Actor Milind Shinde has impressed the audience quite a few times in the last decade or so with his fine performances in Babu Band Baja (2012) and Touring Talkies (2013). Now, Shinde is making his directorial debut with the sports film, Re Raya, which stars Bhushan Pradhan and Sanskruti Balgude.
Going by the long teaser of the film, it is the story of a coach (Pradhan), who is determined to make a trio of boys excel in athletics and achieve glory against all odds. The boys belong to poor families from different villages. Hence, the coach’s friend and others believe that the task is next to impossible. But Pradhan’s character is determined to prove that there is no difference between city and village kids. He is also in a relationship with Balgude’s character.
The teaser isn’t bad, but it isn’t that great either. More importantly, such sports films about underdogs have become a regularity in Hindi cinema in recent years. And as the many members of the audience from Maharashtra regularly watche Hindi films, they are bound to feel a repetitiveness. A Marathi sports film like Bedhadak (2018), which revolved around boxing, had also released recently and it flopped.
A Prisma-like effect used in the entire teaser doesn’t work and quickly becomes a distraction. However, the background score is quite exciting. Kailash Kher’s rendition of the title song is passionate.
Pradhan appears pretty decent, but there is hardly any focus on other characters, including Balgude. Pradhan and Balgude were seen together in Shivya (2017) last year. They have also starred together in the Marathi television serial Pinjara.
Re Raya is all set to release on 20 July.
Watch the teaser: