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!