Unaad Review - A Voyage From Adolescence To Maturity

Aditya Sarpotdar's Unaad stars Abhishek Bharate, Ashutosh Gaikwad, Avinash Khedekar, Pravin Prabhakar, Hemal Ingle, Priyanka Tendolkar, and others. Aditya has been more of a commercial director in Marathi cinema and has made films on a larger scale with big stars. Since he washed his hands in all kinds of soaps, be they thrillers, masala action, comedy, romance, or even horror-comedy, it seems that now he has to go to a small-budget, content-driven cinema far away from his zone some day. Unaad is a lot of things put together, and it gets some of its elements right, but somewhere its writing lets it down. The extra hard work of the entire team, be it actor, director, or technical team, is far above what would be possible in this budget, but here I am talking about the thing that comes before the film goes on floors. Your "writing" has to be good. Unaad mostly relies on outdated stuff, and even though the screenplay gives it a new look, I must say the narrative didn't really offer me anything new.Set in the beautiful location of Kokan, Unaad is the tale of three friends: Shubham (Ashutosh Gaikwad), Bandya (Abhishek Bharte), and Jameel (Chinmay Jadhav). Bandya proposes to Chaitu (Swara Baal), and they are a couple now. Naughty and irresponsible Shubham is attracted to Chaitu's girlfriend, Swara (Hemal Ingle), and counts her friendly gesture for something else. This creates indifference between these two, and suddenly Parag (Avinash Khedekar) enters the picture to fulfil his personal agony. Shubham mistakenly shoots a video of Parag and his Girlfriend (Priya Tendolkar), who happens to be Swara's sister. Several casualties and tragedies take place during the day, and Shubham runs away from home. How Shubham gains maturity from this life-changing voyage and how his friends also find their worth is all you get to see in the film.Unaad's first half will remind you of a Crime Petrol episode you saw a decade ago and God knows how many times after that. I don't mind seeing mobile data go Viral if it's happening for the first time (it might have worked in 2013), but the characters seemed well-acquainted with mobile and the internet, so the conflict didn't make much sense. Okay, so if your mobile is broken and you want to delete the video, then just keep it as it is. I literally screamed, "Don't give it for the repair, man". Anyway, there are a few other flaws like this that I believe are far too dated for a 2023 OTT film, when you know audiences have consumed a lot of content by now.

The second half sees Shubham on a voyage that teaches him about life and how to become responsible—that was my direct recall of Victor Fleming's classic "Captain Courageous" (1937). I don't blame the writers for that because maybe it's just me who would imagine that old Hollywood classic on this occasion, while a major section of Marathi audiences are unaware of it. You know, it happens. Some films and their Stories are just so great that they just stick in your mind, and you can't think of anything better whenever anything similar comes across. For instance, you can see many great love triangles, but none can ever look better than "J'Accuse" (1919) and "Casablanca" (1942); you can watch many classic rom-coms, but none can match "It Happened One Night" (1934); you can watch many grandeurs, but none can feel as grand as "Cabiria" (1914) and "Ben-Hur" (1959); you can watch many haunting horror movies, but they can't beat 'Nosferatu" (1922) and "Frankenstein" (1931). Unaad's primary aspects had me in those recall zones, so it didn't feel new. It might not be the same with others.Speaking of performances, I have to praise each and every actor. They aren't glamorous, stylish, or smart, but they are natural. Abhishek Bharate has been impressive right from his first film, and fortunately, he is not losing consistency. Unaad demanded that he be wild, work hard on dialect and body language, and he seemed to have aced everything. Ashutosh Gaikwad and Avinash Khedekar are good, while Pravin Prabhakar leaves a mark despite the low screen space. Hemal Ingle is mostly seen in glamorous roles, but here she is a simple girl (the glamour was unavoidable here too, it seems). She does fine but could have done a little better. Priyanka Tendolkar gets what she has been doing all the time on TV. Devika Daftardar and Devendra Pem appear for a little while and yet pass with an A-grade. Sandesh Jadhav was nothing but a Marathi version of Spencer Tracy (from Captain Courageous) for me, and believe me, it's a big compliment.I shall remember Unaad for its beautiful cinematography. Lawrence Dcunha's artistic vision has left me in awe. I was spellbound by the frames of the ocean, eclipse, forts, trees, top view of the chasing sequence (funnily, they reminded me of Rohit Shetty movies), boating, and what not. The dialogues are too weak here. In one scene, Swara is taunting Shubham about Copy Chit, but Shubham does not reply. He could have easily replied to her with something like "At least tujhya sarkha copy karun pass zalo nahi me". I would have also loved to see a confession from Shubham and Swara at the end instead of silence. "Silence speaks louder than words." Yes, I too believe in that, but you need that much mature characters for that. Unaad didn't have it. Faisal Mahadik and Imran Mahadik's editing can be called fine since I didn't feel bored at all, even with songs that are situational.Aditya Sarpotdar visualised this film for the big screen, and I believe him now. I was lucky enough to watch the film on the big screen, and I think he was right. The feel, the vibes, and the impact come out better than they could on mobile or TV. I watched in an air conditioned Audi and was shivering right through the runtime and felt the waves and wind all the time because they were running on the screen. Let me clarify: it wasn't a 4DX experience. Aditya's storytelling is much better than his previous flicks, I believe. The way he shot the film on real locations and got his actors in their raw avatars is simply commendable. That scene when Shubham is thinking about kissing Swara—that desperate lust and chest-thumping moment—what a great shot that was! He has some more brilliant pieces like this, which I wouldn't want to spoil here. I'd like to see him do low-budget cinema more often, with one condition that he chooses/writes a great script. If anything is the matter with Unaad, then it is the writing, because this genre requires a lot of brainstorming ideas and unique concepts. Hopefully, next time. For now, an average affair, but watchable indeed.