# Jayanti (film)

Jayanti (transl. "The Birth Anniversary") is a 2021 Indian Marathi-language social-drama film, directed by Shailesh Baliram Narwade and produced by Meliorist Film Studio. The film, starring Ruturaj Wankhede, Titeeksha Tawde and Milind Shinde, was theatrically released on 12 November 2021 in around 150 screens across Maharashtra and a few cities in other states. Jayanti was released digitally on 12 July 2022 and is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in Marathi and Hindi languages with English subtitles.
The film has been co-produced by Dr Anand Bankar, Amol Dhakadey, Dr Nilima Suhas Ambade and Dr Sudhir Hajare. It was presented by Dashami Studios.

## Plot

Santya or Santosh (Ruturaj Wankhede) is a directionless young man, who is being misused by MLA Gondane (Kishor Kadam). He has a false notion of 'Soldier of Shivaji'. The twist came to his life when an Adivasi woman from his neighborhood, whom he called her sister was raped and electrocuted by a rich businessman Vikas Kukreja. He went to MLA for help in getting justice for her, but MLA managed to hush the murder for a sum of money, with the help of Santya. At the time of the Anniversary celebration of Dr. Ambedkar, he tries to propose to Pallavi, who publicly turns down his proposal and admonishes him for lack of basic knowledge about Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj and Dr. Ambedkar whose anniversary they were celebrating with fervor. He is shattered and in a state of intoxication tries to attack Kukreja. he was overpowered and put behind the bars. In jail, he reformed and after coming out he became a successful businessman.

## Cast

* Ruturaj Wankhede as Santya/Santosh
* Titeeksha Tawde as Pallavi
* Milind Shinde as Ashok Mali
* Anjali Joglekar as Vatsala
* Vira Sathidar as Shrikant Mogre
* Amar Upadhyay as Vikas Kukreja
* Kishor Kadam as MLA Gondane
* Pandharinath Kamble as Dinesh Sathe
* Atul Mahale as Shambhu
* Saurabh Biramwar as Rahul
* Shubham Gautam as Shubham
* Akashay Khobragade as Chhotu
* Chetan Gadbail as Surya
* Pushpak Bhat as Rafiq
* Sneha Khandare as Safina
* Vibha Gajbhiye as Vandana
* Chetan Wagh as Munna
* Abhilash Yadav as Gajju
* Vaishali Dahake
* Piyush Wankhede
* Pranay Karande as IT Excecutive
* Rutuja Wankhede
* Shubhangi Raut
* Rikesh Joshi
* Kiran Kashinath
* Ashwin Naik
* Mangesh Shirpurkar
* Niraj Jamgade (Michael)
* Pradeep Ronghe
* Amruta Koli
* Vinod Raut
* Omkar Landge
* Nagesh Burbure
* Nasir Rehman Shaikh
* Aditya Deshmukh
* Sahil Kene
* Prabhakar Shinde
* Pravin Shende
* Pranay Karande
* Saurabh Indorkar
* Swapnil Khairkar
* Gajanan Bakade
* Sanjay Chouhan
* RJ Bhavna

## Reception

Jayanti was the first Marathi feature film to release in cinema halls after Covid19-related lockdown. The film started slow but got momentum in the third and fourth week due to word of mouth and completed 50 days in theatres. After watching the film, thousands of people took to social media to express their liking for the film. A few shows were also organized in United States of America, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. The film had a week's theatrical run in Kuwait.
In the reviews, Mihir Bhange of The Times of India said Jayanti is a story of human emotions and it conveys it convincingly.
Yogesh Pawar wrote in The Fress Press Journal that it's a Jayanti of solutions!
Yogesh Maitreya wrote in News9Live that Shailesh Narwade's Jayanti is a spiritual successor to Nagraj Manjule's Fandry.
Harish Wankhede wrote in The Quint that Jayanti is a much-needed story in a world of upper-class heroes.

## Soundtrack

Soundtrack of the film is composed by Ruhi and Mangesh Dhakde. Video of track "Tula Vandnyachi" sung by Javed Ali was released in October 2021.