Movie Review : June (Marathi)

                                           June (Marathi)

Glamours , coming of the age and lustrous, but lacks the substance yet leaves us with a soothing vibe 

Marathi Cinema has always backed powerful stories with some exceptional performances by the actors from the Industry, it has always proven that story is more important than the stature of the actors. In this journey some amazing young filmmakers have arrived with coming of the age stories , June is one such attempt to portray a coming of the age story of young individuals living in guilt due to some incidents in the past and how they manage to come out of their emotional turmoil forms the crux of the story.

The film begins with Neha played by Neha Pendse herself travelling to Aurangabad to stay at her husbands ancestral home where she coincidentally meets Neel, a failed first year Engineering student who resides in the same colony, both try to overpass their emotional trauma by engaging with each other and opening up with each others on the issues that are haunting them, in this process they reach a point of reconciliation with their past by 'letting go off ' , The film deals with modern problems of young Indians caught in their own journeys of life thus it also gives a very cool vibe that a lot of young viewers would be able to relate with . The film and its treatment of the characters tells us much about how Marathi cinema is evolving in certain dimensions which is a welcome move which will create a good blend of diverse movies thus giving more choices to the audiences.

Before diving into the Highlights and flaws of the movie and before getting into other aspects of the movie lets discuss the treatment of the characters and some of my key observations from the movie

The film as it begins , you can see Neha being portrayed as a very modern women often smoking and drinking with Neel and his friend without being cognizant about the people around her , it somehow looks a bit too forced as if the director unnecessarily wanted to add more glamour and modern world outlook to her character , coming to Neel who is an Engineering student and currently is staying in Aurangabad as a result of him being handed a year back by his college , he stays with his parents who are very conscious about their perception in the society and who want their son to study hard and clear Engineering , as a viewers it is hard to digest seeing the way in which he hangs out with Neha and them smoking and drinking , it looks very artificial since the story is based in Aurangabad you wonder how are his strict parents allowing him to stay with a women at night. The relation between Neha and Neel grows as they hangout together and the camera portrays top view in a scene wherein we see both of them talking as Neel almost kisses Neha and it becomes very difficult to digest the scene , because you just cant connect with the scene , so there are many such scenes in the movie and it feels that the director wanted to make a modern film with very free thinking individuals just to give a cool vibe. Also one scene that I would like to mention is when Neel due to his guilt and frustration with his girlfriend goes to the terrace with a pair of scissors and tries to cut off his penis and guess what surprisingly in that scene the actors penis is shown and I was convinced that the makers were ready to take an extreme step to execute a dark scene in the movie. All these points mentioned above were my observation and most of these points are not mentioned in the Highlights and flaws of the movie, Neha Pendse also is shown as someone who gives advice to Neel in the second half of the movie. Its for the viewers to judge whether these scene went well with the movie or looked forcefully inserted. 

Lets now discuss the highs and lows of the movie , the film has a decent flow with some loopholes in the screenplay but you are glued to the drama because of some intense edge of the seats moments , the drama pans out for one hour thirty minutes and that was essential because there wasn't much scope further to add in the drama. All the actors in the movie have delivered a wonderful performance and added to the screenplay, Siddharth Menon as Neel is simply brilliant with his performance, he shines superbly in his intense scene and fits perfectly as a frustrated and guilt-ridden Engineering student. Neha Pendse as Neha is superb and leaves no stone unturned to justify her character , she portrays a perfect example of a guilt-ridden women . Coming to the other actors, Kiran Karmakar as Neel's father is extraordinary as he portrays a middle class father who is extremely concerned about his perception in the society and someone who is trying very hard to makeup with the failure of Neel in his college . Resham Srivardhan who plays the love interest of Neel is a perfect fit for a girlfriend's role and manages hard to please her unpredictable boyfriend. Apart from these all the other actors including Neel's friend , Neha's friend and the residents of the society have contributed their part in the story. In the end we also have a cameo of Jitendra Joshi as the husband of Neha.

The film's one good advantage is that its length is just one hour- thirty minutes that really takes away a lot of burden from the screenplay writer, overall the screenplay is good and keeps you at the edge of your seat as scenes come one after the other . The background score and Music is superb and completely blends with the vibe of the movie. Cinematography of the movie is also quite impressive and its good to see film makers covering a city like Aurangabad. Through its length the film keeps the audience engaged to the story , a special mention to Siddharth Menon where in a scene he tries to chop his penis off and you can clearly see his penis on the screen , that was really bold portrayal of the character by the director and I would applaud the actor for being tremendously courageous. 

The Films comes with a shallow writing at some instances , As I mentioned earlier that some of the scenes as portrayed seem to be over and unnecessary which is not because of the screenplay but due to the weak writing wherein the viewer is unable to get enough substance to relate and digest what is happening on the screen.(I have mentioned some of the scenes in the paragraph above) The film also tries to create this cool vibe by inserting English and Hindi dialogues which do not seem natural to the drama and looks like the character are unnecessarily using them to come across as modern individuals. Also a scene where Sarah demands a kiss from Neel's friend seems extremely illogical and again comes across as something which is unnecessary and tries to portray how liberal the characters are.

All in all June is an engaging piece of cinema rooted in modern times , with a fresh concept backed by superb acting but lags in writing . You can definitely give it watch for its fresh concept and its contemporary vibe.