Andya Cha Funda review: A film that makes grown-ups behave like kids

The year has seen some gems from Marathi cinema, like Ti Sadhya Kay Karte, Muramba, and Ringan: The Quest that released today. Barring these few fine films, 2017 has churned out absolute trash. Santosh Shetty’s Andya Cha Funda is yet another film in the list. This one is also a case study on the amount of senselessness one can throw at the audience.

This is the story about Atharva aka Andya (Atharva Bedekar) and his best friend Falgun Rao aka Fundya (Shubham Parab). Andya hails from a rich family in Mumbai, while Fundya comes from a family of potters. The two of them are carefree and mischievous. One day, they take their mischief a bit too far. This leads the unsuspecting kids into a web of mystery and danger.

The fallacies in Andya Cha Funda are such that it makes one wonder where to begin. The film starts off as an immature children’s film where sad antics and dialogues are passed off as humorous elements. The biggest example of this is the school teacher whose character was intended to appear funny, but falls flat. He is also someone who, after hearing the shattering news of the death of his student, reacts as if the kid just slipped after landing on a banana skin. In turn, his students react in a similar way.

Andya Cha Funda takes a different turn when the horror and reincarnation angle comes into being. Naturally, you expect the content to change from here on. It definitely does, but only for the worse. The film now gets illogical and chaotic beyond control. A number of twists that are meant to add thrill only make you laugh unintentionally at their silliness. By this time, going by the behaviour of the characters, it is difficult to distinguish kids from grown-ups.

The biggest joke is that after the end of the film you realise that the person who dies had no reason to die. The individual would have achieved the goal even while staying alive. So much to tag your film as a reincarnation drama?

The consistency of the story, screenplay and dialogues is maintained by the technical areas too through some over-enthusiastic background score. Except for the forceful aerial shots in random situations, the camerawork seems okay. It seems it was their way of saying, “Look, we can do this too!”

Bedekar and Parab possess acting talent. The two of them are poles apart in terms of personalities, but this doesn’t hamper their chemistry. However, the content has affected their performance negatively. The same is the case with other actors too, except Deepa Parab Chaudhari. In the role of Andya's mother, she is the best of all.

Mrunal Ravindra Jadhav, as the little girl Shitti, is cute but her character is too over-the-top. Sandesh Kulkarni and Arun Nalawade also manage to show talent. Sushant Shelar and the rest of the actors suffer from shallow characterisations.

Overall, Andya Cha Funda is an alarmingly dumb affair.