Goshta Eka Paithanichi Review: Not Everyone Can Write Good, Impactful Simple Stories, Effortlessly

Few best examples of simple stories that made a lasting impact on the audience were Gullak, Yeh Meri Family, Panchayat, and the latest Amazon miniTV show, Gutar Gu. Simple stories are the toughest to tell. They might still be a great read as a novel or short story but when you turn it into a film, even the tiniest events and emotions matter. 

Goshta Eka Paithanichi had a great start. It, in fact, was a good watch. Thanks to the direction that you do not feel like switching to another movie even though the story takes a twist that is not convincing enough. 

Goshta Eka Paithanichi is the story of a married couple, Indrayani (Sayali Sanjeev) and Sujit (Suvrat Joshi) who are living a simple life in the outskirts of a village. While Sujit sells flowers to make a living, his wife, Indrayani stitches saris to support him. One day, Smita Tai (Mrinal Kulkarni), a lady from a well-to-do family visits Indrayani to get her Paithani ready for a wedding that she has to attend. When Sujit realises that his wife has fallen in love with the Paithani but he can never earn enough to get her one, he requests her to wear it for him. Upon a lot of convincing from Sujit, Indrayani wears it for him. In the next scene, we see an event unfold in which the Paithani gets stained. It’s not a simple stain but a machine oil stain. Both husband and wife try different ways to get rid of the stain but fail to do so. The saree, in all of these efforts, gets ruined further. 

Scared that once the news of Paithani gets out in the village, Indrayani will run out of work, she decides to get Smita Tai the same Paithani which costs in lakhs. Till here, the story was going fine. You get involved in it. You wonder how this couple, who is already financially struggling, will manage to replace such an expensive saree. In your mind, the only solution is to tell the truth to Smita Tai. 

But Indrayani decides to visit the place where this Paithani was made. From here, the story gets a tad boring and filmy. Indrayani visits the factory and manages to get the details of every person who has purchased the same saree. She then visits them in different cities and requests them to sell it to her. 

While some co-operate, others throw her out. As Indrayani visits different buyers from different cities, we get to see renowned actors playing character roles here – in guest appearances, of course. Their characters, the storyline, the events that unfold thereafter, everything looks fake. Actors like Mohan Joshi and Milind Gunaji have been wasted. It’s neither comedy, nor tragedy to watch them do what they did on the screen for this film. 

To put it in simple words, Goshta Eka Paithanichi had potential to be a good film but the writer couldn’t weave the story in an interesting way. He lost the track and that can be seen in the film. The story loses its essence and also the direction. There comes a point when you know that no matter how much the director and actors try to save the film, the story has already killed the film. 

The end, too, is dramatic and further ruined what was already damaged.