Spoilers ahead…
This is a biopic about not a person but the essence of a person, which is his music. Even though we see the story beats, the idea, the concept of music is always in the forefront.
A little after Chaitanya Tamhane’s The Disciple, Marathi cinema gives us another deep-dive saga of classical music: Nipun Dharmadhikari’s Mee Vasantrao, which is about the life and times of the legendary classical singer Vasantrao Deshpande. The great man is played by his grandson, Rahul Deshpande, who is also a classical musician and who has composed the score along with Bhushan Mate.
Most of the biopics made in India are about a person, and they are very literal. But Nipun Dharmadhikari has made a biopic about not a person but the essence of a person, which is his music. The overall story is that of a man whose unconventional singing techniques were suppressed first by his family responsibilities and later by the establishment, who have very strict definitions of what “shastriya sangeet“, or classical music, is. But even though we see these story beats, the idea, the concept, the essence of music is always in the forefront.
You can read the rest of the review here:
https://www.galatta.com/marathi/movie/review/mee-vasantrao/
And you can watch the video review here:
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Baradwaj Rangan 
Sri Prabhuram
April 3, 2022
I have never seen a Marathi movie in my life before (not even Sairat), so this looks like a wonderful one to start with.
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An Jo
April 3, 2022
Fantastic!! So glad you watched it. And thanks for recommending it.
Absolutely love Vasant Rao Deshpande and his solid mastery over the Hindustani classical form, having started from Kirana and Patiala gharana, is tremendous. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi remains the Mount Everest of course, but Vasant Rao Deshpande, with fine contributions to films as well, is an in inspiration in himself. And the man responsible for recognizing this diamond is Bhalji Pendharkar.
A rare video of how he enjoyed the ‘process.’
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Nimmi Rangaswamy
April 3, 2022
Thank you for this wonderful review- the songs are exquisite! Marathi cinema periodically puts out movies centered on classical music – There are none from Tamil cinema- given the status of Chennai in the universe of classical music
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