‘FUN-eral’ raises pertinent questions around death
By Dr. Harsha Bhargavi Hyderabad: Birth and death are natural to every living thing. However, while the news of a birth brings joy to a family, death is filled with tragedy and regarded as evil, defiled, and unacceptable. After one’s death, a number of rituals are performed to pray for the soul’s peaceful journey to […]
By Dr. Harsha Bhargavi
Hyderabad: Birth and death are natural to every living thing. However, while the news of a birth brings joy to a family, death is filled with tragedy and regarded as evil, defiled, and unacceptable. After one’s death, a number of rituals are performed to pray for the soul’s peaceful journey to heaven.
Viewed in this context, the Marathi language film ‘Fun-eral’ is mind-blowing. Aroh Velankar, who played the lead role in the film, makes his debut with the film. Aroh, who plays the role of Heera, was born and resided in Hyderabad, some time ago, and later moved to their home State Maharashtra.
The film is directed by Ramesh Dige with a unique narrative and Aroh did complete justice to his role. The film has received awards at 35 national and international film festivals.
If you are wondering why the name of this movie is ‘Fun-eral’, you must watch it. The story revolves around four friends, who are unemployed. These young men work as mercenaries, hold rallies for candidates during elections and sometimes cheat shopkeepers to earn money. Led by Heera, these guys aren’t really bad but circumstances push them to get involved in illegal activities.
The story takes an unexpected turn when Vinod (Parth Ghatge), one of the four, tries to sell an insurance policy to a rich man. Unfortunately, the man dies of heart failure during their conversation. With all his relatives in the US, the daughter of the deceased requests Heera and his friends to help in organising her father’s funeral.
After the rituals, the deceased man’s daughter offers some money to the four friends which they reluctantly accept. As the amount is insufficient to pay off their debt, Heera comes up with the idea of turning it into a business with a startup called ‘Funeral Management’. And the story largely revolves around the sentiment ‘why to leave the world in sadness or suffering’. The friends try to add humour and tenderness to it.
There are many metaphors in the film that compare life and death. Director Vivek Dubey does a good job by making each scene a way of showing situations, social commitments, opinions, and myths through the characters around the hero.
Aroh Velankar excels with his natural acting. Among the supporting cast, Vijay Kenkre as Heera’s grandfather, Prema Sakhardande as his neighbour and Shambhaji Bhagat as Shavagara attendant make a lasting impact.
‘Fun-eral’ is a heartfelt story that ends in a well-written climax. Although it is low on technical aspects, the emotion it conveys has received universal acclaim. The film drives home a good message. Although it is a Marathi language film, it depicts scenes in a way that non-Marathi speakers can also understand.