Sairat – Compelling

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Sairat is the love story of Prashant Kamble (Parshya) and Archana Patil (Aarchi). Parshya is the local hero of the village Bittergaon, winning matches for the home team, a la Dhoni style. But is from the low caste and could only dream of having a girl like Archie in his life. Archie is the daughter of the local landlord/ politician/ gang master and from a higher caste. She is bold, brave, dominating, smart and sairaat (wild and free) and has the entire village boys and girls dancing to her tunes.

Eventually, cupid strikes in college and Archie too is head over heels in love with Parshya, for his boldness and verve. Parshya is initially a little taken aback by the fact that a girl like Archie could be smitten by him, but the love story starts. And looks beautiful on screen.

As foreseen, Archie’s devilish father and rogue brother come to know of the budding love and the love birds, with the help of few friends, elope. And after a few unsuccessful attempts, manage to reach a new city. But life in the city has its own tribulations. Two young, obviously eloped-looking couple are the target of some mugging and assault, in the big bad city. But with the help of a good samaritan, manage to find a hut in the slums and a low paying job.

Archie is missing her sairaat days, hates the rat hole they live, stinky and infested. Reality strikes hard. The frustration of their plight slowly finds vent in their fights and impatience with each other. But love eventually wins and the two are together again, forever after.

But does love really win in the end? Does it really win over the deep rooted hatred between the castes, between rich and poor?  They are prepared to leave all behind them to start all anew, but is everyone ready to let them go? How long will the kin of the eloped pay the price? When will there be freedom to love who you want?

The movie belongs to Aarchi, played by Rinku Rajguru – she personifies the new era women of India. She is bold, level headed, knows what she wants, ready to risk and is real. We have seen quite a few movies, where in the girl is brash and tom-boyish but eventually is ‘tamed’ by our hero. But Aarchi is not that, she does not like to be taken for granted, she is not shy and speaks her mind. She is unapologetic about being herself. She walks with an air about herself, but knows her limits. She pulls the trigger with equal ease as riding a horse or a motor cycle or a tractor.Casting of Rinku as Aarchi, too is great, she does not fit the bill of a fair, good- looking, hot-bod kind of a heroine. But you can’t stop falling in love with her, it’s just her sairat ways.

Parshya played by Akash Thosar, is done well too. Very endearing and has done the emotional scenes well. Again very real and nothing heroic about him (which is so rare) like – hitting a few goons single handedly or just showing his helplessness.  Just an average low caste boy.

Music plays a great role and the background music is good too. Some of the songs are already chart busters and taking the hinterlands of Maharashtra into an unprecedented frenzy.

The direction is good. Whenever we feel the story is getting complacent or repetitive, there is a twist and you are on the edge again.  The after effect will remain with you for some time. It does not really give you the time to recover in the theatre.

Beautifully done. Must see. The movie has released with English subtitles. You may miss a few punch lines in Marathi dialect but still its worth the watch!!!