Ventilator is a marathi movie directed by Rajesh Mapuskar. He is the same director who gave us Ferrari Ki Sawaari starring Sharman Joshi. Although it wasn't a box office hit , it was a very well made film and touching film. The title , the ensemble cast and the trailer were good enough reasons to catch this one in the theatres. So is this movie good enough or you would need a ventilator at the end of this one ? Read on to find out.
One of the senior members of the Kamerkar family, Gajanan Kamerkar slips into coma due to brain hemorrhage and is kept on life support (a ventilator!). The entire Kamerkar joint family rushes to Mumbai to meet him, some for genuine reason while others for vested interests. This happens on the backdrop of the Ganesh festival, which the family was eager to celebrate together until this happened. The family tree is pretty huge and each of them has a backstory, which the director brilliantly stitches together.
I dont remember we have had a movie in Marathi cinema or even Bollywood highlighting the Father - Son relationship. Maa-centric emotional dramas have always been the preferred flavor which reflects what actually happens in real life as well. And that is something which Rajesh Mapuskar has shown so well in this movie. Be it the differences between Jitendra Joshi and his ailing father or Ashutosh and his. There is a line in the movie which says " There are many things that remain unsaid in a Father -Son relationship", which is so true. The male sex is never known to be vocal and emotional and when there are two of them that is what you expect.
The cast and the casting is simply brilliant. There are so many characters in the plot, all of them being played by veteran actors. It's the directors brilliance that each one of them is allocated a role which does full justice to their talent. Be it the cameos by Viju Khote and Boman Irani or Sulbha Arya and Achyut Potdar in the lead, it's a pleasure watching each of them. There is so much of attention to detail in the casting. Notice how the each father-son duo has such close facial resemblance. Talking of attention to detail, the medical student in me couldn't help noticing a copy of Clinical Neuroanatomy by Vishram Singh in the hands of Gaja kaka's granddaughter's hands (who is a medical student), when she visits him in the ICU. Each relationship is handled so well and each charachter is given its due and you tend to remember each one at the end of the movie, which is the USP of the movie. It's a herculean task when you have around 100 odd characters to deal with, each of them being such great actors. Not even a single charachter is wasted. The plot, characters and incidents which unfold seem so believable. Kudos to the director for this! Casting Ashutosh Gowariker especially was a master stroke and the director doesn't disappoint! How many of us remember him from Kabhi Haa Kabhi Naa?
The movie will make you laugh throughout and make you cry as well. In the end of the movie Ashutosh realises how he has not treated his father well, he goes behind him after he has left the hospital, finds him returning back home in a BEST bus, sits besides him, nudges him and both exchange a smile. This was the best scene for me in the movie. So much said with no dialogues! Brilliant.
In short it's a movie you should watch. Especially with your entire family. Ja re Ja sare ja!
P.S.: Few days before the release , my Facebook feed was flooded with this Priyanka Chopra video. I did not understand why did they got her to sing this, that until I realised that the movie is produced by her. To be honest her singing and pronunciation are horrible and secondly it takes away the attention from what's good about the movie. The male version which plays in the film is more apt and way better than her version.
