Ilu Ilu 1998, Review: Too many luse ends

A good 38 years ago, in a Hindustani hit film titled Saudagar, lyricist Anand Bakhshi coined a sensible nonsensical term in one of its songs, which began with Ilu Ilu, the three letters of the alphabets, standing for I Love U. It was a runaway hit. The song lived in the memory of a unit of Marathi film-makers, who might have been just born then or in their early childhood. Cut to 2025. A Phalke family (any possible connection with the father of Indian cinema, DadaSaheb Phalke is best bypassed) decided to make a film in Phalke’s and their own Marathi language, set in Pune, the centre of the language, and decided to call it Ilu Ilu 98. The 98 came about since the film involves the coming of age of the lead characters, and ends in the present day, making 1998 the period when they were teenage students, and when the story takes place. It is a bittersweet story, which has sad endings for the male leads, but is sweet to a level that can cause diabetes mellitus. You will lose count of the number of times the characters wear a broad smile and move in slo-mo, beaming at the camera.

In terms of reference, the film draws from Summer of 42, a year that is 56 years behind 98, but a film of that name was made in 1971, a good 54 years behind today. I am sure none of the main cast and crew of Ilu Ilu 98 were born in 1971, but that does not mean they did not have access to the film when they were mature enough to appreciate international cinema. Summer of 42 is vconsidered a milestone by many a cineaste. An older woman having an affair with a younger man is contemporarily considered taboo, and was an even greater taboo in 1971. Imagine how much of an anathema it must have been in 1942. Now consider the fact the original was set in America. How would it unfold in Pune, India, in 1998? Had the film been well-made and watchable, the inspiration would have receded into the recesses of the brain, and we would be analysing the film at hand, independently. But, instead, we are served with a kitsch that in neither interesting nor thought provoking.

Three stories criss-cross the road-map of the film, which is fudgy in the first place, at best. A 14- year-old student, Aniket, falls head over hills in love with his new English teacher. Another teenaged student falls for his fellow classmate. And his father, a married, middle-aged banker, Milind, develops the seven year itch some 21 years after being married, getting smitten by a new, attractive neighbour, who turns out to be a classmate of his sister, back in school. Then there is the English school teacher, Madhuri Pinto, who has relocated from Goa to Pune (how she acquired a whole villa, named Pinto’s Villa, almost overnight, remains a mystery) is a stunner, and to drive home the point, the retiring school teacher she replaces would never be seen in the vicinity of a beauty pageant. Her entire class develops a crush for her, of which the lead character, Aniket, is the most star-struck. Besides the students, a teacher, Pawar,  too pitches in, not missing any opportunity to get close to her. But all her favours are limited to Aniket (Ani), including giving him a rose as well as a peck on the cheek. For his part, Aniket sketches a life-like-picture of her, being gifted in this art, something she deeply appreciates. Things proceed as if all is hunky-dory, and Ani even nurses a desire to marry her.

Another class-mate’s efforts to get close to his crush are stone-walled by the girl’s personality, which does not vibe with his. Moreover, she tries to weigh him against her own father, who is a fundamentalist, disciplinarian Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) branch-head, a Hindu, semi-militant outfit, which conducts rigorous training of its members. As if that was not enough, she compares him to her brothers (there are at least four of them), all of whom are older than her and are well-settled in high positions. Meanwhile the middle-aged banker, who unabashedly chases his new neighbour, to the utter dismay of his wife, also seems to make headway in his pursuit. But the affair that never was is doomed from the beginning, because the woman concerned, a divorcée, has other plans. Thus, in two cases out of three, the woman leads the man/boy along, while the third snubs him at every opportunity. And guess who will emerge hurt and wiser from the encounters? The males, of course.

A coherent plot is noticeable by its absence, and the man who should shoulder the responsibility of a loose, wishy-washy screenplay is story-screenplay-dialogue writer Nitin Sindhuvijay Supekar. He ends up painting two of his female protagonists as crafty and unscrupulous, if not silly and confused. The third is painted an illogical nerd who seems bent on rubbing her suitor the wrong way. None of them strike a chord with the viewers and end up as negative elements. As far as the boys are concerned, there is some credibility in the character of Aniket, but it is too much to accept that he sees every over-generous and fleetingly intimate occasion as proof of the teacher’s decision to marry him, although he is much younger and belongs to another religion. The writer further confounds the viewer by weaving in a scene wherein Madhuri has an argument with her father, in which she insists that she will marry the man of her choice, even though he is much younger and belongs to another religion, an exchange that Ani over-hears.

Over the top is the credo of almost all the scenes, and the scenes featuring the banker, his drinking partner (Jadhav) and his family, vis-à-vis their new neighbour, are a case in point. Director Ajinkya Bapu Phalke believes that every entry of the teacher is an occasion to shoot in slow motion, perhaps, mistakenly, expecting the audience to applause, and giving them time to do so. That can happen the first time, and possibly a second time, when the camera dwells on the woman’s body. But since there is no real skin show, to expect cat-calls/whistles/applause on subsequent occasions is being foolhardy. There is no real presence of the director felt, except in the scenes involving the sticking of the Madhuri sketch in the boys’ toilet, when he takes us on an unexpected flashback. Even that is not integrated with the story and comes out of the blue. One feeling that runs through the film is that the unit must have had a lot of fun making the film, but, in the process, they let film-making and basic film grammar take the back seat. In fact, it often appears that these mandatory concepts were not on board at all.

Where almost all the actors are vying with each other to go over the top, it is well-nigh impossible to judge their acting abilities. Yet, Nishant Bhavsar, as Aniket, is as likeable as his role allows. Elli AvRam (full name Elisabet Avramidou Granlund, a Swedish-Greek actress, seen on TV in Bigg Boss in 2013, and in the Hindustani film screen Kisko Pyar Karoon) makes her Marathi debut in Ilu Ilu 1998, as Madhuri Pinto. If you want to see how a Swedish (mother)-Greek (father) actress can master Marathi dialogue delivery, doing her own dubbing, besides being fluent in English and Hindi, you must see this film. Sadly, though, that is the only thing this film can offer as an attraction to prospective audiences.

Ilu Ilu 98 has in its cast veteran Shrikant Yadav (as Milind Surve), Veena Jamkar (Sangeeta Surve), Kamlakar Satpute (Jadhav), Vanita Kharat (Mrs. Jadhav), Ankita Lande (Nisha Dekhane), Mira Jaganath (Hema), Anushka Pimputkar, Aroh Welankar, Gaurav Kalushte (Ashish Surve), Pradeep Patwardhan (a stern and credible Principal, who is seen in one scene as a unidimensional character), Soham Kalokhe (Lalya), Ananda Karekar (Pawar, the teacher who makes no bones about his attraction to his new colleague) and Arya Kakde (a fellow student, Joshi).

On the technical side, behind the scenes, we have Music by Rohit Nagbhide, Cinematography by

Sanjivkumar Hilli and Yogesh M. Koli, and Editing by Nitesh Rathod. The 114 minutes of the film roll by without stirring your intellect or involving your senses.

Ilu Ilu 1998 is a disappointment in 2025, with too many loose ends. It would have been one in 1998 too.

Trailer: https://youtu.be/UKUiPy9zYvI