Feb 09, 2012 11:27 PM
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(Updated Feb 09, 2012 11:31 PM)
Anybody remember DD2 channel - METRO, and if so, anybody remember Fri/Sat late night English movies, and sunday's regional movie broadcast. I have seen many English movies during those time, when we don't have cables in our house, but never seen regional movies. First regional movie I remember I watched in latest times in "Mungaru Male" (Kannada) and just yesterday I watched another, this time it's "Natarang" (Marathi). Marathi is quite similar to Hindi, plus the version I saw had English subtitles, so I understand it quite fully. I liked both the movies, but let us now discuss about this 2010 movie, I loved this movie, and I must say that its a must watch for any movie-lover.
Natarang is a story of a passionate art-lover (aka natarang aka theater artist) named Guna Kagalkar (Atul Kulkarni), who is a poor labourer and has a wife Daarki (Vibhawari Deshpande), a son and an old father to take care of. But whatever meager income he got, he wasted it on watching theater aka nautanki. He didn't take care of his family, but one day he lost his job due to an engine installed on the farm, he alongwith his friends think to start their own theatre company, but they lack a female lead, only she can draw the crowds, so Guna's friend and mentor Pandba (Kishor Kadam) started searching for one, and one day they find the female lead - Naina (Sonali Kulkarni), daughter of Yamunabai (Priya Berde), Pandba's ex-love interest. But Naina put a condition before joining - she want a panzy character, an eunuch to dance with her in the nautanki. Guna and Pandba started searching but didn't find anybody to act as eunuch in their drama shows. Just because of his unconditional love for art, Guna himself decided to act the role of eunuch, although he is aware of its consequences. Their drama company "Naina Kolhapurakin-Guna Kagalkar Theater Company" become famous because of their shows, all are written by Guna himself, but it deteriorates Guna's image in front of his family, and people of villages, they started thinking him as a real eunuch. During one big show duration, because of two rival politician's power war, his drama company got attacked and burnt, and because of Guna's saying no to one politician, he alongwith his gang, raped him. But he continued doing drama, and in the ending scene, he was shown getting a lifetime achievement award.
The biggest positive of this movie is story, the plot. The movie is based on a Marathi novel of the same name written by Anand Yadav, and screenplay is written by Ravi Jadhav. What a plot, and I just stumbled here because of Dance India Dance. I saw a wonderful dance performance by a participant on a song, "Apsara Aali", then I downloaded that song, since I liked it, hence come to know about this movie, and out of curiosity I checked the story on wikipedia, and found it so different that yesterday I downloaded the movie. Alongwith the story, songs too are great, nice marathi format folk music, well supported by dholaks and dholkis in background score, Ajay-Atul (My Friend Pinto, Singham and Agneepath fame) did wonderful job here, while songs are written by Guru Thakur. The most favourite of mine is "apsara aali" which is sung by Bela Shende, and fit perfectly for a nautanki song. Other best I can say is "Wajle Ki Bara" sung by Bela Shende. Next best asset of the movie is Atul Kulkarni, the whole movie goes round him, and he is such a gem of actor, that he really deserves applause for this great performance, where in the beginning he acted masculine as a poor but enjoying labourer, who have body-shody too, but later shifted to a feminine acting by performing a role of eunuch. He single-handedly took the movie to great heights. Other actors also worth checking are Vibhawari in the role of wife of a neglected husband, Kishor as mentor of Guna who want to do everything right but he also want to grow, and in that sense make some decisions wrong. Sonali looks pretty and cute actor. These two lines of the song fits her perfectly "Natali Thatali, sashe umatli, chandni rang nahali, youvan bijli, pahun na thisali, indrasabha bhavtali, apsara aali indrapuri tun khali", (Meaning - she is dressed up and bathed in moonlight came on stage, like a thunderbolt which has struck the entire court of Indra, here comes the nymph straight from the heavens) One more think I liked here is the smooth transition of the movie from a light, somewhat comedy treatment to a more serious one, where in the first part everybody seems enjoying, having scenes of interviewing many person for the character of female lead and eunuch seems entertaining, while it become serious in 2nd half after Atul's character was attacked by comments for him playing the role of eunuch, but you didn't felt difference because of the smooth transition. Some negatives are there too. During last hour, the writer tries to give movie a political touch, yes that may be the part of story, but it becomes loud, and very loud, which can be handled in a better way. Then sometimes, in some scenes I felt acting of Kishor a letdown, it seems like he is pretending to be serious while in actual he was acting really seriously, also the character of Naina was not developed properly. In between of the movie, she said a dialogue, that she cannot become a wife of a eunuch, when Guna proposes her, but later on, she was the one who stands up with him to fight with world. She seems double-faced.
The movie goes on for 2 hrs, and is wonderfully directed by Ravi Jadhav, it was released on 1st Jan, 2010, and is a must watch for cinema lovers. If you like watching good cinema, you can watch it on youtube, it has english subtitles. My take 4/5. Soon will be writing review on 'Mungaru Male' and as of now started downloading one more Marathi movie 'Harishchandrachi Factory'.
GRuchirG.
Jai Raam ji ki :)
