Natsamrat

Natsamrāt
Film poster
Directed by	Mahesh Manjrekar
Produced by	Nana Patekar Vishwas Joshi
Written by	Kiran Yadnopavit and Abhijeet Deshpande (Dialogues)
Screenplay by	Mahesh Manjrekar, Abhijeet Deshpande and Kiran Yadnopavit
Story by	V. V. Shirwadkar
Based on	Natsamrat (drama) by V. V. Shirwadkar
Starring	Nana Patekar Medha Manjrekar Vikram Gokhale Mrunmayee Deshpande Sunil Barve Ajit Parab
Music by	Ajit Parab
Cinematography	Ajith V. Reddy
Edited by	Paresh Manjrekar
Production company	Fincraft Media & Entertainment PVT. LTD. Gajanan Chitra Great Maratha Entertainment
Distributed by	Zee Studios
Release dates	1 January 2016 (2016-01-01) (India)
Running time	166 minutes
Country	India
Language	Marathi
Box office	est. ₹48 crore (US$7.1 million) [1]

Natsamrāt (roughly translated as: The King of Theater or The Actor King) is a 2016 Indian Marathi-language drama film starring Nana Patekar in the leading role. The film depicts the life of a stage actor who has retired from acting but is unable to forget his fond memories of theatre and the stage.^[2]

It is directed by Mahesh Manjrekar and produced by Nana Patekar and Vishwas Joshi under the banner of Great Maratha Entertainment, Gajanan Chitra and Fincraft Media and Entertainment Pvt. Ltd.^[3] The film was officially released in India on 2016 New Year and became the highest grossing film in Marathi cinema to date, until Sairat occupied that place.^[4][5]

Synopsis

The film is about renowned Shakespearean actor, Ganpat Ramchandra Belwalkar (Nana Patekar), who has retired from the stage with the honorific Natsamrat (King of the Theater). He does not cope with retirement gracefully as his wife, Kaveri Ganpat Belwalkar/Sarkar (Medha Manjrekar), observes "you have brought the theater home". As retirement unfolds with his wife and two married children a son and a daughter, he reminisces about the various roles he has played in the past - among them Hamlet, Othello, Julius Caesar - but he fails to recognize his life deteriorating into a King Lear tragedy right before his eyes.

Plot

The film is a tragedy about a Shakespearean veteran theatre actor named Ganpat Ramchandra Belwalkar/Appa (Alias) (Nana Patekar) who has been an acclaimed theater actor during his day, garnering fame and fortune acting in plays based on various works, especially William Shakespeare's and also won the highest title (An Award) of NAT-SAMRĀT (emperor of acting or of theatre).

After that, He bequeaths all of his wealth to his children. Appa never keeps anything to himself and express his views very frankly. He does not mind adding expletives while expressing his views. Only his close friend Ram and his wife are able to understand his nature. His daughter-in-law Neha and son do not seem to appreciate his frank nature, which at times causes embarrassing situations for them when they have guests or when their daughter hurls expletives in school. The high point in their relationship comes when their granddaughter performs a folk dance taught by Appa, which is not appreciated by the daughter-in-law Neha. An argument follows between them and when they return home Neha slaps her daughter. Next day Neha proposes to part ways with them by moving out, a ploy in which she anticipates Appa to grant them their space. Appa sees through her plan and decides to move out, while passing on a comment to his son "The whole world is a stage and unfortunately my son my part is a sad one."

Appa's wife Kaveri is very devoted to him, does not question his decision and they move to their son-in-law and daughter Vidya's place. Appa continues with his carefree and frank ways at times laden with few expletives. Their son-in-law (Mr. Barve) is a high ranking engineer in his company and is of a caring nature. Vidya also confronts similar embarrassing situations as Neha, but her husband does not seem to mind it. He appreciates Appa's poetry (To be or not to be That is the Question) and his fluent style of recitals. On Vidya's anniversary Appa comes in an inebriated state and embarrasses Barve's boss. Although next day Appa apologies, Barve does not seem to mind it and discards as one off incident.

Meanwhile, Appa remembers about his friend Rambhau and pays a visit to him. Rambhau is devastated after the demise of his wife. He lashes out at Appa for leaving him alone in his final days. The scene that follows is a heart touching conversation between Karna and Krishna enacted by Rambhau and Appa respectively while Rambhau is lying on his hospital bed. Mesmerised by Rambhau's performance and pitying his condition, Appa grants Rambhau his last wish.

The next day Appa returns to his son in law's house. Kaveri tells Appa that Rambhau had overdosed on sleeping pills and that he is no more to which Appa confesses that he gave the pills to him implying that, that was his last wish.

