Natsamrat

Natsamrat is the answer to what Marathi cinema can do. Spell Magic. Nana Patekar delivers a stellar performance though falters in the parts he is gripped with alcohol. You have an answer there. Vikram Gokhale excels and takes over the baton with a dash of whiskey. Cheers!! I easily cry watching movies but something was amiss here that even emotional scenes to the hilt couldn't roll down a tear down my face. The direction is pretty good but somewhere the writing lacked depth that it couldn't move a weakling like me. All things said, I doubt an actor or a film can better this in Bollywood. Regional cinema in India is gold. Needs to be excavated more. Yes! Excavated!! I am a Keralite born and brought up in Pune and had to rely on subtitles owing to the tough Marathi used in the movie. Medha Manjrekar who played is better half is good and Mrinmayee Deshpande also delivers. Nana Patekar is supreme and he steals the show.

What a movie by Nana Patekar!! He is at his best. It feels like watching the sequel of the legendary movie Wajood. Love it!!

Natsamrat (2016): Till now I haven't watched any Marathi film but I had heard lot of praise all the times for Nana Patekar and Mahesh Manjrekar.When I have heard about Natsamrat,I have decided that let this movie introduce me to Marthi cinema so I gave it a try..So how is Natsamrat??Did it gave me a good start??

Plot: The film is a tragedy about a veteran theater actor named Ganpat "Appa" Belwalkar (Nana Patekar) who has been the best of his lot during his heyday, garnering fame and fortune acting in plays based on various works, especially William Shakespeare's. It is a tragedy of a veteran actor who enjoyed a very vital importance in his life but who becomes the victim of old age alienation and estrangement. The film reveals an intensely tragic fate of an actor who becomes victim of fate and fortune in old age, which is similar to the fate of Lear. Natsamrat suffers the pangs of old age and dishonor inflicted on him by his own children. It is a tragedy of great humanist and actor who succumbs to the ill fate and destiny. In fact, Natsamrat is a story of Ganpatrao Belvalkar, who withstands great suffering after his retirement from stage acting.

Plus Points:

1)Performances: Nana Patekar is truly a Natsamrat.He deserves an award for sure for his mind blowing performance.Patekar, at 65 proves that great actors don't fade away. They simply burn brighter with the growing awareness of mortality. This performance of a man raging against human injustices and God's quirky decree will rank among the most towering performances of Indian cinema.Vikram Gokhale as Rambhau is equally compelling. The sequence on his deathbed when Gokhale recites lines from the Mahabharat makes our hairs stand on-end. This is an actor at the crest of his performing ability.Medha Manjrekar as Sarkaar is brilliant in her role.

2)Dialogues Screenplay and Direction: Natsamrat is a very old-fashioned melodramatic morality tale, and that's the highest compliment I can pay this extraordinarily rich emotional drama. One of the residual joys of watching this expansive tear-jerkier is its affectionate and enthusiastic evocation of theater greats from V V Shirwadkar to Shakespeare and, yes, even Tenesee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire. The director, rather dexterously brings in the idea of 'Old Theatre' versus 'New Theatre', of changing mores in theater and life.Writers Kiran Yadnopavit, Abhijeet Deshpande for bringing alive a 45-year old play to remind us that great writing is ever renewable.Thank you, Mahesh Manjrekar, for restoring our faith in a cinema that speaks a straight emotional language and doesn't borrow its sensitivities from European cinema.

3)Music: Background score is brilliant and carries the feel of the movie perfectly.

So,Natsamrat is the best movie of the 2016 with award winning performance from Nana Patekar and brilliant taking of Mahesh Manjrekar.A Masterpiece work....Loved it...

My rating 10/10

What a splendid movie… After so many years such a drama full of all sort of emotions Anger, Fear, Joy, Jealousy, sorrow, grief, fear, hope, love, hate, cruelty, greed, frustration, disappointment, desire, curiosity, surprise, gratitude, sympathy what was not there…. Such a lovely drama opening all the threads of all possible worldly relations naively narrating in an eloquent manner. I don't know how many times in the middle of the movie i just wanted a pause to capture all of it into my soul. Every scene every dialogue was building it's own impact/impression or sense in the parallel world, even if u leave behind the whole story plot. Be it Karn and Krishna Sequence or the king lear one. Nana Patekar no words to his performance, you can clearly see how this great actor has worked throughout his life, It looks like he has lived his own life in this movie. Still now these words "To be or not to be" are resonating in my mind.

This movie is a mixture of all emotions - love,sadness,anger,trust,surprise, etc. It perfectly balances and portrays the happy and sad moments in life alternately and surprises the audience all the times. Also, this movie is worth watching because first of all, it is the adaptation of one of the most famous Indian (Marathi) play - 'Natsamraat'; secondly,it has stellar and noteworthy performances from supreme actors like Nana Patekar, Vikram Gokhale, Medha Manjrekar and all other actors / actresses have also performed extremely well !! And last but not the least, since this is another screen adaptation of famous Marathi play (first was 'Katyar Kaljat Ghusali' based on the famous Marathi musical play), 'Natsamrat' movie is, no doubt, worth watching on the big screen !!! Go watch it now :-)