Review: ‘Magazine’ is at a loose end, like its Gen Z hero

Velu is bored, listless and confused about his future. The affluent and coddled young man fits some stereotypes about Gen Z, especially when he grandly “resigns” from a magazine published by his father after being scoffed at for wanting to explore “conflict”.

In search of inspiration and direction, Velu (Raghav Vartak) takes off for his father’s sugarcane farm in his ancestral village of Dattawad. Velu’s roseate memories of Dattawad are somewhat at odds with its present. Nothing much has changed here, Velu marvels – something his childhood friends Shripadh (Sudarshan Deshmukh) and Pushkar (Nilesh Mane) do not entirely agree with.

Magazine, which is out in cinemas, wants to pursue a back-to-roots story that is complicated by reality. Shubham Sanjay Shevade’s Marathi-language drama, co-written with Prateek Handore, is big on flashbacks, montages and scenes built around unstructured conversations as Velu tries to find his footing.

Velu flirts with farming – the village needs “at least one Brahmin” farmer, a character says – and tries to understand the gnomic villager (Kishor Kadam). Like Velu, the film thrashes about too, unsure of where it intends to go next.

Magazine is forever poised to reveal its intentions but it never quite does. The film is far too invested in the moment to...

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