''Raakshas'' (English: Monster) is a 2018 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

fantasy Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction that involves supernatural or Magic (supernatural), magical elements, often including Fictional universe, imaginary places and Legendary creature, creatures. The genre's roots lie in oral traditions, ...

thriller film written and directed by Dnyanesh Zoting, produced by Nilesh Navalakha and Vivek Kajaria. It was the first-time pairing of

Sharad Kelkar Sharad Kelkar is an Indian actor and voice actor who works primarily in Marathi and Hindi films, television and web series. Early and personal life Kelkar was born and brought up in Gwalior, his father was a PWD engineer in Madhya Pradesh Gove ...

and

Sai Tamhankar Sai Tamhankar (pronunciation: Help:IPA/Marathi, əiː t̪aːmɦəɳkəɾ born 25 June 1986) is an Indian film and television actress known for her work primarily in Marathi language, Marathi, as well as in Hindi language, Hindi films. She h ...

, along with

Vijay Maurya Vijay Maurya is an Indian actor, screenwriter and director who works in Indian films and theatre. He is best known for his work in the 2019 film ''Gully Boy.'' Career Theatre Maurya began his career in theatre by enrolling in a workshop under ...

and Umesh Jagtap. Rujuta Deshpande also portrayed a very important role in the film. The shooting of the film was held in 2015. The film released on 23 February 2018.

Plot

The story revolves around a missing documentary filmmaker and his daughter’s quest to bring him back.

Cast

* Rujuta Deshpande *

Daya Shankar Pandey Daya Shankar Pandey (born 19 November 1965) is an Indian film and television actor. He has acted in a number of Hindi movies like '' Lagaan'' (2001), '' Gangaajal'' (2003), '' Swades'' (2004) and ''Raajneeti'' (2010). He began his career with t ...

* Yakub Sayeed * Purnanand Wandhekar * Umesh Jagtap * Vitthal Kale * Pankaj Sathe * Anuya Kalaskar * Anil Kamble * Makarand Sathe * Jayesh Sanghavi * Sakshi Vyavhare * Abhijeet Zunjarrao * Somanath Limbarka

Reception

Critical reception

Mihir Bhanage of ''

The Times of India ''The Times of India'' (''TOI'') is an Indian English-language daily newspaper and digital news media owned and managed by the Times Group. It is the List of newspapers in India by circulation, third-largest newspaper in India by circulation an ...

'' gave the film a rating of 3.5 out of 5 saying that, "Raakshas explores the unexplored. Shot almost entirely in the jungle, the woods become an integral character in the story. In terms of performances, this film earns brownie points." Shriram Iyengar of ''Cinestaan'' gave the film a rating of 2 out of 5 and said that, "Dyanesh Zoting's parable of a jungle monster around the story of

land-grabbing Land grabbing is the large-scale acquisition of land through buying or leasing of large pieces of land by domestic and transnational companies, governments, and individuals. While used broadly throughout history, land grabbing as used in the 21s ...

conglomerates is a good attempt at magical realism but lacks the finishing touch that could have truly made it magical." ''Marathi Stars'' praised the acting performances of

and Rujuta Deshpande, direction as well as the technical aspects of the film but criticized the conclusion given to the story. The critic said that, "A better screenplay & a more original ‘fantasy’ world would have made wonders to this film. But still as a director Dnyanesh Zoting makes his presence felt." and gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5. Shubhra Gupta of ''

The Indian Express ''The Indian Express'' is an English-language Indian daily newspaper founded in 1932 by P. Varadarajulu Naidu. It is headquartered in Noida, owned by the ''Indian Express Group''. It was later taken over by Ramnath Goenka. In 1999, eight y ...

'' praised the concept of the film and the acting performances. The critic gave the film a rating of 2.5 out of 5 and said that, "The melding of the myth and the real is not as effective, though, and the film becomes repetitive in places. But overall, ‘Raakshas’ holds, and is a welcome step in the direction of making non-Hindi contemporary, inventive cinema accessible to all."

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Raakshas 2018 films 2010s fantasy thriller films 2010s Marathi-language films Indian fantasy thriller films Films set in jungles Marathi-language fantasy thriller films