Mauli movie review: Riteish Deshmukh’s naive act and predictable screenplay leads to the film’s downfall

Mauli is Rowdy Rathore, Hello Brother, the new Satyameva Jayate and a scene from Deewar without bells, altogether leading to nothing. The story is the same from the days of yore. Bad man in the village, good cop arrives and takes panga. Good cop defeats bad man, saves the village and irritates the audience. And yes yes yes, there is a plot twist, which if I gave out, would be a spoiler. But, trust me, kuch farak nahi padega even if I gave it.

Riteish Deshmukh, after the success of Lai Bhaari, is stuck there, and this time, acts like he is acting in a school play. His hand gestures, expressions, body movements, everything make him look like he’s facing the camera for the first time. Think about it, if I say Saiyami Kher who we last saw in Mirzya, is better than Riteish. She plays the small role given to her with sincerity. Siddharth Jadhav, out of all the cast, is the performer here. Some punch lines that actually land are his. The Marathi industry should stop using Jitendra Joshi as a villain. He gets to play the bad man with a scar from his brow to his cheek (so real), and is not a good one. Not that the cinematography is nice. Slow motion shots one after the other make you dizzy, and the runtime would have been at least 20 minutes lesser has the slo-mos been slashed. Credit where it’s due, the starting montage of the wari and the warkaris marching towards Pandharpur made for an excellent view.

For the rest, it’s every character using idioms, unreal fight sequences (too many of them), a cliched entry, mera dukhi bachpan flashbacks, and a romantic song that pops out of nowhere and leads to nowhere. Compared to the music of Lai Bhaari, there isn’t one memorable Ajay-Atul song. If there is someone who achieved something, it is Genelia Deshmukh. She had a cameo in Lai Bhaari, this time she has a complete song. And also she is the producer.

PS: Please tell me that Milap Zaveri ghost wrote Mauli’s script.