‘Antim’ movie review: Crime and punishment

Manjrekar has to justify producer and brother-in-law Salman Khan’s presence as well, ostensibly to guarantee a good opening. So the role of police officer Rajveer Singh, who takes on Rahul, swells beyond proportion and muffles the voice of the film.

This week, the good old Mahesh Manjrekar joins the likes of Rahul Rawail and Satish Kaushik — competent filmmakers who are roped in to launch/resurrect family products by Bollywood bigwigs on a tried and trusted track. When in form, Manjrekar has the ability to engage the audience with old-school melodrama. In Pravin Tarde’s Marathi hit, Mulshi Pattern, here, he has potent material to work upon, but the presence of a star almost overshadows his expression.

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With farmers’ protests trending in mind space, the film’s underlying theme of the social cost of development is easy to relate to. Here is a farmer (Sachin Khedekar) who is forced to sell his land. He spends most of his money on family obligations and is reduced to a security staff guarding what was once his own fields. He is humiliated for plucking vegetables from the land he once tilled.