Dhagedore

The government is always at pains to enact laws to protect ordinary citizens from criminal elements. However, certain criminals hide behind masks of respectability and twist the very same laws, find loopholes, and otherwise corrupt the system that is meant to protect the public from their devious tricks. This is the unfortunate social reality of our times.

The city-slick builder Indrasen Shirke is one of these social enemies. His only daughter, Manju, is a spoilt child, but she remains pure at heart. Her friend Tejas has a very close friend, Prasad. Prasad has only Platonic feelings for Tejas, but she is in love with him. Her law studies and other commitments prevent her from expressing her love interest. Manju, forthright and frank, blurts out to Prasad that she is interested in a relationship with him. Prasad finds this free and open nature attractive, and before anybody gets wind of matters, the young lovers elope and get married.

Prasad’s family, the Karniks, is a very average, middle-class family, while Manju and her parents are very wealthy, with an ultra-modern lifestyle. Prasad and Manju live in separate worlds…… and a slight misunderstanding is enough! The Shirkes, however, make a mountain out of a molehill. They claim their daughter was being abused and start a campaign against the Karnik family. And Fate intervenes to further compound the situation : Manju accidentally slips from the fifth floor and leaves this world.

The Shirkes turn to Advocate Bhalerao, the renowned lawyer, for help; and Prasad is soon tried for the “murder of his wife Manju”. There is no eye-witness testimony in the case. All the Shirkes have is circumstancial evidence, and it is all to their favour! In addition, a court-room tiger like Bhalerao is ready to attack! It is blatantly clear that the court’s decision would be detrimental to the innocent Prasad Karnik.

It is then that Tejas accepts the case on behalf of her friend Prasad. She dares take on both the filthy-rich Shirkes and her Guru Advocate Bhalerao. What is Tejas’s strategy in the courtroom? What evidence does she uncover from the site of the death? What proof of malafides is she able to produce in court? 

The answer to all these questions is revealed in the forthcoming Marathi film “Dhagedore”.