Last year, Akshay Kumar starred in Kesari (2019); the film was based on 21 courageous Sikh soldiers who fought against 10,000 Pashtun invaders. This year, we will get to see a Marathi film with the same title. Though both films deal with two completely different subjects.
Akshay Kumar’s Kesari was a historical war drama whereas this new film by Sujay Dahake is a sports drama about wrestler going against all odds to realise his dream. This is Dahake’s fourth film after his ambitious and probably Marathi cinema’s first sci-fi film Phuntroo (2016).
The teaser starts with bunch of youngsters concerned with dilapidatted conditions of akhadas (wrestling arenas), but among them there is one man (Virat Madake) who is determined to do whatever it takes to win the Maharashtra Kesari title.
Most of the teaser consists of formulaic training montages which we have seen many times before in films like Mary Kom (2014) and Sultan (2016) . It looks like actor Vikrant Madake has put in lot of effort to earn the lean, muscular physique of a wrestler.
Mahesh Manjrekar plays the role of his coach. It’s a surprising casting choice because the filmmaker-actor has not played full-fledged village-based role before. It will be interesting to see how he pulls off this role.
Newcomer Rupa Borgaonkar plays Madake’s love interest and she is supportive towards his goal. If their love story is significant to the plot, or just an afterthought to give the film a more commercial touch, we will only know once the film releases.
Furthermore, the energetic Marathi rap in the background gels perfectly with the training montages.
Produced by Santosh Ramchandani and Manohar Ramchandani, Kesari is slated to release on 28 February 2020. Watch the teaser below and let us know if you are keen to watch the film.