The immensely accomplished Sachin Khedekar is lately seen in a lot of Telugu potboilers playing the benevolent father-figure. It is a pleasure beyond measure to see this cinematic treasure return to true form as the principal of a Marathi-medium school on the verge of closur…. quite like the cinema of this nature where “entertainment” is not the primary moving force: a sense of purpose is what navigates the characters and their mission to save the school.
Written and directed by Hemant Dhome, Krantijyoti Vidyalay Marathi Madhyam has a lot to say on the culture of culture-preservation especially the mother tongue which perpetually gets third preference after English and Hindi.
The film, not so gently, questions the de-prioritization of the mother tongue, Marathi in this case. In his rousing monologue at the end Dinkar Shirke (Khadeker) rightly points out that in the South, the Dravidians routinely prioritize their own language above Hindi or English, so why not Maharashtrians? Why do the Marathis send their children to English-medium schools?
The film ends in a swoop of fantasy with children en masse running toward the Marathi medium school.
As long as the film doesn’t get bully-ish about its one… rather , tongue-point agenda, it makes for pleasant, if not roaringly engaging, viewing . The bunch of experienced actors, playing ex-alumni are appealing in their unassumingness. The cast is vast. Their conversations are constrained.
Some ocharacters, like the ones played by Siddharth Chandekar and Prajakta Koli, have potential to be interesting.Sadly, attempts to thread their inter-relationship into the educational theme tends to slow down the proceedings. The Chandekar-Koli romance feels like a deliberate heavylift into the plot that never quite settles in. Amey Wagh as the comic relief/team joker is like Ritesh Deshmukh on speed. He gets way too much footage and adds little to the main conflict except to remind us of how much we miss Khedekar when he is not around.
With the incidental characters given less room to ruminate, the overall narrative would have had more staying power. By the time the evil builder (Anant Jog) arrives with the bulldozer to raze the precious school to the ground the plot has proceeded from being perky and pacy to a state of sighing righteousness.
Khedekar’s closing speech is powerful though in rhetorical podium style, more than a casual comment of linguistic pride.
Take it how you will, Krantijyoti Vidyalay Marathi Madhyam is a brave sincere attempt to foster cultural pride in a society where ‘cool’ is no longer a dip in the village pond.
