Verdict : **1/2

This film is helmed as debut of Ritesh Vilasrao Deshmukh in Marathi film Industry. He has produced two films till now- Balak Palak & Yellow. Those two films set the standards for Riteish’s grand debut and many of us expected “Lai Bhaari” as an intelligent action movie in Marathi (which is actually rarity in Bollywood too). Baring the names such as Sajid Nadiadwala, Ajay-Atul, Nishikant Kamat in its credit roll, Lai Bhaari is any of the recent ‘Bollywood’ film with Marathi dialogues.
Story opens up with PratapSingh Raje Nimbalkar (Uday Tikekar) and his wife Sumitra Devi (Tanvi Azmi). They are wealthy, God-like but destiny has not blessed them with child. Sumitra Devi vows to Lord Vitthal for child in return of same child placed as an offering. Pretty soon good news arrives. But now, Sumitra Devi is in dilemma whether to sacrifice her child or not. She decides not to and carries on with her life. That child grows up to become AbhaySingh AKA Prince (Riteish Deshmukh). He is well educated and just like his parents.
Above was Sanskari side of story. Now comes the evil one. PratapSingh has an evil nephew SangramSingh (Sharad Kelkar) who is equally bad for Prince’s goodness. Sangram decides to take over entire Nimbalkar Empire. What happens next is to be watched in theater.
This film has every element that we have seen in most of Bollywood Masala films. For example, one rich couple who serves poor people but doesn’t have a child, an evil brother or nephew who likes to acquire innocent farmers’ lands, a Holi song, fight scenes right before interval and climax and much more. We have seen this all in Hindi films, Daily Soaps and everywhere. Just the fact that it wasn’t presented loudly in Marathi Cinema, doesn’t make it fresh. Story reminds you of Agneepath, Himmatwala, Rowdy Rathore, R…Rajkumar and many other brainless action movies in recent times.
Film is 150 minutes long. First half of the film drags itself as audiences do not get to see much events happening. Second half is much more entertaining as you get to see much of the action and a special ‘Salman Bhau’ cameo in it. Lai Bhaari is made on grand budget and it shows. Action scenes are as good as any other Hindi film and so are the dance sequences.
It also has an ensemble cast of Radhika Apte, Aditi Pohankar, Sanjay Khapre and many other forgettable characters. Kudos to Riteish as he manages to deliver Marathi dialogues very nicely. Ajay-Atul has not managed to provide good music. Only Mauli song is memorable rest are not to be talked about.
Lai Bhaari has nothing much to offer in new. We have seen it all just not in Marathi. It is not boring but entertaining in parts. Clichéd dialogues, repetitive scenes and predictable storyline sucks out freshness from the film. It is one time watch for sure. Don’t expect much, don’t get disappointed. Lai Bhaari is not memorable except few cheesy dialogues and awesome opening credit sequence with the Mauli Song.