‘Natarang’- A Classic Tale !
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Rating: 4/5
Presenter: Zee Talkies Production: Zee Talkies, Athaansh Communications Director: Ravi Jadhav Story: Dr. Anand Yadav Screenplay: Ravi Jadhav Dialogues, Lyrics: Guru Thakur Music: Ajay – Atul Cast: Atul Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni, Kishor Kadam, Vibhavari Deshpande, Kishor Choughule… Movie Review by: Sandeep Hatangadi |
Debutant ad-filmmaker Ravi Jadhav’s ‘Natarang’ is a film that has raised the bar for quality Marathi films. The film adapted for screen from Dr. Anand Yadav’s classic novel, is a bench mark in Marathi films made on rural backdrop.
The story of ‘Nararang’ is about Guna Kagalkar (Atul Kulkarni) a village wrestler with bulging muscles who is a farm worker by profession and lives happily with his wife(Vibhavari Deshpande) and children along with his old father (Yakoob Sayeed).
It’s difficult for Guna to make two ends meet, especially because of his passion for ‘Tamasha’ a Maharashtrian dance form with ‘Lavnis’ (seductive songs).
Guna’s ultimate dream is to play a king’s role in ‘Tamasha’and so he gathers a team of unemployed friends in the village and starts his own ‘Tamasha’ troupe and a veteran ‘Tamasha’ artiste (Kishor Kadam) helps them find the ‘dancer’(Sonalee) for their troupe. But, soon Guna is in a soup to find a ‘Nachya’ or the so called clown, who brings on the laughter in the ‘Tamasha’.
Finally, the manly muscular Guna has to play ‘Nachya’ himself, much to his chagrin; but he does so for the sake of his troupe and gets a complete makeover by becoming thin and shaving his moustache off. Guna’s troupe becomes the talk of the town but he has to lose his wife and children for his ‘Tamasha’. Interspersed in this narrative is local politics besides the competition between various ‘Tamasha’ troupes, gay artistes, etc.
But the film grabs your attention right from start to end because of Atul Kulkarni’s powerful performance, especially the scenes where he has to pose girlie in a wrestler’s body. The rest of the cast is also impressive , especially Vibhavari Deshpande, Kishor Kadam, Sandesh Jadhav, Milind Shinde, Priya Berde, etc . Sonalee looks good and dances well. Amruta Khanvilkar’s cameo is also impressive.
The music by Ajay-Atul is already a hit with the masses especially the ‘Apsara’ song and other folk numbers with good lyrics by Guru Thakur. The dialogues by Guru Thakur are well-written. The cinematography by Mahesh Limaye is slick with lots of night scenes and back lighting with soft focus lens capturing the village landscapes beautifully.
Zee Talkies deserve kudos to back a project like ‘Natarang’ and actor Atul Kulkarni who in true Robert De Niro style, had to build a strong physique by extensive workout and diet and then losing it all for the role. The film is a must-see for Atul’s performance and Ravi Jadhav’s good debut (his flashback style is very impressive).
‘Natarang’ is a film that comes once in a while. See it ASAP!
‘Sukhaant’ talks about Mercy Killing !
Acclaimed filmmaker Sanjay Surkar’s latest film ‘Sukhaant’ deals with the controversial subject of mercy killing. It discusses the right of people with no hope of living to die honorably. Atul Kulkarni plays the protagonist, whose mother is afflicted with a grave ailment. She asks her son to give her the right to die with her own choice. Having made up her mind, the mother forces her son to seek court approval for her self-willed death.
The film raises the ultimate question as a suffering mother demands justice and her lawyer son struggles between his love for mother and doing the right thing.
When fiercely independent and a self-made mother Sitabai meets with an accident that deems her quadriplegic, her life changes forever. Her son Pratap, who is a successful lawyer, takes care of his bed-ridden mother. Even as her dear ones surround her with much love and attention, Sitabai is unable to live at other’s mercy. Everyday she pleads to her son to relieve her from the sufferings with mercy killing . Pratap is unwilling to grant her this peculiar wish. With the passage of time adamant Sitabai gives up food and her condition deteriorates further. When he can no longer bear to watch his helpless mother suffer, Pratap decides to move the court to grant his mother ‘her wish’ to end her life.
The film has tried to send a timely message to the society and hence would certainly invite the attention of one and all. The other cast comprises of Kavita Lad Medhekar, Jyoti Chandekar and Tushar Dalvi. The film is written by Kiran Yadnopavit and is produced by Anuya Mhaiskar. The film is all set for an early release.
‘Zee Talkies’ ‘Natarang’ to be screened at MAMI.
It is a great news for ‘Zee Talkies’, as their most awaited film ‘Natarang’ will be screened at this year’s MAMI- International Film Festival. The 11th edition of the Mumbai Film Festival (MFF)begins today with 200 films from 56 countries, who have found their entry in this international film festival. This year five Marathi films will be screened at MAMI, and ‘Natarang’ is one of them.
‘Natarang’ is the story of GUNA, a farm worker from backward community, who is an amateur wrestler who dreams of playing the King in the traditional Marathi folk art- Tamasha. Atul Kulkarni -the national award winning actor, is portraying Guna in ‘Natarang’. This film is directed by debutant director Ravi Jadhav and music of this film is composed by Ajay- Atul, the top most musician duo from Marathi film industry.
Atul Kulkarni has taken up the gaining weight challenge for a Marathi Film.
A national award winning actor, Atul Kulkarni of ‘Hey Ram’, ‘Page 3′ ,’Chandani Bar’, ‘Rang de Basanti ‘fame has now taken up the challenge of gaining weight challenge for a Marathi Film. Originally weighing 70 kg Atul gains in the film upto 85 kgs for the first half of the film and he reduced 17 kgs for the second half of the film. And all of these in just about three months, 45 days for gaining and 40 days for loosing weight.
Atul Kulkarni is doing all this for the Marathi film, ‘Natarang’, Zee Talkies first production. ‘Natarang’ is based on a novel by Anand Yadav, Marathi litterateur and President of this year’s Marathi Sahitya Sammelan. ‘Natarang’ is the story of ‘GunaUNA, a farm worker from the backwad community, who is an amateur wrestler with ultimate dreams of playing the King in the traditional Marathi folk art Tamasha.
Now first half of the film is comleted and Atul is extremely trying hard especially to lose weight with a strict schedule that includes a 12 km run and twice a day gym workout. For the ‘Natarang’, he has kept himself away from the other projects. From Sepember of the last year Atul is delicately into this project, neither doing other films nor accepting scripts for seven months. He had kept Maniratnam, Vishal Bharadwaj and some other Hindi directors waiting.
Zee Talkies were very sure that only Atul Kulkarni could play ‘Guna’ and without him it was just not possible!