Kaay Raav Tumhi, Review: Come off it, you three

Three here means three old men, out to have one sexual encounter with a young woman as vindication of their ‘old is gold’ brand of virility. Sounds bold for an Indian film, and bolder for a film made in the regional Marathi language, spoken mainly in Maharashtra. Roughly translated, the title would read ‘Come off it, Sir’. Can’t help it if it sounds like a double-meaning line. Incidentally, the film is full of double entendre, some of it coming from women actors.

It is there for all to see that the film is almost a remake of veteran director Basu Chatterji’s 1982 comedy, Shaukeen. When asked about it by a publication, director Dr. Mrunalinni Dayal Patil responded with, “Directors like Basu Chatterji, Hrishikesh Mukherjee and their genre of cinema has had a great influence on my mind since I was a child. I wanted to share a fragment of their illustrious work with the Marathi audience, and hence decided to make this film,” said Mrunalinni. She also told this reviewer that the old and ailing Chatterji has a script that he wants her to film, and she is considering the magnanimous offer. Four writers contributed to Shaukeen, Anand More gets the credit for Kaay Raav Tumhi. There was a Hindi remake too, titled The Shaukeens. 

What works for the film are power-house performances by main cast-- Hemant Dhome, Ravindra Mahajan, Satish Pulekar and Yatin Karyekar—and a confident debut by lead actress Niyati Joshi, who has unconventional features. Hemant takes on the three veterans head on, and only Satish Pulekar, who employs his south-Indian flavoured Marathi to perfection, can match-up. Dhome wrote the film Satarangi Re and earned appreciation for his roles in Kshanbhar Vishranti and Jai Jai Maharashtra Maza. As a boy, his idol was comedian Ashok Saraf. Niyati is a commerce graduate from Pune, a model who has been around for some time, and gets her break here.

Mrunalinni, who is a qualified medical doctor, began with TV and moved to films in 2003, co-producing Kagaar, directed by N. Chandra. She directed Dhuaan (2012) in Hindi and made Raakhandaar in 2014 (Marathi). Each film was a genre jump. Raakhandaar was about a deity that takes human form to come to its believer’s aid. Kaay Raav Tumhi had ample scope for dwelling on ample bosoms and other parts of the female anatomy, but Mrunalinni is right when she says, “No cleavage, no exposure, no titillation. My film may be the story of three old men out to have a fling, but I, the director, am a woman. And I will not demean woman.” Psssst: There is a swimsuit scene!

With so much going for it, the film falls short of captivating you. It is fun cinema, but of the half-way house kind. To keep a viewer engaged, it either needed sex (albeit funny sex) or gags that went beyond the hero’s struggling actor character. An occasional sexually-oriented pun is fine, but when you have so many, some directly involving three 60+ friends who are not roadside Romeos, you begin to stop enjoying them. Yet, Kaay Raav Tumhi is a step forward from Mrunalinni's last effort, the recent Raakhandaar, and could be a platform for her to take a leap with her next outing.

Upbeat pace and racy dance numbers help the film along, and when the proceedings begin to sag somewhat, an element of suspense is brought in. Unravelling it in three phases, Mrunalinni is able to make predictable situations not too predictable. Credit to Majid Shaikh for maintaining the tempo, with some crisp cutting, and kudos to Jehangir Choudhary, for sharp, colourful images and well-lit dance/song numbers. Music director Kanak Raj contributes in no small measure to the singing-swinging happenings.

Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SokT5zJjKFg