REVIEW
Director: Makarand Mane
Star Cast: Shashank Shende, Sahil Joshi, Suhas Shirsat, Umesh Jagtap, Ketan Pawar and
Genre: Social
Rating: ***
Heartwarming!
The film is set on the backdrop of farmers’ suicides in India and also deals with spirituality. The film was adjudged as the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Marathi for the year 2015 at the 63rd National Film Awards. Arjun is a widower farmer who is heavily in debt and lives with his son, Abhimanyu. Arjun decides to commit suicide, but his love and concern for Abhimanyu changes his mind. He leaves his hometown in search of work and reaches the holy site of Pandharpur, where Abhimanyu sets on his own personal quest to search for his dead mother.
The Plus Points:
The biggest plus point of Ringan is that you can easily identify the underdog father & son, who are stuck in a seemingly endless cycle of misery & misfortune. The film depicts that many-a-time the path to happiness is pursuing us like our shadow, but we still keep ignoring it, trying to find it within and enter a never-ending cycle. Shashank Shende renders a sterling performance as the distraught father, but Sahil Joshi steals the show as the cute son
The Minus Points:
You have seen many films earlier on the plight of the farmers in distress who try to commit suicide and as such there is hardly any novelty that the film offers. At times it looks like a dry and drab documentary. There are two different sub plots , one dealing with Arjun’s mission of finding for himself a job and the other dealing with his son Abhimanyu’s search for his dead mother.
The Verdict:
It is an award winning debut film by director which will appeal to people who like to watch heartwarming films.
By Jyothi Venkatesh
