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Natarang Review

Though I am not a regular Marathi movie-goer, I found Natarang extremely heart wrenching and a beautiful movie to watch which tells us about the dark side of success. Debuting into film direction, ad maker Ravi Jadhav gives us the adaptation of Dr. Anand Yadav's classic novel which he directs with a lot of finesse and topnotch screenplay that keeps you glued to your seat till the end of the movie.

The plot revolves around a village wrestler, Guna (Atul Kulkarni) who does usual farm labour and stays with his wife (Vibhavari Deshpande), son and his elderly father, but has a deep passion for Marathi tamasha, though he never receives any moral support from his family who are always nagging and who always turn a blind eye towards his passion. Soon, Guna and other farm labours are unemployed which makes their personal and financial situation worse. It is then that they together decide to start their own tamasha troupe in order to earn a decent income which would offer them some financial freedom and allow them to explore their untapped talents. They approach an experienced tamasha performer (Kishore Kadam) who provides them enough guidance and knowledge about tamasha performances. Just when Guna is happy playing the role of a king in their act, the group decides that they need a beautiful dancer who will be the show-stopper and without with chances of their show being a hit is out of question. Though they finally find (Sonali Kulkarni), she puts forward her demand of having a Nachya in their show. Desperate and torned between many situations, Guna decides to be a Nachya himself. What follows next is something that you should watch for yourself on screen.

Inspite of having a rural backdrop in the movie, the story is very contemporary and focuses on various smaller issues that are rarely brought into limelight. In the earlier minutes of the movie, the story is quite humorous but gradually the plot takes us for a ride into the darker territories of what an artist has to go through to reach the pinnacle of success. The movie also gives us a glimpse of other issues like local politics, lack of appreciation, rural mentality and disrespect for effiminate tamasha characters who are cast out from the society and family and are often victims of physical assault. Atul Kulkarni's performance is breath-taking and from the very first scene he gets into the skin of the character he plays. The amount of dedication and hard work that he has given to this movie is clearly visible on the celluloid screen. Sonali Kulkarni looks good and dances really well while you are thumping your feet unawarely to the melodious folk music. Vibhavari Deshpande as a typical Maharastrian wife plays her part superbly of being disrupted between handling her family and what the villagers comment about her husband. Kishor Kadam also receives enough on-screen time along with Atul Kulkarni to display his variations of emotions.

Of course, if we are talking about Natarang we cannot leave out music from it which is actually the strong point of the movie. The initial song, "Mala Jaau Dya Na Ghari" which erupts while the titles are rolling is a nice fast pace tamasha-lavani song. Soon to follow "Khel Mandla" is a nice slow song that has some awesome drum effects and the song gradually creeps on to your lips. But, Ajay-Atul gives you the maximum with "Apsara Aali" which is undoubtedly the most popular song of the movie. Getting into the technical aspects of the movie, Natarang has a very good screenplay and cinematography which are equally important and have contributed a great deal to the success of this film. The sound mixing department also should receive a good amount of appreciation for excellent Dolby sound mixing of background score which works subconsciously on the minds of viewers.

Natarang is indeed filled with many colors which is a treat to watch. Indeed a grand way to start off in the year 2010.