Producers: Sujit Ghosh & Arundhati Ghosh
Director: Navin Joshi
Star Cast: Rahul Barapatre, Piew Jana, Mukul Nag, Smita Dongre, Master Sairaj, Sunil Singh, Reshma Merchant, Kiran Sharma, Arvind Singh, Dhananjay Chaudhary, Vinod Anand, Nidhi & Sudhir Dalvi as Sai Baba.
Genre: Docu Drama
Verdict: AVERAGE
Scores of films have been made on Shirdi Ke Sai Baba, the 1st one being patriotic actor Manoj Kumar’s Shirdi Ke Sai Baba and now director Navin Joshi’s directorial offering Mere Sai Ram offers nothing new albeit Navin Joshi has given a romantic twist to the devotional theme to lure the cine goers.
Plot: The scenario kicks off with Dhondiram (Mukul Nag) who is a simple villager hailing from a very poor background. As an ardent devotee of Sai Baba (Sudir Dalvi) Dhondiram always converses & shares his day to day problems with Sai Baba. In fact his core belief centers around Sai Baba. Once Dhondiram dreams of Sai Baba who asks him to build a temple. Besides there is sub plot which revolves around the love story of Prakash (Rahul Barapatre), the village antagonist Zamindar’s (Dhananjay Choudhari) son, and Dhondiram’s sister (Piew Jana). The 2 stories connect and forms the crux of the film.
Aces: Sudhir Dalvi once again excels in the title role of Sai Baba. Mukul Nag as Sai Baba’s devotee is quite impressive. And last but not the least debutante actor Rahul Barapatere has a good screen presence which will prove to be a good advantage for him in the long run. That apart some of the Sai Bhajans are quiet catchy.
Minuses: The snail’s pace and some of the over repetitive scenes of the film prove to be a hindrance in the narrative.
Last Word: This docu drama Mere Sai Ram is strictly recommended for the most ardent Sai Baba devotees and above all the most ardent Sai Baba fans.
