First, a round of applause for the makers of the film 'Riwayat' for making a film on female feticide, a subject that holds relevance even today. But our congratulations end here, as the film feels like a student docu-drama and does a shabby job of highlighting an important issue.

What's it about?

We often scan through morning newspapers while sipping tea and come across stories of baby girls being killed. 'Riwayat' is one such story from the papers that has been turned into a feature film.

Directed by Vijay Patkar, 'Riwayat' has been part of a lot of film festivals but commercially, the makers are bound to be disappointed at the response to the commercial release. Although the film boasts of famous television actors like Achint Kaur, Salil Ankola and Khalid Siddique among others, the low quality of production, amateur camerawork and a loosely written screenplay make this film one to ignore.

'Riwayat' is a story of a feisty young woman, Anita played by Samapika, who works for an NGO. How Anita tries to educate the people of Gangapur and her family about the evils of killing the girl child form the basic plot.
 
Samapika exudes a lot of confidence and does a convincing job as the outspoken social worker. Khalid Siddique as Anita's husband Raj is terrible. He hardly speaks in the film and his character lends no support to his fearless wife. Although we suppose that his character was meant to seem clueless, his portrayal of the same is hardly convincing and that says a lot!

The same can be said for television actor Salil Ankola, who mouths hardly a line or two in the entire narrative. Even in emotional scenes, Ankola makes almost no effort. However, Achint Kaur as Deepika bhabi is one to look out for. Her drunk act as the elder daughter-in-law of the house makes us wonder why she has been missing from the acting scene for so long.

Even at 120 minutes, the film could have spent a longer time at the editing table. Unnecessary songs in the film make you want to cringe, and especially the one where Anita goes to Gangapur and Narendra Jha who plays Kabir is introduced. It seems pointless to have a song to introduce a driver, where others have more important roles in the film.

What to do?

The maiden episode of 'Satyamev Jayate’ that covered the same issue was far more enlightening. Give this movie a miss.
 
in.com rating: 1.5/5

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