Ashdoc's movie review---Fatteshikast ( marathi movie )

[ashdoc]

The era is the second half of the seventeenth century . Aurangzeb has become Mughal emperor and has begun to set his eyes on the deccan , for here is the rising power of the grand rebel---Shivaji Maharaj ( Chinmay Mandlekar ) . To contain the rising power of Shivaji , Aurangzeb sends his maternal uncle Shaista Khan ( Anup Soni ) with a large army to unleash terror on Maharashtra . Shaista Khan's troops occupy Pune where Shivaji grew up and the khan makes Shivaji's Lal Mahal his abode along with his begums .

As Marathi people are dragged roped together as prisoners and slaves and their houses and farms are set afire after orgies of murder , the pressure is on Shivaji to retaliate against this tyranny . In this he has one trump card . Lal Mahal is where he grew up and he knows it's secret passages inside out . He is safe in his fortress hideout in the Sahyadri mountains , but he yearns to free his people from the Mughal yoke .

Shivaji first sends his trusted spies to find out where the guards are in Lal Mahal and the time of change of guard . His spy chief Bahirji Naik ( Harish Dudhade ) sends a female spy named Kesar ( Mrunmayee Deshpande ) to make friends with Shaista Khan's son's wife Rai Bagan sahiba ( Trupti Todarmal ) and thus gain entry into the harem and find out details of guarding etc . She has other male spies helping her pretending to be muslims . She is suspected to be a spy on several occasions but escapes capture as no proof is found . At grave risk to her life she still stays in the harem .

After due information is gathered , Shivaji gathers select troops for what the film makers have trumpeted as India's first surgical strike . Shivaji personally leads his men and they manage to slip into Lal Mahal for attacking the khan . Shaista is woken from his sleep to find Shivaji's men creating havoc in his residence . Shivaji attacks Shaista in dead of night and in the fight that breaks out cuts off three fingers of his hand himself . But other Mughal guards have woken up and the wounded Shaista clings on to his life . As Mughal soldiers chase a troupe of flaming torches they discover the torches have been attached to horns of animals . Shivaji and his soldiers have escaped after killing many Mughal soldiers .

As Shivaji returns back to his fortress to be welcomed by his mother Jijabai ( Mrunal Kulkarni ) and worried wife Soyrabai , their are tears in the eyes of Kesar for her king has returned safe from one more expedition that adds to his growing legend . The growing legend credits Shivaji with magical powers due to his sudden entry into heavily guarded residence of Shaista and the Khan vacates Pune in fear of those powers .

Acting is good by all actors and colours and photography is good too . The bhagwa jhenda ( saffron flag ) flies tall and mighty in many scenes , and background music and songs are decent too .

Verdict---Good .

Three and a half stars out of five .