Rating: ★★★ Company: Mukta Art Pvt. Ltd Producers: Ganapat Kothari, Prashant Pethe, Girish Kulkarni, Umesh Kulkarni Director: Umesh Kulkarni Story: Girish Kulkarni, Umesh Kulkarni Cast: Atul kulkarni, Mohan Agashe, Bharathi Acharekar, Girish Kulkarni, Veena Jamkar, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Nirmitee Sawant, Nandu Madhav, Renuka Daftardar, Mangesh Satpute, Amruta Subhash, Satish Tare… Movie Review by: Saurabh Karnik

If we observe the current trend of Marathi Movies, whole industry is jam-packed with comedy movies. Common audiences are getting bored with same and same kind of movies performed by repeated actors. On this background, ‘Valu- the wild bull’ cherishes audiences with genuine and true humor.

The whole story takes place at a small village called ‘Kusavde’. There is traditional bull- Durkya in this village which is devoted to god from his childhood by the villagers. The bull which was very popular among villagers during his childhood becomes free soul as he grows up. As we all know, society do not accept a kind of a free soul personality, they started to trouble Durkya. Many villagers blame Durkya for their own deeds. Slowly his image immerges as risky creature. As nobody in the village can control Durkya, villagers called forest officer to trap him. The further story develops through humorous incidences take place while capturing the ‘Durkya’, is the bottom-line of this movie.
The ‘Valu’ is used as a metaphor to show free soul of the society. All the villagers are symbol of a society that does not allow the person to live his life freely. Each character in the film represents different ‘classes’ of the society. All these metaphoric symbols have been successfully managed by the director without making the film complicated. In this movie, various cultural, social, political aspects have been covered very swiftly without disturbing flow of the story. The genuine satire or black comedy format gains success in attaching audiences with the movie.

The movie has gotten huge star-cast. Atul Kulakrni has implanted so much energy in the role of forest officers that viewers can’t restrict themselves from admiring him. Various aspects of this role have been shown very promptly by him.It is a pleasant experience to watch amazing
performance of well-known actors like ‘Dilip Prabhavalkar’, ‘Amruta Subhash’, ‘Mohan Agashe’, ‘Nirmiti Savant’ and many others. Especially Amruta has really lived the character.
Unlike many Marathi films, this movie has done well on technical part. After almost 3-4 years, director ‘Mangesh Kulkarni’ is entered very prominently in this field after his award winning short film- ‘Girni.’ He has taken care that satire or black comedy format of a movie will remain constant through out the movie. Symbolic representation of many characters and incidences enforces viewers to admire him. Mangesh Dhakde- music director of the movie has done great job. His entire background music creates extremely useful impact on audiences. Especially theme music of ‘Valu’ is simply outstanding! Make-up and cinematography is also done very well.

Though movie sounds like satire or comedy film, it has successfully presented suppression of a common man from ‘micro to macro’ level. But even who could not understand these behind the scene facts, can also enjoy the movie as a genuine comedy film. The thread which connects classes as well as masses with the movie is the biggest strength of this movie. This film has already been presented in various international film-festivals and we have no doubt, that it will achieve great success and popularity in near future.