Director: Abhijit Panse
Cast: Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Genre: Biopic
Today, Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s much-anticipated film ‘Thackeray’ released on the box office. The film is the biopic of Maharashtra’s most celebrated Politician- Bal Keshav Thackeray. Thackeray’s biopic shows the rise of one of the leading Political Party ‘Shivsena’. With the course of events, Balasaheb emerges as a powerful, influential leader surrounded by multiple controversies. The film presents blunt truth about Thackeray’s political career.
The film widely presents the revolutionary journey of a Caricaturist, working at Free Press Journal, who is not satisfied with the treatment Marathi community gets in their own mother state, Maharashtra. His satirical cartoons are not just imagery, they have a strong voice to bring the revolution. Burning in the fire of justice, Thackeray quits his 9 to 5 job to become the voice of the state.
Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Balasaheb Thackeray did a brilliant job. With his captivating screenplay and perfect attire, Siddiqui gelled into the role like a perfectionist. You get goosebumps in the speech, rally scenes where some earn applause while other leads to riots and unrest in the state. The film presents Balasaheb Thackeray as an unapologetic, belligerent leader that he really was. One of the powerful scenes from biopic is where the court held leader responsible for Babri Masjid demolition and he does not step back from taking the event’s responsibility.
Thackeray’s biopic feels realistic as it restrains presenting the leader in a good picture for all political scenarios in the 80s’ and 90s’ era. The makers of biopic did not experiment infusing Marathi accent in Balasaheb’s character and released the film in two languages. Well, a smart move.
Actress Amrita Rao made a comeback with this biopic after a long time. Her character as Meena Tai Thackeray has a limited role with a negligible contribution in twisting the screenplay. In an idealistic housewife role, Amrita’s comeback is subtle. Director Abhijit Panse smartly took some cinematographic liberty and impressed us with ultimate way of taking the audience back to the 60s era using Monochrome in half of the film. Even Bombay (now Mumbai) is brilliantly presented using CGI shots.
Overall, a much-awaited biopic of the Shivsena founder ‘Bal Keshav Thackeray’ lives up to expectations. Balasaheb’s larger than life persona, his ideologies, his noble contribution to the Marathi community and Maharashtra is well justified in 2hr 19 min screenplay. For a matter of fact, the soul of the biopic is Nawazuddin Siddiqui as he managed to dig deeper into Balasaheb’s life. Presented in the distinguished course of events, the film puts highly controversial events of the leader’s political career on display. The film is an ultimate tribute to the leader’s legacy and is surely leaving a long lasting impression on the box office and film industry.
Guess what…The films ends with “To be continued…” caption.
We recommend you to watch the realistic, unglorified biopic of Bala Saheb Thackeray as soon as possible.
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