A play along with
its characters, brings alive the imaginary world penned down by a writer. Nana
Patekar with his performance in Natasamrat, brought alive many such worlds
single-handedly.
Time and again it
has been proved that method acting takes a toll at some point or the other on
an actor’s personal life. The joker thrilled the audience with his performance
at the cost of Heath Ledger’s life (The dark knight,2008). Urmila Matondkar needed to take psychiatric
help after playing a possessed character (Bhoot, 2003). Now what happens when
an actor fills up into himself an ocean of numerous such impactful roles acted
by him? What happens when the mind of this actor starts brimming and
overflowing with this ocean? He drowns. Natasamrat is the story of such an
actor who eventually gets overpowered by his own art.
Natasamrat is an adaptation of a Marathi
play with the same name, written by Kusumagraj. Ganpatrao's character (Nana Patekar) in the
movie is influenced by Shakespeare’s King Lear. The movie has the essential
essence of a Shakespearean tragedy. “A true skill of an actor lies within his
power to not let the viewer get distracted by a bag of chips in his hand while
watching him on stage,” is a striking remark made by Ganpatrao which pretty
much defines his role, and the gist of the film. Ganpatrao captivates us with
his performance to such an extent that we end up becoming like the audience he
wishes to greet i.e the one not getting distracted by a bag of chips. A subtle
metaphor, eh?
*Facts about the
film*
- The
movie is a form of poetic communication that is both scintillating and
refreshing. It has got dialogues influenced by Shakespeare’s plays having
the same depth and meaning albeit having the Marathi touch.
Ganpatrao- "The whole world is a
stage, and every man must play his part. Unfortunately, mine is a sad one."
- The man behind the Natasamrat, i.e Kusumagraj who initially scripted the play, he himself was influenced by many of Shakespeare’s characters.An eminent writer had once described him as a poet of humanity by saying, “his words manifest the social discontent but retain the optimistic conviction that the old world was giving to the new one.”
True to what had been said about
Kusumagraj, he has carried that essence in every
play written by
him, including his masterpiece Natasamrat.
- Natsamrat is a movie that every performer can relate with, especially an actor. It is a modest symbolization of each and every bead of sweat and pain gone into the making of an actor. It is not just a movie, its an appreciation of art!
- There are moments of light humour as well, shown in the friendship of Ganpatrao and Ram (Vikram Gokhale) who also has done a phenomenal job.
- The
supporting cast- Medha Manjrekar, Mrunmayee Deshpande, Sunil Barve, Ajit
Parab and Neha Pendse have contributed well in their part for building up
the story.
The
only negative thing I can point out about the movie is its plot, which is a bit clichéd as compared to the present times. But that argument can be settled by taking into account the fact that the play originally was written way back in the 70’s and also considering Nana’s power packed performance.
As a
conclusion to this review I would like to say that, this Shakespearean tragedy,
true to its nature and wise in its approach should be watched by every budding
cinema-lover out there!
I would
rate the movie- 4.5 star.
