Bucket List: Movie Review
Women Folk in India (esp. our parents’ generation) are forced to live by protocols. The male dominated society expects women to place family before themselves, with conditional freedom of choice.
Ironically, the same logic doesn’t apply to other members of the family! In this journey, most women end up leading mechanical or one-dimensional lives, with no ‘unique’ identity or purpose.
Bucket List is the story of Madhura Sane (Madhuri Dixit Nene), a housewife from Pune choosing to pursue the incomplete wishes of a deceased girl, much younger to her. How, in the process, she manages to re-discover herself and her relations with near and dear ones undergo a renaissance, is what the film is all about.
Story, Screenplay and writing by Tejas Prabha Vijay Deoskar & Devashree Shivadekar are simple and straight forward. At the same time, he also manages to convey the man-made complications that affect relationships in an effective manner. There are slight glimpses of Mahesh Manjrekar’s Astitva (2000)
Dialogues by Devashree Shivadekar are straight out of real time conversations, with the right ‘punches’ and ‘impacts’ at relevant places. Editing by Abhijit Deshpande is tight. Music by Rohan is fresh & soothing.
Sumeet Raghvan plays his part brilliantly. The thought process of a corporate executive struggling to strike a work-life balance are depicted well by him. Ritika Strotri as a typical today’s teenager addicted to technology is also relatable. Vandana Gupte, Ila Bhatey and Pradeep Velankar provide decent support. Dilip Prabhavalkar deserved more screen space and dialogues.
Resham Tipnis and Renuka Shahane are superb. Their scenes with Madhuri are well executed.
Sumedh Mudgalkar’s raw intensity has been tapped very well. Shubha Khote ji as Panji is hilarious, and provides much needed comic relief when things get a bit serious.
The film belongs to queen of hearts, Madhuri Dixit Nene. She transforms herself into the character of ‘Madhura’ and expresses or rather undergoes every emotion with élan and ease. Even the places where she isn’t require to speak, her eyes say it all. Thought it’s hard to believe this is her debut in Marathi, she does deserve an author backed character of this level for a new venture.
To summarize, Bucket list is a feel good, inspiring film conveying quite a few strong messages about the listening to the ‘heart’ & ‘purpose of life’, definitely worth a watch or even more than one.
Rating: ****
We The People 