‘Gondhal’ review: An Indian wedding party turns sour in polished Marathi-language debut

Dir/scr: Santosh Davakhar. India. 2025. 116mins

A joyful wedding ceremony get together turns sinister in Gondhal, which unfolds on a single evening that brings a complete village collectively in celebration solely to be undone by lingering resentments, delicate egos and romantic jealousy. Santosh Davakhar makes his function debut in competitors at Goa with a richly-photographed Marathi-language crowdpleaser that luxuriates in tradition and ceremony each bit as a lot because it delights in its heightened thriller components. Polished and expertly paced, the function grabs viewers by the throat from minute one and alerts the arrival of a complicated new voice in Indian cinema.

Indicators the arrival of a complicated new voice in Indian cinema

The vast majority of Davakhar’s output so far has been brief movies (together with 2017’s Adnyat and 2020 pandemic drama Antar-19) which have made modest waves on pageant circuit, and that ought to prime Gondhal for onward pageant play. Although the movie appears to have flown considerably below the radar at house since its mid-November launch, a world theatrical run could possibly be on the playing cards for area of interest distributors which have beforehand discovered audiences for non-Bollywood tune and dance spectaculars from India. Gondhal’s technical finesse and musicality actually make it a wealthy cinematic expertise.

The movie begins with a sleek, practically 30-minute opening sequence that units the tone. Cinematographer Amaledu Chaudary’s (Shiddat) monitoring shot begins with Maharashtra village elder and matchmaker Bhivada (Kishor Kadam, Anurag Kashyap’s Black Friday) strolling a dust street with a few pals and his grandson Vishnu (Dhruv Thoke). They’re making their approach to the city centre for the night’s celebratory gondhal, a efficiency of mythological tales advised via dance and music, designed to ward off detrimental vitality and pave the best way to a cheerful marriage.

The newlyweds are Andya (Yogesh Sohoni), the son of the city second wealthiest man and extensively regarded as a bit easy, and the gorgeous Suman (relative newcomer Ishita Deshmukh), typically thought-about means out of Andya’s league. After all, Suman has a second suitor, the jealous and actually moustache-twirling Sarjerao (Nishad Bhoir), the son of the corrupt village chief, often called the ‘patil’ (Suresh Vishwakarma), who refused to pay her dowry. Suman’s third suitor is gondhali performer Saheba (Anju Prabhu), the inappropriate man she really loves and is now completely separated from. Because the gondhal carries on, the soon-to-be unhappily married Suman tries to plot a course out of the village.

Davakhar, who additionally wrote the script, makes use of the archetypes of romantic melodrama as a springboard for an admittedly easy story about religion, responsibility, secrets and techniques and lies, and the darker impulses simmering simply beneath the floor even throughout our most sacred moments. The establishing opener is a masterclass in effectivity, laying the groundwork for the principle gamers and the way they relate to one another, pitched so exactly it’s apparent there’s a powder keg within the city simply ready for a spark to ignite it.

Bhivada and the patil clearly have a historical past, although it’s by no means detailed – it doesn’t have to be. Suman is aware of she has some extent of energy over the lads surrounding her, even when she has none inside her family. Sarjerao is a nepo child who’s completely satisfied to take advantage of his privilege, however deep-down fears he’s an imposter. In the end, all of them impression one another in violent methods.

As a lot enjoyable as Davakhar has with what are primarily inventory characters, it’s his unwavering deal with Maharashtrian tradition and dedication to utilizing its motifs and iconography to inform the story that provides Gondhal its singular imaginative and prescient – the results of two years of analysis. Within the foreground is the growing rigidity hovering over the marriage get together and Suman’s clumsy machinations, however within the background are the legends and tales of Khanderaya and different gods as advised by the gondhali gamers, bathed in heat crimson and orange mild and inky, deep darkness.

Although the narrative has its share of free ends (certainly one of which is disturbing for who it entails), Gondhal is immersive and enlightening, but additionally gleefully pulpy, and a breath of contemporary air for Marathi cinema.