On another occasion Appa insults Barve's boss's son when he could not stand his weak adaption of Othello. This irritates Vidya and she confronts her father. She makes their arrangement in her outhouse, however her husband still stands by Appa and regards this as a non-issue. Vidya makes sure that the outhouse is well maintained and they are taken good care.

One fine day Vidya misplaces money given to her by her husband and in a turn of events she blames her parents for stealing it. This creates a rift between them. Vidya realises her mistake later when she finds the money. She apologises to her parents. But it was too late as Ganpatrao and Kaveri had already decided to move out. Vidya's husband still sympathetic with her parents, cannot change their hearts. On that night they escape from the outhouse for their ancestral village where they have an old home in dilapidated state. On the way they halt at a village, where Kaveri dies of fever. Appa is destroyed by this loss and supported by a boot polish vendor Raja. Raja is extremely poor and homeless person who lives with his family under a bridge. Appa is at times in delusional states and suffers from the fact that the grandeur of the great personalities he lived through as an actor are now making his pain unbearable in his state of loneliness and poverty. Appa serves tea at a tea stall, where he enthralls his customers with his poetry recitals and dialogue from his plays. A man who has a respect and great fond about acting named Siddharth, continuously following Ganpatrao because, for Siddharth he is a nobel actor and as an idol. Ganpatrao hides his real identity (that he is Natsamrat) from Siddharth and refuses to acknowledge that he is 'Natsamrat'. Siddarth, however continues his efforts regarding Ganpatrao being the great actor.

One fine day he reads that his favorite theatre had burnt down in a fire. He goes there immediately and is completely shattered to see the theatre reduced to rubble.

Siddharth also arrived there as he was following him. Here Ganapatrao starts reliving his old memories and also accepts Siddharth's consultings that they are real when Siddharth reveals that he knew all about his past and him. His family and Raja also come there to find him. They request him to come home with him and to live with them but he refuses. The film ends magnificently but albeit it has a tragic end. Appa is in a delusional state and shuffles between reality and the great personalities he had once portrayed as an actor on the very same stage. He gives his last performance on the theatre stage for Siddharth and says that, "Do you understand, dear Siddarth this is what theatre acting is all about? To fulfill once longing" He unexpectedly screams by placing a hand on his thorax and falls down. Immediately everyone runs to hold him, but they find that he has departed.^[6]

Cast

• Nana Patekar as Ganpat Ramchandra Belwalkar/ Natsamrat/ Appa (alias)/Baba
• Medha Manjrekar as Kaveri Ganpat Belwalkar/Sarkar
• Vikram Gokhale as Rambhau
• Mrunmayee Deshpande as Vidya Ganpat Belwalkar/Vidya Rahul Barve
• Ajit Parab as Makrand Ganpat Belwalkar
• Neha Pendse as Neha Makrand Belwalkar
• Sunil Barve as Mr. Rahul Barve / Vidya's husband
• Sarang Sathye as Siddharth

Details

The film is the screen adaptation of noted Marathi playwright Kusumagraj’s iconic Marathi play "Natsamrat" which was first staged in 1970. Dr. Shriram Lagu has acted in the Marathi play in the role of Natsamrat for a very long time. The film also features Vikram Gokhale, Medha Manjrekar, Mrunmayee Deshpande, Sunil Barve, Neha Pendse and Ajit Parab in supporting roles.^[7]

Soundtrack

Music for this film is composed by Ajit Parab.

Release

The film was released on 1 January 2016, which is also the birthday of Nana Patekar.^[8] Apart from Maharashtra, Natsamrat released in Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Delhi, Telangana and West Bengal with nearly 1,600 shows across more than 400 screens in the country daily.^[5][9] It also had special screenings in countries like UK,Singapore,Canada,USA till March 2016.After 6th week it is still running successfully in 174 theaters with 2,225 daily shows all over Maharashtra.^[10]

Reception

The film received praise for its portrayal of the angst of an aged veteran theater actor. Film critics praised the movie for acting skills, direction, cinematography and script.^[11][12]

Box office

Natsamrat collected approx ₹15 crore (US$2.2 million) in first weekend ^[5] and ₹19 crore (US$2.8 million) in 1st week.^[13] It collected ₹22 crore (US$3.3 million) in 10 days and ₹22 crore (US$3.3 million) till 2nd week.^[14][15] It collected ₹48.23 crore (US$7.2 million) till 3rd week.^[16]

Accolades

Best Marathi Film Award

• Best Marathi Film- Zee Cine Awards 2015

See also

• Highest grossing Marathi films

References

External links

• Natsamrat at the Internet Movie Database