Review : TDM : Proper amalgamation of social issues and entertainment!
A film’s title is of utmost importance as it allows viewers to guess what it is offering. But these days the titles are made of initials which arouses the curiousity of the audiences. Earlier bigger titles were known with initials or first letters of the title, e.g. Rehna Hai Tere Dil Mein – RHTDM, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham – K3G , Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge -DDLJ etc. Also in recent times RRR or KGF created buzz because of unusal titles. Now a new Marathi movie derives title abbreviating the words. TDM is the title which expanded sounds funny and could not be mentioned here because it’ll amount to a spoiler.
The full form of TDM is revealed In a romantic scene which also gathers laughter. The film is directed by a National Award winning director Bhaurao Karhade and with this film too he showcases the life of a rural society covering plenty of arenas. He always tells a story of the people who are rooted to the soil.
Babu (Prithviraj Thorat) is a young lad, in Shirur village, galavanting time without doing anything concrete. Devoid of educational qualifications, he does sundry jobs like digging a well etc with local contractors, including his maternal uncle. He is besotted with a college going Neelam (Kalindi Nistane) who happens to be his well to do Mama’s daughter. She doesn’t reciprocate his advances but being romantic at heart Babu keeps playing romantics songs wherever he is in the proximity of Neelu to impress her. His family has a hand to mouth existence. His sister (Sheetal Patil) is to get married and his father and him are unable to arrange the dowry. With much difficulty, they get her married. Babu completes his dream of owning a tractor and starts transporting sand to different sites. When Neelu starts liking him, her father gets a whiff of it and he packs her off to Pune for further studies. Will Babu and Neelu’s love story end here and what happens when village politics tries to finish Babu’s existence forms the crux of the narration.
In TDM, the story is invisibly visible. This is not an out and out love story but mainly tries to say a lot of other things which form the very existence of every villager. The elections in local bodies, buying of votes by offering money and booze, oneupmanship, dowry system and it’s aftereffects etc has been interspersed with intelligence by the director. The screenplay forms with little scenes and none of it is unnecessary. Bhaurao Karhade has raised quite a few questions, answers of which are to be found by the viewers. Production values are okay but the rural essence is beautifully captured by the cinematographer. The pace of the film falters sometimes hence making it a tad boring in some scenes. Karhade has cast his spot boy, Prithviraj Thorat, in the lead role and the heroine, Kalindi Nistane, too is completely raw. But both of them win hearts with their simplistic portrayals and the charming innocence. Others too lend good support wherein Sheetal Patil stands out. Sheetal shows promise, who has also assisted the director and undoubtedly is a heroine material. The music is very good and a song by Nandesh Umap is hummable.
TDM is an unusual name and what it means is intriguing yet interesting. The connoisseurs of good cinema will give thumps up to this movie.
***1/2