Review: You won’t miss much if you skipped 'Pratibimb'

Film: Pratibimb (Reflection) [Marathi]
Director: Girish Mohite
Cast: Ankush Chaudhury, Sonali Kulkarni, Ravindra Mankani, Ganesh Yadav, Santosh Juvekar, Lokesh Gupte
Rating: **

 

The film opens with a dance show, where a tubby Sonali Kulkarni as Gauri is grooving clumsily to a rap song. Only as the film progresses do you know it was annual college event where Gauri was showing off her dancing skills.

 

The judge of the show, Jaisingh Raje (Ankush Chaudhury) falls for Gauri and they marry. When Jai takes Gauri to meet his parents at their palatial home in Nashik, all are stunned. Gauri discovers she is the exact pratibimb (reflection) of Jai’s first wife Vasumati, who died in an accident only a year ago. Unwilling to accept this hidden truth, Gauri storms out of the palace only to be brought back by Jai’s parents.

 

As time goes, menacing events involving Gauri lead the Raje family to believe she has a mental disorder. But, the viewer has been fed haunting details of dead Vasumati’s possible return.

The sense of suspense infused by story, screenplay and dialogue writers Aniruddha Potdar and Abhay Dakhne throughout the film is commendable. Pratibimb spans across love, horror, crime and thriller genres only its length coming in the way of a very gripping feature. The build-up to the climax is fairly engaging, with generously sprinkled spooky elements keeping you company when the narrative sags. The double role track comes across as more of a convenient ploy than a well-thought out and explained occurrence.

 

Pratibimb sees one of Marathicinema’s best actresses Sonali Kulkarni playing a double role. It pains to say she’s rather disappointing here, hamming her way through the film. She looks way too old for a just-out-of-college student, while the n-number of songs can tire you out of your wits. The title song does play in one’s head long after the film is over.

 

The editing does not always do justice to the writer's ambitions. Abrupt jumps and unintentionally out-of-focus shots ruin what could have been an easy spook fest. Though other cast members are strictly decent, none impresses much.

 

The fairly engaging plot best reflects what Pratibimb set out to achieve albeit unsuccessfully. You won’t be missing much if you skipped this.