The Marathi film industry is nowadays going through a good phase of entertainment. The films made in recent years are of strong story base and good cast and crew. The films are successful attracting the viewers to the cinema hall in large numbers. One of the recent movies released last week is “Deool”. The film did a huge business from day one. The theme of the movie is about the game of politics played today in the name of God. This situation is same throughout the country. So after watching the movie, it feels like the movie should not be confined to the maharashtrian audience but should reach to the audience of the whole country.
Deoul, produced by Abhijeet Gholap and directed by Umesh Kulkarni, is a beautiful presentation of the confusion prevailing nowadays between religion and false beliefs. Today, facilities of schools, hospitals, colleges, roads, drinking water and sanitation are absent in most areas of the country. Most importantly, the residents of the so-called modern societies of Mumbai like Arey Colony, Sanjay Gandhi National Park are also devoid of such facilities. The electricity in many film studios of Arey colony is used without any reason for the whole night while the poor people are living in darkness.
Although the country is trying to prove that there is a shortage or rather mismanagement of all these facilities but the number of temples are increasing in multiple times. If we take a walk on the roads of any city of the country, we will find scores of variety of temples. Religion does not form the base of building a temple but the only reason is to fill one’s own pocket. Every temple has on an average, daily collection of 500 – 1000 rupees. Today many villages are crowded with temples but there is absence of quality hospitals.
The rural areas of India are changing enormously and rapidly. The cities are trying to enter in the villages while the villages are rushing towards the cities. The village youth are trying to adopt the modern lifestyle. The use of mobiles, television enables these young people to watch the colorful and attractive city life but the situation in which they are dwelling prevents them from living this life. They are always in a hurry to change this situation. Cities are changing so they believe that their villages should also change. But what this change actually means to them? It means that they should get all those things, which are required to lead a lavish life. Such youths falls prey of today’s hungry and selfish politicians. They utilize the energy and determination of these youths for their selfish intentions. Every political party wants these youth-league for their agitations, acclamations etc., which gives birth to negativity in these young people.
The story of Deoul forecasts all these above factors. The film shows the situation of a small village called Mangrul. The village does not have a good hospital. The village leader Bhau Golande and archaeologist Anna Kulkarni makes a plan to build a hospital in the village. In the mean time one of the villager have a revelation of Shri Dutta Digamber. The news of revelation spreads in the village like fire. The nephew of Bhau Golande, in order to outwit his uncle makes a plan to build a temple of Shri Dutta Digamber instead of hospital. For this purpose he even takes the MLA in his side and finally a temple is build in the village. The film focuses brilliantly on the way by which the propagation of this temple is done. Nowadays we see stickers and posters, which publicize a divine place. The whole country has thousands of such awakening divine places then why do these awakening places bring about the development of the country?
Umesh Kulkarni has given full justice to this burning topic. The film shows how
1) Marketing is done under the name of God.
2) The pockets of one’s own and one’s relatives are filled.
3) The coconuts and the garlands, which the devotees offer to God, are brought back and sold.
4) The devotional songs are composed and sung on the filmy beat.
This is a fact but no one cares. A devotee when comes to worship with full devotion, he catch the sight of these things and gets hurt. In the temple, which is the place of faith of lakhs of devotees, thousands of rupees are taken as bribe to enable them to enter the queue. In spite of paying the bribe, the devotee is not able to obtain the sight of the God even for half a second. This is the situation today. Besides these, due to 50% reservation the females are elected as the head of the village. Their condition of such females is also beautifully shown in the movie. The changing status of village, the increasing promotion of mobiles, T.V and set top box and its effect on the village life is also shown very intellectually.
The director of the movie has tried to open the eyes of the people by handling this sensational topic. The Cast of the film which includes Nana Patekar, Dilip Prabhawalkar, Sonali Kulkarni and others along with the director, producer and all the crew members are truly deserves a big thanks. The film is worth watching in order to awaken one’s own strength.