Posts tagged theatres

By Vishwas Kulkarni (MUMBAI MIRROR; January 31, 2010)

He is currently the toast of Marathi cinema for his critically-acclaimed role in Natrang, a smash Marathi indie about the trials and tribulations of a tamasha nachya.

An impoverished day labourer, who doubles up as an amateur wrestler, transforms from being the village pehelwan to a nachya, the stock effeminate comedian in a tamasha troupe.

The film chronicles the artiste’s anguished journey from prejudice to popular acclaim. The success of Natrang has suddenly created a buzz around the world of Marathi cinema. Competing with biggies such as Avatar and 3 Idiots, both monstrous blockbusters, Natrang has become a case study for a successful Marathi flick.

From one screening a day on Day One to two screenings a day on Day Two, to three screenings a day on Day Three at Eros, the film has reached a far wider audience than anticipated; in fact after almost a month’s run it is even coming out with subtitled prints. And its lead actor Atul Kulkarni has been happy to host trails for the latest feather in his cap.

Excerpts from an interview:

How did you accept this role?

I have a simple rule. I usually respond to the script. When I initially received the bound screenplay (an entire entourage starring Nikhil Sane from Zee Talkies, director Ravi Jadhav, the producer, the cinematographer, landed up at my house to convince me, something I found very touching). But I still had to get into the idea. On reading the screenplay, I took it on.

Wasn’t the sheer physicality of being a village pehelwan and then transforming into a lithe nachya in a tamasha troupe overwhelming?

The idea of an actor gaining weight and then losing it for the same character has not been done, at least as far I know. So that excited me tremendously. I actually put on 15 kgs and then lost 17 kgs – all in a matter of seven months. While gaining weight I was still completing two other films on hand. But after the initial two months, I was exclusively working on the role of Guna in Natrang. There was no option to ration out time to anything else but this role.

What about the emotionality of the role?

I came to the internal journey only after I had become the role physically. The largest challenge was physical. That said, the internal journey of Guha is an anguished one; from an amateur wrestler to wanting to become a king in a play to eventually becoming a nachya in a tamasha troupe is a wide arc. Then there is the spectrum of relationships and social environment that keeps shifting dramatically.

All this makes the character extremely dynamic. The spine of the character though is about achieving one’s dreams in the modern context. And I think that was the constant strain emotionally throughout the many transformations of the character.

Did you look at any stock nachyas from popular culture like Ganpat Patil, someone who made his entire filmic career out of being a pansy on the tamasha stage.

I saw many of Ganpat Patil’s films, but I see Guna in a far different light. Ganpat Patil was a stock character; he was a nachya on stage and off the stage in all his films. Guna has a wider spectrum, emotionally and physically to play with. There are many more nuances to his persona.

The second half of the film is replete with how viciously society responds to Guna’s feminine side. There is even a homosexual rape sequence that is rather disturbing.

Natrang invokes many gender politics. How a man should be, how a woman should be, when these definitions are not conformed to, society can respond extremely problematically. Natrang challenges stock perceptions.

What has led to the spate of intelligent, out-of-the-box Marathi cinema of late?

There are three reasons: the multiplex has created a milieu where an average middle class man or woman can take his or her family to watch a film. This was not the case earlier, because the theatres that showed Marathi films were not the sort of places you’d take your family to on a day out.

The Marathi middle class, both lower and upper, today has the capacity to spend; education levels have gone up. So watching good cinema in your mother tongue has begun to constitute a valid recreational possibility.

Pic: Sachin Haralkar

Secondly, a new generation of filmmakers such as Umesh Kulkarni and Sachin Kundalkar, who have actually been trained in the craft, has emerged. In my time, it was a big deal for someone from a middle class family in Sholapur to announce that he is not going to be an engineer or a doctor.

My family was shattered to learn that I was going to enter theatre. Today a family is not shattered if they learn that their child is going to invest his career in something other than engineering or medicine. Thirdly, corporates such as Zee Talkies are taking on regional cinema with an entrepreneurial spirit that is genuine. They have not only brought in audiences, they have actually created them, perhaps because they have had the vision to foresee this trend.

So is it a viable industry today?

No, I’d wait and watch before making such a sweeping statement. We are still a far cry from being an independent industry. The number of films that are doing well are still rather limited. But that said, the trend has caught on. It’s the thing these days, they say, for a builder to shell out some loose cash to make a quick regional film! However, quality is going to be a crucial indicator.

Marathi films will have to deliver; only comedies cannot be the stock-in-trade. The over-emphasis on comedies of the Ashok Saraf-Laxmikant Berde genre, merged with the negative impact of television in the early ’90s, proved to be the death knell for the Marathi film industry then. Then again, filmmaking remains a gamble. You’re only assuming that an audience will like what you’re creating.

But what we have in our favour this time round is a bunch of good writers, better creativity. So with a budget of 60-70 lakhs, you’re in good hands. With 1.5 crore you’d still pull through with some luck. Anything above that is like the Bollywood game!

Speaking of Bollywood, you’ve pretty much anchored yourself in it. Have you ever considered television offers when the going gets tough?

No, thankfully, my plate is full with acting roles. Television is not an option because I am not the sort of person who enjoys working 365 days of the year. Work is a small part of my life; it is not my life. And I have a life!

So Bollywood and Marathi films it is.