Movie review- Natasamrat.

  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*

1. 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."

2. 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.       

3. 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!
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4. 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.

5. 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.