Tribute to Sairat

Dhadak does justice to the memory of the original, while striking out on its own

Released three weeks ago, Shashank Khaitan’s Dhadak, adapted from Nagraj Manjule’s Marathi film Sairat, crossed the all-important Rs 1-billion revenue target last week. As the launch vehicle of Sridevi’s daughter Janhvi Kapoor, the film was the centre of attention much before its release, not least because of the gargantuan task its director had taken upon himself.

Manjule’s Sairat was a phenomenon after its release in 2016, and not just in its home territory of Maharashtra. It was India’s official selection at the Berlin International Film Festival and was one of the first films to be added to the Netflix library when