Dhingana review: Just another pretentious Marathi film of 2017

To put it simply, director Chandrakant Dudhgavkar’s Dhingana is yet another disastrous Marathi film of 2017. There have been so many this year that now, with the year drawing to a close, those having to watch them as it is their job, like this reviewer, have got inured to them. Hence, for them, it’s just another Marathi film of 2017 that pretends to be a film.

Dhingana is based in a village where an honest and noble couple (Priyadarshan Jadhav and Prajakta Hanamghar) have been working for the welfare of the villagers and are respected deeply by the village head and others.

Lately, the villagers have gone into severe losses after getting lured by a scheme that promised to double their money. The village head asks the couple to bail them out of trouble. When they contact Anna (Avtar Gill), owner of the company that devised the scheme, he agrees to repay the villagers' money the very next day.

The villagers are pleasantly surprised. When the couple visits Anna’s bungalow the next day, he welcomes them and respectfully returns the money. But when they return to the village, they realize they have been duped as the bag contains only paper, no cash. To make matters worse, Anna and his aides make it appear as if the two of them looted the villagers’ hard-earned money. How will the couple prove its innocence and regain everyone’s trust? 

Just a few minutes into Dhingana and you realize that the film is miles away from logic or sensibility. And it remains this way throughout. Here are some examples:

- Jadhav and Hanamghar’s characters get framed by the bad guys in a silly way. The villagers, convinced the couple has duped them, start beating them up. In the very next scene, we see the couple have left the village for the city without any visible injury. Plus, why did the villagers let them off? No one knows.

- After framing them for the crime, the bad guys come before them and announce that they framed them! Surely there is a limit to spoonfeeding?
In the city, the two lead characters order vada-pav at a stall. The owner feels so sorry for them that without even a proper conversation, he gets them to stay at his place! What humanity!

- Hanamghar’s character gets a job at a travel company. The boss tricks her into going on a date with him. After knowing the truth, she slaps him and quits the job. This entire incident has nothing to do with the main story. The things writers do to extend a film's runtime!

- The characters of Avtar Gill, Raza Murad, Kunickaa Sadanand and Shahbaaz Khan are case studies in creating caricatures and making them ham non-stop while speaking a mixture of Hindi and broken Marathi. 

- An item number is thrown in with atrocious lyrics like ‘Main Hoon Billi’.

- The film is an ideal example of irritating cinematography. The camera tilts sideways on both sides like a seesaw throughout. After this, you will find the camerawork in Ram Gopal Varma’s Department (2012) bearable.

- When the two lead characters start earning money, they buy expensive goods for the village temple instead of helping the many villagers who are facing financial crisis.

- They defeat the bad guys in ways that would put to shame even the most formulaic Hindi films.

Despite these huge negative points, the performances of Priyadarshan Jadhav and Prajakta Hanamghar are above average and provide the only island of sanity in an otherwise meaningless film.