''Dhadakebaaz'' () is a 1990 Indian
Marathi
Marathi may refer to:
*Marathi people, an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group of Maharashtra, India
**Marathi people (Uttar Pradesh), the Marathi people in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh
*Marathi language, the Indo-Aryan language spoken by the Mar ...
-language
action comedy
The action comedy is a film genre that applies to action films where humor plays a much more central role. While early films feature stuntwork and humor, academic Cynthia King wrote that the genre only came into its own as a mainstay of the America ...
film directed and produced by
Mahesh Kothare
Mahesh Ambar Kothare (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ koʈʰaːɾe born 28 September 1953) is an Indian film actor, director and producer of Marathi and Hindi films. He is regarded as a revolutionary figure in the Marathi film industry, know ...
under Jenma Films International. The screenplay was written by
Vasant Sathe and Kothare, while Kothare also provided the story and Purushottam Berde wrote the dialogues. The film features
Laxmikant Berde in a dual role, alongside Mahesh Kothare,
Deepak Shirke, Prajakta Kulkarni,
Ashwini Bhave
Ashwini Bhave (also spelled Ashvini Bhave) is an Indian model and actress known for her work in both Hindi, Kannada and Marathi language, Marathi-language films and television serials. Ashwini Bhave is the Top Actress of Marathi Cinema during ...
,
Bipin Varti, Ravindra Berde, and Chandrakant Pandya. It was a commercial success.
It was the first Marathi film to be shot in
CinemaScope
CinemaScope is an anamorphic format, anamorphic lens series used, from 1953 to 1967, and less often later, for shooting widescreen films that, crucially, could be screened in theatres using existing equipment, albeit with a lens adapter.
Its cr ...
format. The storyline was written by Kothare, with lyrics by Pravin Davane. The songs were performed by
Suresh Wadkar
Suresh Ishwar Wadkar (born 7 August 1955) is an Indian playback singer. He performs in both Hindi and Marathi films. He has sung songs in some Bhojpuri films, Odia albums and bhajans and in Konkani films.
He was awarded the Sangeet Natak Ak ...
,
Sudesh Bhosale,
Usha Mangeshkar
Usha Mangeshkar is an Indian singer who has recorded many Marathi, Manipuri, Hindi, Bengali, Kannada, Nepali, Bhojpuri, Gujarati, Odia and Assamese songs. She is the youngest among four Mangeshkar sisters, after Lata Mangeshkar, Meena ...
, Jyotsna Hardikar, Uttara Kelkar, Vinay Mandake, and
Anupama Deshpande
Anupama Deshpande is a Bollywood playback singer who has won the Filmfare Awards, Filmfare Award for Filmfare Best Female Playback Award, Best Female Playback Singer for her folk music, folk song "Sohni Chenab De" in the film ''Sohni Mahiwal (1 ...
.
Plot
The film begins with close friends Laxmikant Hajare alias Lakshya (
Laxmikant Berde), Mahesh Nemade (
Mahesh Kothare
Mahesh Ambar Kothare (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ koʈʰaːɾe born 28 September 1953) is an Indian film actor, director and producer of Marathi and Hindi films. He is regarded as a revolutionary figure in the Marathi film industry, know ...
) and Bappa Bajrangi (
Deepak Shirke) in prison who supported themselves by committing petty crimes. After their release from prison, Mahesh and Bappa decide to cease their criminal activity and go their separate ways. Lakshya is reluctant to part with his friends as he believes that unity is strength. However, Mahesh and Bappa forge ahead and choose to live separately, leaving Lakshya alone and helpless.
Later, Lakshya finds a five
rupee
Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currency, currencies of
Indian rupee, India, Mauritian rupee, Mauritius, Nepalese rupee, Nepal, Pakistani rupee, Pakistan, Seychellois rupee, Seychelles, and Sri Lankan rupee, Sri Lanka, and of former cu ...
coin on the street and keeps it in his jacket pocket. As his pocket has a hole, the coin drops onto the street and Lakshya picks it up again. This happens multiple times. Lakshya then walks into a restaurant and eats various dishes, believing that he has fifteen rupees. When the restaurant owner asks him to pay the bill, Lakshya realises that he does not have enough money for it. The owner throws Lakshya out of the restaurant.
Once again, Lakshya finds the five rupee coin on the street and decides to make money with it by playing
poker
Poker is a family of Card game#Comparing games, comparing card games in which Card player, players betting (poker), wager over which poker hand, hand is best according to that specific game's rules. It is played worldwide, with varying rules i ...
. In a poker game, he manages to win a few hundred rupees but it is ultimately revealed that he is cheating. The other players begin to physically assault Lakshya, but Mahesh and Bappa coincidentally arrive at the same bar and save Lakshya from them. Lakshya, Mahesh and Bappa escape from the town and vow that they will never break their friendship.
