Maska review: This con drama is a laugh riot

The teaser and trailer of first-time director Priyadarshan Jadhav’s Marathi movie Maska gave an idea that the film is an adult comedy.

However, barring a few visuals, the film in totality has no adult content or comedy. The reviewer wonders why the film's makers would highlight the content that would make families refrain from watching the movie. This con drama is actually a laugh riot and is completely a family-friendly film.

Maska revolves around three professional con artistes — Maya (Prarthana Behere), Yadav (Shashank Shende) and Chiku (Pranay Raorane). Maya and Yadav pretend to be a married couple and extort money from unsuspecting targets by narrating a fake tragic event including their 'mentally retarded' son (Chiku).

Their next target is the new boss of Maya’s company, Harsh (Aniket Vishwasrao). He feels for her condition and also falls in love with her. She pretends to be in love with him and is all set to extort a large sum from him. However, Paritosh (Chinmay Mandlekar), who works at a construction site, enters the story and threatens to spoil the trio’s plans.

Con films are not new by any means, especially if you follow mainstream Hindi films. But the simplicity of Maska makes it stand apart from other films from this genre.

The characters of Maya, Yadav and Chiku are very interesting and different from each other. Yet they show terrific bonding when they work (read: loot) together. More is revealed about their relationship as the story progresses. The character of Chiku has been wisely used in the film, as he pretends to be mentally retarded, and regularly leaves you in splits.

Maska triumphs because of a watertight script and its hilarious dialogues. The film starts off positively from the first con, which is wittily presented, and never looks behind. A lot of entertainers tend to spiral down post-interval but Priyadarshan Jadhav’s writing doesn’t let that happen here. The scenes between Vishwasrao and Mandlekar post interval are a treat.

Although the climax is predictable, it makes you laugh out loud nevertheless. The end also hints towards a sequel.

The only problem area here is that the trio cons someone in Mumbai and continues to operate in the same city, which can prove to be quite unsafe. There are a few other questionable moments, which the director hides smartly.

Cinematographer Amlendu Chaoudhari impresses again. He has a strong body of work, including the recent Cycle (2018) and Nude (2018). He hasn’t been as creative and experimental here because the subject didn’t require it. The theme song ‘Jai Beimaani’ compliments the film and the team of cons.

Filmmaker Priyadarshan Jadhav has succeeded in extracting good performances from the cast. Prarthana Behere is known for playing simple and innocent girl-next-door characters, but in Maska she skillfully dons a different avatar. Shashank Shende, playing a grey character with comic shades, continues his terrific run, after last year's Ringan and the recently released Redu (2018).

Pranay Raorane deserves applause for effortlessly switching from being normal to a mentally challenged kid as and when needed. A lot of the film's comedy banked on his antics.

Vishwasrao and Mandlekar flourish in creating comedy out of their respective tragedies. Vidyadhar Joshi is memorable even in a cameo.

Overall, Maska is an out-and-out entertainer that will keep you laughing till the end.