A Splendid Allegory

Last week, my wife cleverly cajoled me to watch a recently released Marathi film Valu. I fretted but as the movie progressed, it had me in splits and by the end I was totally drawn in and moved.

The film conveys in a gentle hilarious fashion, serious insights that society generally resists; respect liberty. Valu means a bull, let loose by the villagers, in the name of God.  The film skillfully presents the adventures of a wild bull chase, lead by a forest officer, brilliantly played by Atul Kulkarni. 

Atul's accomplice, a documentary filmmaker, shoots the daily grind of rustic rural life, devoid of the handheld camera's shaky effects. The interviews with the villagers evocatively project the growing political rivalry, the hygiene concerns, family tensions, and even the eagerness of young lovers to elope. With close-up shots, the director distinctly provides an internal glimpse to the inhabitants hope, aspirations and their tortured state.  

Dr Mohan Agashe and Atul Kulkarni endear viewers with their versatility. Viewers will be in splits when they see Girish Kulkarni and Nandu Madhav's sterling performance. The ensemble of all talented Marathi actors Chandrakant Gokhale, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Bharati Acharekar, Veena Jamkar, Nirmitee Sawant, Amruta Subhash, Jyoti Subhash and others, ensure the characters and the script remain rooted in reality. 

Sudheer Palsane's cinematography is a delight. The camera captures the beautiful panorama along with its lovely contours of hills, bending roads and the bright pristine fields but habitually zooms on the bull instead of moving along with its pace. The quality of set seemed to have elicited stellar performance from urban actors and the rural inhabitants. The village with its hapless inhabitants, their quintessential houses, narrow alleys and the massive temple are amazingly authentic and brings to prominence the directors eye for detail.

Niraj Voralia's editing coupled with Mangesh Dhakde's music and Neeraj Gera's sound design has created fantastic effects. The director has made the film rise above the ordinary. With the film being premiered at Rotterdam, Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, in his directorial debut has honed the bull by its horn. Let's hope the producers have added subtitles so as to retain originality and attract significant non-marathi film bluffs. Undoubtedly dubbing would vitiate the native dialect, the high point of this film.

Girish Kulkarni's script deserves equal admiration for presenting various human aspects using a lone bull. The allegory that Valu employs definitely allows it to be watched on a variety of different levels and makes the film a must view! 
Nishant Kolgaonkar, Via  email

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