What is it all about?
Using the irrepressible urge of a middle class man to have sex with women as a backdrop, this so called freaky coming of age dramedy doesn’t come any close to capturing the dreamlike mix of using sex as a medium to tell a coming of age stories the way my all time favorite the Mexican 2011 time bomb ‘Y Tu Mama Tambien’, or the previous 1995 Swedish masterpiece Lust Och Fägring Stor or the classic 1973 Italian Malizzia did and still does.
Coming from a production house like Phantom an individualistic and inspirational coming of age was expected in ‘Hunterrr’ but sadly this dramedy in its desperation to make the audience know that it's not just an average romcom glances an occasional wink into sexual tinges like Savita Bhabi and the sexually friendly married wife from the neighborhood, while keeps a constant eye on ending up as a romantic comedy.
Writer - Director Harshavardhan Kulkarni’s ‘Hunterrr’ in the process of acknowledging and mocking the convention of the rom com genre falls back on the coming of age theme it was supposed to be. Making some of us believe that the whole ‘sex’ about the matter was a gimmick, ploy designed to sell the makers box office desires.
‘Hunterrr’ still leaves some marks for being occasionally off the wall b-town comedy and consistently oozing acting brilliance from Gulshan Devaiya, Radhika Apte and Sai Tamhankar.
The Story
Mandar Ponkshe (Gulshan Devaiah) has an uncontrollable urge to have sex with the opposite sex. An average Indian from the state of Maharashtra when encounters with his raging hormones in his pre -teens starts with thrilling and embarrassing situations like watching Hindi soft porn ‘Hawas Ki Rani’ in video parlour and getting caught by the cops to being thrown out of the hostel for caught coochie cooing with a girl called Parul (Veera Saxena) to having a steamy affair with a married wife from the neighborhood Jyotsna (Sai Tamhankar) with periodic humps to a horny auntie called Savita Bhabhi. Harshavardhan Kulkarni tells this story of ‘Vasu’ - Mandar Ponkshe who claims to sense the needs of women from 1989 to 2015. A guy who can seduce but cannot charm. A person who knows how to make love without knowing what is love until he finds true love in Trupti (Radhika Apte) who similarly has some record of affairs and troubled pasts.
What to look out for
Harshavardhan Kulkarni gets himself noticed as a movie freak. The ‘Agneepath’ Sherlock Holmes’ and even sort of a ‘Roshomon effect’ (couple of times) influence and the teen, pre -teen hormonal encounters gets an instant connect and gives a sense déjà vu and atmospheric feeling of similar happenings seen in European, French cinema and in many of our personal life’s.
Director Harshavardhan Kulkarni scores over the writer here ‘Hunterrr’ is a treatment film. The ambient atmosphere, mood and sound of the nineties are well captured. The sequences during the pre -teen adrenaline rush to satisfy the raging hormones are witty and amusing.
Vasu’s encounters with Jyotsna adds the raw oomph and some ‘tilt’ to the tale. Writing is pitched rightly for the ‘target’ audience.
The acting department is free of any complains here.
Starting with Gulshan Devaiya as Mandar Ponkshe, the actor in his first opportunity as the protagonist is brilliant in his composure and measure as the sweet talking allurer of the opposite sex.
Radhika Apte as Trupti is fantastic
Sai Tamhankar as Jyotsna - the sexually friendly married wife from the neighborhood provides the raw oomph quotient. Expressing exceptionally with her eyes the actress posses a rare haunting quality.
Veera Saxena as Parul impresses.
Khamosh Shah’s music is in sync with the proceedings.
What not
Hunterrr had a promising premise and could have being a significant Bollywood coming of age tale that smartly used sex as its medium to prove its point. Though not entirely pointless ‘Hunterrr’ after it’s commendable circa nineties tone and the adolescent age gets predictable and ultimately ends up being as conventional as a romantic comedy. Too much of intercepting flash backs doesn,t help the already lazy narrative (first half is alright).
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