Natsamart - Intense Emotional Drama

“Natsamart” is V. V. Shirwadkar’s most complex and, to my mind, the greatest Marathi Natak (drama) of all time. There are extreme feeling and meaning in it, and hence, it is tough to create a movie out of such intense drama. Moreover, to overcome difficulties of staging, director (Mahesh Manjerekar) has substituted his own cinematic decorations that have worked extremely well. I think, producing this movie was a very courageous idea, and producer-director must be applauded for that.

This is not a film but an emotional experience and a brave and impressive effort in its own right. Natsamart is a play about the total futility of things after the days of glory are gone. The old man stumbles ungracefully during his old age because, simply put; that is the way it goes for most of us. To search for meaning or philosophical consolation is to kid yourself when you do not have fame along with you and neither the money. “Natsamart” is a journey of an old legend who gets humiliated by his trusted family members and trying to cope with challenging reality.

One of the challenges that any director would face while adopting “Natsamart” drama are the big self-talks or monologues that are called “Swagat” in Marathi. Mahesh Manjekar had brilliantly distributed the swagat throughout the movie the established the right balance across the film. Overall, the script is emotional and with some laughter points in the first half.

The hero of “Natsamrat” is an impulsive old man, likable, easy to read. He is fluent, clear in his dialogue delivery and wins audience hearts with his flawless acting.  His wife loves him and believes in him. The script provides multiple opportunities to Nana to display various emotions, and he used all such opportunities and created some great emotional scene for the movie. This is definitely one of the best of the “Nana Patekar” performances.

This movie “Natsamrat” also grabs you with the charismatic presence of its two stars, Nana, and Vikram Gokhale.  Vikram Gokhale plays as Nana’s friend who is the mortal man walking beside him, worrying about him, lecturing him, wanting him to be better, telling him his weakness but a real friend at the heart. Vikram Gokhale has delivered a most flawless and impressive performance regardless of the length of the role. The audience will remember few of his scenes for long-time to come.

The opening scenes of “Nana” in the movie give a clear idea about the story of the film and audience gets ready for his post-retirement life. One of the best parts of the script is the use of negative words in the most entertaining fashion. All negative words bring the laughter and make the script more efficient.

I think this movie version of “Natsamrat” certainly more realistic and acceptable. There is” Sarkar (Medha Majrekar), the most touchingly sincere wife of Natasmart. Her love defines her Integrity as she unconditionally supports her man till the end. One of beautiful aspect of the script is that it gifts the hope at every stage of the movie. Here, the wife, in the worst of the situations, keeps telling her husband that they will go to their village home, and everything will be okay. Love looks more pure and beautiful at the old age as well when such a strong characters are shown.  Even though, everyone knows that it is just human mind’s ability to hope and doesn’t mean anything else in reality.

Mahesh Manjekar does brilliantly as a director as he mainly focuses on story and his charters and never does something foolish anywhere. For me, the script-writer is the main hero of the movie and then director –actor combinations has provided much needed competent performances.  Manjekar choice of actors has been remarkably well as even actors with small roles like Sunil Barve, and Sandeep Pathak has done extremely well.

 “Natsamrat” is a powerful experience. I am sure that some scenes will bring tears to many. This movie symbolizes new ideas for the adoption of Marathi drama and the hence movie should be a landmark in Marathi movie history.