The trio eventually reach the village of
Shivapur and visit the temple of
Lord Shiva
Shiva (; , ), also known as Mahadeva (; , , ɐɦaːd̪eːʋɐh and Hara, is one of the principal deities of Hinduism. He is the Supreme Being in Shaivism, one of the major traditions within Hinduism.
Shiva is known as ''The Destroyer' ...
where they pledge to live as law-abiding citizens. While there, Lakshya meets Ganga (
Prajakta Kulkarni), a girl selling flowers outside the temple and falls in love with her. In the crowd of a protest, Lakshya's accidentally hits Ganga's uncle Constable Rede (
Ravindra Berde) with a stone and the latter angrily arrests Lakshya. At the police station, Mahesh meets Sub-Inspector Uma Jadhav (
Ashwini Bhave
Ashwini Bhave (also spelled Ashvini Bhave) is an Indian model and actress known for her work in both Hindi, Kannada and Marathi language, Marathi-language films and television serials. Ashwini Bhave is the Top Actress of Marathi Cinema during ...
) and falls in love with her.
While under police custody, Lakshya meets fellow prisoner Divtya (
Bipin Varti) who treats him like a servant in prison. Soon, Divtya's accomplices attack the police station to have him released from prison. Divtya manages to escape but Lakshya captures his accomplices for the police. Impressed with his bravery, Uma releases Lakshya from prison and he reunites with Mahesh and Bappa. After the trio save Ganga from being harassed by some goons, she makes their residing arrangements in her cattle shed.
It eventually turns out that Divtya and his accomplices are working for the sadistic Kautya Mahakaal (Chandrakant Pandya), a
skull
The skull, or cranium, is typically a bony enclosure around the brain of a vertebrate. In some fish, and amphibians, the skull is of cartilage. The skull is at the head end of the vertebrate.
In the human, the skull comprises two prominent ...
-masked crime lord who is funding crime in Shivapur and remains
fugitive
A fugitive or runaway is a person who is fleeing from custody, whether it be from jail, a government arrest, government or non-government questioning, vigilante violence, or outraged private individuals. A fugitive from justice, also known ...
to the authorities. Uma has an old enmity with the latter and wants him dead or alive as he had killed her parents as well. In order to free
Kavtya Mahakal's arrested henchmen, Divtya and few other henchmen try to capture Lakshya and Ganga, who manage to escape from them and end up at the ruins of an old fort.
Inside the abandoned fort, Lakshya discovers a small bottle and that an exact
lookalike of him is trapped in it. He introduces himself as
Gangaram (also
Laxmikant Berde), a
genie
GEnie (General Electric Network for Information Exchange) was an online service provider, online service created by a General Electric business, GEIS (now GXS Inc., GXS), that ran from 1985 through the end of 1999. In 1994, GEnie claimed around ...
and the ancestor of Lakshya. Gangaram tells Lakshya that he was learning magic from a
guru
Guru ( ; International Alphabet of Sanskrit Transliteration, IAST: ''guru'') is a Sanskrit term for a "mentor, guide, expert, or master" of certain knowledge or field. In pan-Indian religions, Indian traditions, a guru is more than a teacher: tr ...
thousands of years ago, but an accident occurred, and the guru cursed him by trapping him inside the bottle with a magical sand. The guru told him that he will be freed from his curse only when his descendant will use the sand given by him for his own benefit.
Upon learning this, Lakshya agrees to help Gangaram in being freed from his curse. Gangaram saves Lakshya and Ganga from Kavtya Mahakal's henchmen and even from the reprimanding of Rede, who disapproves of their relationship. Later that day, Lakshya, Mahesh and Bappa get the job of colouring the temple of Lord Shiva but Mahesh and Bappa are stunned to learn Gangaram's existence from Lakshya. Using his magic, Gangaram colours the temple from the trio's cattle shed in five minutes.
Soon, Kavtya Mahakal and his henchmen attack the village of Shivapur during the festival of
Mahashivratri
Maha Shivaratri is a Hindu festival celebrated annually to worship the deity Shiva, between February and March. According to the Hindu calendar, the festival is observed on the fourteenth day of the first half (night start with darkness - ...
. Despite this, the trio thwart the criminals from the village with the help of Gangaram. Due to this incident, Kavtya Mahakal learns the truth of Gangaram and now decides to seize the bottle for his own betterment. That night, Divtya tries to steal the bottle of Gangaram from the trio's cattle shed but his plan backfires as Lakshya has Gangaram turn Divtya into a
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely semiaquatic group of short-bodied, tailless amphibian vertebrates composing the order (biology), order Anura (coming from the Ancient Greek , literally 'without tail'). Frog species with rough ski ...
.
