Natrang : Movie Review

As mentioned in my last post, Marathi movies have, of late, been refreshingly different in their themes, the issues they address and the stories they tell. The first release of this decade was 'Natrang' directed by Ravi Jadhav. I saw the movie last Sunday in a packed mutiplex screen at Goregoan with my wife and parents (a complete family outing after a lonnnggg time !!) and came out highly impressed.


The movie opens with an award ceremony (sponsored by Zee Marathi no less - the producers of the movie !!). An ageing Gunya (Atul Kulkarni) is offered the lifetime award for his contribution to the dance form of 'Lavni' (traditional rural Maharashtrian dance form). As he accepts the award to a standing ovation, his mind goes back in time to his roots, a small village near Kolhapur.....

A place where a virile and muscular Gunya works as a daily labourer in the fields. He has a family to tend to (his old father, wife and a son) but visualizes himself as his own master, never to bow down to anyone. And his pet addiction is the 'Lavni', where a lot of his hard-earned money is spent, much to the chagrin of his family. Finally one day, when he loses his job due to mechanization, he dreams of starting a Lavni group with his other jobless friends. They soon realize that the heart of the lavni group is the lady dancer. After finally getting Naina (the beautiful cat-eyed Sonalee Kulkarni - different from the Sonali Kulkarni seen in Dil Chahata Hai,Mission Kashmir etc), they think that they are all set to go. But then she drops a condition - the group should also have a 'Nachya' (the traditional character in a Lavni who is a man dressed as a girl and who provides the comic relief in between the narrative). After no-one else agrees to play Nachya for obvious reasons, its finally Gunya who turns himself into Nachya. A 'pehelwan' who dreamt of being the king of the Lavni group is reduced to playing the feminine Nachya !!.


The rest of the movie is a commentary on the social prejudices at the time. Almost universally is Nachya reduced to the butt of jokes and ridicule. As his act and the group become bigger by the day, he finds it more and more difficult to get out of Nachya's body. His father dies heartbroken, his wife and kid leave him. Even his companion Naina refuses to marry a Nachya. All alone, he yearns for freedom. He also becomes a pawn of local politician-thugs, ultimately ending in a chilling sequence where Nachya is 'raped'. Having lost everything, he slowly rises from the ashes and wins everything back, finally culminating in him winning the lifetime award and complete respect from society.

While Ravi Jadhav has done a commendable job in handling a difficult subject (based on a novel by Dr. Anand Yadav - and it was nice to see due credit being given right at the start ;-), the two stars of 'Natrang' are Ajay-Atul (the music composers) and, of course, Atul Kulkarni. The music transports the listener back to the Lavni era, albeit with a modern touch. Most songs are current chart-busters (generous credit for which goes to Zee for its incessant promotion on its channels) and I particularly loved the title song. Ajay-Atul (who have recently entered Bollywood) are certainly a name for the future. The only grouse that I had with the movie was that the end was far too abrupt. Nachya / Gunya's journey towards redemption could have been detailed - it directly went to the award ceremony.

And finally, Atul Kulkarni excels in the role of a lifetime. Non-Marathi readers will remember him as the right-wing Laxman Prasad in 'Rang De Basanti', the wronged Muslim doctor in 'Khakee' and the crime reporter of 'Page 3'. Remember his thin frame at the time ?
Well, the man went through a rigorous routine (that lasted for a few months) in which he first gained muscles and weight (about 16 odd kgs) to play the masculine pehelwan Gunya in the first half, and then lost all of it in order to look the feminine Nachya. Needless to say, this meant that he was working full-time on this project only (word has it that he refused Mani Ratnam and Ram Gopal Verma, amongst others, because he could not work on any other movie). A small aside here: he was trained by Shailesh Parulekar, whose gym I go to, so I am personally proud to see the transformation (though it is definitely not the healthiest thing to do !!). But finally, it is said that the results justify the means. And the results are definitely mind-blowing !! Of course, it is not all about the body-transformation. Witness the scene where his fellow group member makes a pass at him, after which Nachya, desperately trying to break free, suddenly starts doing 'surya-namaskars' and then breaks down. That one scene is enough for the audience to be convinced of Atul's acting abilities.

If not for anything else. Natrang is watchable as a tribute to one of the finest contemporary actors around.

Cheers
Amit

PS: Natrang is running with English sub-titles in select theaters in Mumbai.