics (brilliantly written by Swanand Kirkire and Sudhir Moghe) have been carefully chosen and written, due credit must also be given to the music director (Mangesh Dhakade) for having brilliantly composed all the songs. The last few minutes have been beautifully choreographed, especially the scene when Keshav, the protagonist in the movie, immerses the idol he steals from the temple to allay all his fears and to free himself from all guilt. The cinematography of the movie is breathtaking too.

This is one movie in the hero is also the villain (GOD). The movie has many takeaways and one of them is the question of morals versus development. Do you really need to sacrifice one for the other? According to the movie, it really is up to each individual to decide which route to undertake or path to follow. While it is true that the alarming and exponential development of the village could not have happened had the temple not been built, it is also quite right to question the means that are taken on the path to development when that very temple only served as a source of income and not as an source of reverence or respect. It is this blatant commercialization of religion beliefs that plagues India, now more than ever. While the famous Tirupati temple in Southern India has various time slots and ‘dakshinas’ for the various types of ‘Poojas’ that are apparently performed there, our very own Sai Baba temple of Shirdi has caught up well on the commercialization-of-Indian-temples horizon. There is a special queue in almost all famous Indian temples for celebrities, political figures, and so-called VVIPs. May I please ask why? Did god himself instruct them to make such demarcations? Who authorizes these people to set up such classifications?  I know for sure that neither religion nor god does. How does the financial status of a person affect his will/right to be treated on par with such VVIP visitors? Does god really ask you to pay money to him? Is that not, in some way, bribing god? I may sound preposterous, but really speaking, in the gamble to moving from developing to developed, bridging the divide between the rich and the poor, we should not lose out on our morals. Spirituality and not idol worship or religion, is the need of the hour.

All for this one brilliant movie – Deool.