However, things take a drastic turn when Kautya Mahakaal retaliates by having his henchmen abduct Lakshya and Ganga with the bottle of Gangaram. Mahesh, Bappa, Uma and Rede are frantically searching for them and find one of Kavtya Mahakal's henchmen left behind in an injured state at the scene where the abduction took place. Forcing him to reveal the whereabouts of Kavtya Mahakal's hideout, Mahesh, Bappa and Uma reach there on time and free Lakshya and Ganga.
Recovering the bottle from Kavtya Mahakal, Lakshya asks Gangaram to directly kill his entire gang but Gangaram discovers that his sandbag has already emptied. As Mahesh, Bappa and Uma are captured by the henchmen, Gangaram encourages Lakshya to fight against Kavtya Mahakal himself and states that one's mental strength is the real magic in the world. Acting upon Gangaram's encouragement, Lakshya, with a strong heart, overpowers Kavtya Mahakal and his henchmen along with Mahesh and Bappa.
Lakshya and Mahesh further manage to knock Kavtya Mahakal unconscious and the police are called in to the scene by Rede. As a result, all of Kavtya Mahakal's henchmen are arrested and sent to prison for their crimes, while Rede also agrees for Lakshya and Ganga's marriage. As everyone rejoice in the defeat of Kavtya Mahakal, the latter shockingly regains consciousness and shoots down Lakshya fatally before escaping from his hideout. Mahesh chases Kavtya Mahakal and gets into a combat with him.
Eventually, Kavtya Mahakal is shot dead by Uma in revenge of her parents' death. Mahesh and Uma return to the crime scene and with Ganga, Bappa and Rede, lament the tragic loss of Lakshya who miraculously survives with the blessings of Gangaram, much to everyone's happiness. Before his departure, Gangaram advises everyone to always be powerful and defeat all the evil in the world, and also to never part with each other and stay united. The film ends with everyone bidding farewell to Gangaram as he is finally freed from his curse and leaves for his heavenly abode.
Cast
*
Laxmikant Berde in a
dual role
A dual role (also known as a double role) refers to one actor playing two roles in a single production. Dual roles (or a larger number of roles for an actor) may be deliberately written into a script, or may instead be a choice made during produc ...
as
** Laxmikant "Lakshya" Hajare
**
Genie Gangaram
*
Mahesh Kothare
Mahesh Ambar Kothare (Marathi pronunciation: əɦeːʃ koʈʰaːɾe born 28 September 1953) is an Indian film actor, director and producer of Marathi and Hindi films. He is regarded as a revolutionary figure in the Marathi film industry, know ...
as Mahesh Nemade
*
Deepak Shirke as Bappa Bajrangi
* Prajakta Kulkarni as Ganga
*
Ashwini Bhave
Ashwini Bhave (also spelled Ashvini Bhave) is an Indian model and actress known for her work in both Hindi, Kannada and Marathi language, Marathi-language films and television serials. Ashwini Bhave is the Top Actress of Marathi Cinema during ...
as Sub-Inspector Uma Jadhav
* Ravindra Berde as Constable Rede (Ganga's uncle)
* Chandrakant Pandya as
Kavtya Mahakal
*
Bipin Varti as Divtya (Kavtya Mahakaal's henchman)
* Ashok Pahelwan as Kavtya Mahakaal's henchman
* Shanta Inamdar as Parubai (Ganga's mother)
* Ambar Kothare as Police Superintendent (Special Appearance)
Casting
Laxmikant Berde was cast in the lead role of
Gangaram, marking his fifth collaboration with Kothare. Although
Dada Kondke was initially considered for the part, he declined due to his reluctance to take on a supporting role, leading to Berde being given the role, where he portrayed a
dual character.
Ashwini Bhave
Ashwini Bhave (also spelled Ashvini Bhave) is an Indian model and actress known for her work in both Hindi, Kannada and Marathi language, Marathi-language films and television serials. Ashwini Bhave is the Top Actress of Marathi Cinema during ...
was selected to play Sub-Inspector Uma Jadhav after
Varsha Usgaonkar turned down the role. Kothare also offered the role of Bappa Bajrangi to
Deepak Shirke, marking their third film together. Prajakta Kulkarni was chosen after auditions for a specific role.
The character of the robber
Kavtya Mahakal was portrayed by eight different actors throughout the filming process.
Bipin Varti initially took on the role but had to leave due to another commitment, although he continued to provide the character's voice-over for the entire film.
Laxmikant Berde suffered a hand injury while filming a gunfire sequence.
Soundtrack
Anil Mohile composed music and lyrics are written by Pravin Danve.
References
Cited works
*
Notes
External links
* {{IMDb title, tt0233562
1990s Marathi-language films
Films directed by Mahesh Kothare
Indian action comedy films
Marathi films remade in other languages
Indian buddy films
1990s buddy films
Marathi-language action comedy films
Films shot in Kolhapur