Bhai’s pattern: My quick take on Mahesh Manjarekar’s “Antim-the final truth” remake of ‘Mulshi pattern’
I only wish this final truth was more truthful towards the original iconic “मुळशी पैटर्न”. Remember this Praveen Tarade’s production was a landmark movie in Marathi, its box office success was good as ‘Sairat’. It is also ironic that Bhaijan despite coming from an illustrious family of writers has to bank on borrowed stories and plots. We have seen it from Tere Naam to recent Radhe, Bhai’s pattern is simple, pick a hit movie from south or Korea and then recycle, refurbish, and then try to refine it.
I was a bit skeptical about Antim, as I had seen how the bollywoodization of beautiful Marathi movies was messed up in Dhadak and Mili. But to my surprise this is a fairly decent copy n paste effort, I think the credit should go to Mahesh Manjarekar who is a Ph.D. in this gangster/bhaigiri genre (remember Vaastav and its sequel ) it is understandable that the movie was tweaked to pacify Bhai’s ego who has done the longest cameo in the movie. Brother-in-law Aayush Sharma who after a forgettable debut in a nondescript ‘Love Ratri’ is repackaged and reintroduced in the main lead. He has done a fairly decent job as the penny-less villager making it big in the Pune’s underground world. (Similar to Vaastav’s plot).
If one has not watched an original Marathi movie, they will enjoy this story, and like me, if you have watched the original then the comparisons are bound to happen. Manjarekar did a smart move by including doyens of Marathi stage like Sharad Ponkse, Sachin Khedekar, Bharat Ganeshpure, Upendra Limaye who were simply fantastic in their respective roles. The female lead played by Makwana is also impressive. All these guys have made the movie watchable.
I only wish movie had some good musical tracks as was the case with original (foot thumping ‘ara ra ‘ song of Mulshi pattern is still a rage) , secondly the smooth flow of storyline which Tarade managed in original is clearly missing in the remake, especially the second half is very ‘jumpy’. The camera work is impressive (drone shots of Mandai market is absolutely awesome) , action scenes are tailored for Bhai’s fans even his dialogues like मैं तो अक्खा इंडिया का भाई हूँ, जब सरदार की हटेगी सब की फटेगी are going to make front benchers mad.
Movie is notch better than mindless Radhe, and far better than Satyamev Jayate 2, but is it worth watching? Worth spending money?
“No” will be my Antim-bitter truthful answer. But I am sure a die hard Bhai fan will not give it a miss.
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