Some in the village are convinced, others take a more rational approach such as the respected Anna (Dilip Prabhavalkar) who assures Keshya that his faith may well have allowed him a vision of his God but it would be better to be quiet about it. Convinced that it is for real, Keshya races back to his village to announce his revelation. He is startled out of his sleepy reverie with a vision of the three headed Lord Dattatreya. A scruffy looking young man Keshya (Girish Kulkarni) on the lookout for his cow Karde, rests in the shade of a solitary tree. A nondescript village (Mangrul) in what looks very much like a sweeping Satara-esque landscape albeit overgrazed and barren, is the location for this film. The stellar cast and in fact every actor deliver their respective characters as though to the manor born. Deool deserves to be ranked as a Marathi film political classic, ahead of its time. Got around to watching it last night in orig. Maybe someone to clean out the whole godless mess that the village had become. We see a looter, visibly wounded, approach from a distance. Everyone seems to grow and prosper as a result, so who cares? Finally, I'm not sure I understood the (hidden?) meaning of the final scene. The core theme is very obvious: the commercialization of religion in combination with how an insignificant event gets hijacked by politicians. You see them appear at appropriate moments, without overwhelming the viewer, regardless of their vast number. I don't think it is useful to summarize all characters and their relationships here. And last but not least I admired the nice landscapes we get to see. Also adding to my positive experience was that we hear wonderful music from time to time, that makes very good listening even to our European ears. The latter blends in with the environment, as we see the villagers never do very much, and they seem to enjoy their uncomplicated lives. The film was never boring, in spite of its relatively slow pace. Ingenious script, and it works well for the whole 135 minutes running time. All characters appearing in this film seem true to themselves, and behave natural in their assumed roles. They even conveniently forget that is was God who it was all about. Clearly, most people take advantage of the growing prosperity, and prefer to ignore the negative side effects. We observe all this happening as a stepwise process. A holy city grows in the middle of the desert, totally overwhelming the once peaceful village. A temple is built, notwithstanding several wise men insisting that there are better ways to spend the building costs. He ignores friendly advice to keep it for himself, and a journalist becomes aware of the event. The story opens with the alleged manifestation of a God figure, experienced by a young villager while lying asleep under a tree. A central theme is what happens when commercialization and politics lay their mostly self serving hands on a religious event. I saw this film as part of the Rotterdam Film Festival 2012.
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