Deool

Deool,as the title suggests,is about a temple and how the holy place gets exploited by the villagers who make it a business venture.

Cowherd Kesha is very loyal to Kardi (the cow) and one day,when she disappears,he sets to look for her in the mountains. When he finds her,he admonishes and later pacifies her and since he is tired roaming in the heat,he decides to take rest under a lone tree on the huge mountain. He dreams of Lord Dattatraya (lords Brahma,Vishnu and Mahesh). When Kesha,who belongs to the Magrool village that has been facing drought and bad weather for years,announces his dream to the villagers,at first they laugh. But soon the youngsters of the village start making plans to make their gaon famous by publicising the ‘dream’ and benefit along the way.

The film also talks about how globalisation is affecting us. The village does not have hospitals,schools,proper road or electricity,yet the youngsters carry the latest mobilephones and have television sets in the small houses. The local politician wants to develop the village. He wants to build a hospital,but on popular demand,a huge temple is built instead. The temple becomes so popular that while it brings prosperity,the villagers change. They become materialistic. Then one day the idol gets stolen. The film ends without any solution and leaves the audience thinking. But that does not take away the freshness of an oft-told story.

The film boasts of some big names,and Nana Patekar playing the local politician is quite humorous. Sonali Kulkarni as his wife is good,Naseeruddin Shah is in a cameo of God in disguise. Dilip Prabhawalkar plays Kulkarni,who is not in favour of building a temple as he foresees the destruction of the villagers in the future,Dr Mohan Agashe as a politician and Girish Kulkarni as Kesha need to be applauded. The rest of the cast also have performed well.

Umesh Kulkarni has made a film that will touch everyone. It shows how people can get selfish and take advantage of an innocent person for their own benefit. The filmmaker has handled the subject adeptly and once again made a film that will surely get a great response. The story by Girish Kulkarni is not novel,yet it holds the viewers’ attention.

Rating: ***

One star each for the director,concept and the performances.