This movie - Mani Mangalsutra - is first ever Marathi movie to be premiered in North America. As proud and supportive, I was for the cause, the movie was a let down. I have to write something about it, because Marathi movies need to put in a lot more effort in research and logic.
The movie ventured a comparison between married life and live-in relationships. However the examples were poorly chosen.
The story in short is as follows.
Two couples - First one is a young couple -
Shantanu and Swati - who have been living together for 7 years and the girl wants them to get married. But, the boy doesn't care about a wedding. His argument is shown to be based on the fact that a couple he was well-acquainted with, as a child, never got married and managed to live happily.
This second couple - Savitri and Purushottam- is two generations older and yet they are shown to have been living together, without getting married.
The whole movie is a debate between these two points of view. Unfortunately however, the second example was not a live-in relationship at all. Purushottam couldn't marry Savitri because he had not divorced his first wife. His first wife leaves him because he is impotent.
The movie got mixed up in two entirely different issues- 1. Impotence and 2. The question of marriage.
One question I asked the director:
Purushottam's problem was impotence and not his bombastic thoughts about marriage. What if they had gotten married, and she had found out his drawback... Would the marriage have lasted as a life- long commitment?
I doubt. Well, his first marriage fails exactly because of that. Oh, Purushottam's character makes me so angry. He totally takes undue advantage of helpless Savitri. He makes an appearance of being the "ideal" gentleman, by never touching her etc... Such a hypocrite!
It would have been a valid comparison only if Savitri and Purushottam had an actual "relationship". A different and real example would have helped.
Think before you make movies people!