Mihir Bhanage, TNN, Jul 24, 2016, 12.08 PM ISTCritic's Rating: 3.5
It takes guts and out-of-the-box thinking to make a film like '& Jara Hatke'. While majority of our films are mushy love stories, this one truly is hatke.
For starters, the film deals with a whole lot of things, including single parenthood, remarriage and love. Meera (Kulkarni), a divorcee, bumps into her college friend Akash (Sengupta), a widower, after 20 years. the two hit it off and decide to get married. While Akash's son Nishant (Menon) is cool about his father's decision, Aastha (Rangole), Meera's daughter, has a tough time accepting the development. She is happy for her mother but can't see someone else in her father's place. When Nishant and Aastha meet, the awkward silence is followed by a warm conversation and the two strike a friendship. Soon the friendship unknowingly blossoms into love and leaves the youngsters as well as their parents in an unusual situation.
The film ventures into a territory that most filmmakers stay away from, and deals with subjects that many consider taboo. So first of all, kudos to the entire team for doing this film.
Though the real hero here is the story, it is the actors whole pump life into it. Each character has been etched out perfectly by the makers and the actors live their roles. Mrinal and Indraneil are top-class but Siddharth and Shivani match them at every step. It is hard to imagine anyone else do any of these roles.
'& Jara Hatke' is a film for the multiplex audience and might earn flak from people with an orthodox mindset. But it is a film that needs to watched and understood. The world is progressing and it's about time we do too.