23. Vaalvi (Termite) (2023)

*This review contains mild spoilers and depiction of suicide / murder*

It is often said that making a comedy is one of the biggest challenges faced by a movie director. The process of creating a scene that tickles the audience’s funnybone starts with great writers. They conjure up the situation and write it into the screenplay while advising the actors on how they want it to unfold. In turn, the actors use their facial expressions and body language to help convey the emotion to the audience. In addition, the actors’ style and pacing of dialogue delivery along with intentional pauses – typically known as comic timing – often enhances the comic nature of the scene. In a dark comedy, there’s an added challenge of selling an unpleasant and often criminal idea and evoking an altogether contrasting reaction like laughter from the conscientious audience. Thus, the challenge lies in bringing all these factors together in perfect harmony and realizing the scene as the writer originally envisioned. Director Paresh Mokashi of the Marathi language film ‘Vaalvi’ (termite) does a wonderful job on all these counts and delivers a perfect dark comedy.

Comedy has been a prominent genre in the Marathi film industry dating back to at least five decades. In 1970’s, Dada Kondke wreaked havoc with his sleazy and double entendre comedies. Later, the legendary duo of Ashok Saraf and Laxmikant Berde cracked up the audiences of late 80’s and 90’s with their slapstick and physical comedies. However, dark comedy is a flavor that has been rarely experimented in the industry until now. Mr. Mokashi’s latest offering ‘Vaalvi’ involves a husband planning the murder of his own wife with the help of his girlfriend with whom he’s having a secret affair. Going in, I was curious to see its creators deal with the comic aspect of this seemingly perfect noir film.

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The movie begins on a dark note and establishes this premise in its very first scene. The husband Aniket (Swapnil Joshi) and his wife Avani (Anita Date-Kelkar) are a middle class couple in Mumbai who are fed up with their lives. Aniket’s business is about to go bust due to mounting financial and legal obligations. As for Avani, she suffers from depression and bipolar disorder and has had little success to show for her efforts in her research project which is getting termites to eat plastic. With no kids and their relationship suffering as a result, they both decide to end it all by committing suicide. Triggers are pulled and the audience who’s barely seated in their seats by now are shaken by the on-screen violence.

But following this tense and jarring scene, like a flick of a switch we are transported into the clinic of Aniket’s girlfriend Devika (Shivani Surve) who’s a dentist. There is a noticeable shift in tone in this comic scene where Aniket and Devika are busy planning Avani’s murder while having a pizza. They are doing a walkthrough of the events of the following day when the execution is set to take place. I liked this elaborate scene for several reasons. It does a wonderful job of establishing the two main characters. Aniket is a successful businessman (his tale of impending bankruptcy is a lie to coax a divorce out of his wife) and a slightly absent minded guy who likes a bit of thrill and excitement in his life. Devika is a successful dentist who’s sort of a perfectionist and a go-getter. She is also the more vigilant one among the two and she’s carefully considering every possible way in which their carefully laid out plans may fail. Both are cold hearted and have no qualms about committing a crime as they are convinced of their reasons and see no other way of getting together. Bonus points to the team here for adding subtle nuances to Devika’s selfish nature. On one hand, she’s planning a murder in cold blood and on the other she’s concerned about Aniket’s health and keeps reminding him to drink more water to prevent kidney stone complications. This scene has a good balance of farce and realism. It is easy to fall into the trap of presenting the characters as a caricature for the sake of comedy. But here, comedy has been limited to the simple use of dry humor and by having them consider several failure scenarios in detail, both Aniket and Devika come across as smart, thinking individuals.

With a taut runtime of 106 minutes, the movie keeps the audience constantly on the edge of their seats. During the first half of the movie, even with all the elaborate planning and the detailed discussion around the murder, we aren’t sure whether the murder will actually happen. During the second half, we are expecting a twist in the tale – something that does come eventually but not in the way we expect. We do get introduced to a new character – Dr. Anshuman (Subodh Bhave) who’s Avani’s psychiatrist. He joins the fray alongside a few other minor characters. As the audience wonders how this thrill ride will come to an end, the tension keeps ratcheting up and the movie descends into perfect chaos.

As with any good thriller, enough hints are skillfully planted throughout the movie, which are glaringly obvious upon second viewing. It is a pleasant surprise to see the situations unfold in a reasonably organic manner. The characters experience several hiccups during the execution of their plan, and when faced with adversity, their panic stricken expressions and reactions under stress feel very real. At the same time,. the banter throughout the movie is witty, humorous and refreshingly natural. The tension rises, and so does the humor as this neo-noir comedy hurtles towards a very unexpected but ultimately satisfying conclusion.

Cast and Crew:

As mentioned earlier, good writing is an integral part of making a comedy film. As screenwriters, the husband and wife pair of Paresh Mokashi and Madhugandha Kulkarni have done an excellent job. A real strength of this film is that all the characters are well fleshed out and feel consistent in their traits. Well known for his earlier family-oriented comedies [Harishchandrachi Factory (2009), Chi Va Chi Sau Ka (2017)], Mr. Mokashi tries something different here. He does a phenomenal job of wrapping the evil idea of murder in an appealing packaging of dry humor and presenting it to the audience. A notable attention to detail has gone into the planning of the murder. In addition minor nuances like Devika’s control-freak nature and Aniket’s seemingly random question to his driver asking if he’s started smoking again enhances the characters’ personalities. All this combined with the perfect pacing of the movie and the suitable accompanying background score by Mangesh Dhakde help in building up the suspense and maintaining it throughout the movie.

The four lead actors have done a good job of staying true to their characters. Swapnil Joshi plays Aniket with his signature casual charm. He is composed and clumsy in equal measures – exactly when he needs to be. Shivani Surve plays his girlfriend Devika, who is smart, cold hearted and hot-headed. Miss Surve’s portrayal of Devika’s anger management issues is a treat to watch and her interactions with Dr. Anshuman are hilarious.

Subodh Bhave as the psychiatrist Dr. Anshuman makes an immediate impact upon his on-screen arrival in the second half of the movie. His transactional dynamics with the other characters often lead to some witty and sarcastic banter. Finally, Anita Date-Kelkar plays Avani, the unfortunate wife who’s a target of her husband’s evil schemes and does a good job of showing both sides of her bipolar nature.

Final Thoughts:

As a rare dark comedy in India’s regional Marathi film industry, this is a trailblazing film. Sit back, relax and enjoy this thrilling ride without worrying about the final destination. I promise you the journey will be worth it once you arrive there.