Review: Why this 'Golaberij' Ji?

Film: Golaberij
Director: Kshitij Zarapkar
Cast: Nikhil Ratnaparkhi, Dr Neha Deshpande-Kamat, Dilip Prabhavalkar and others
Rating: **

The PL Deshpande song ‘Nach re moraa, ambyacha vanaat, nach re moraa nach’ had to be one of the few mandatory components of a quintessential Marathi childhood. And then you grow up watching his films, seeing his plays, and reading his books. Deshpande’s influence went beyond Marathi literature. He became the essence of ‘Marathmolepana’ or Marathiness with his humorous, observant and chatty works.

And he was just like his works -- approachable, chatty and extremely funny. A big nose upon which rested square horn-rimmed glasses, wavy silver hair, and his buckteeth that were forever visible with his smile… PL’s face would fill you with affection and respect at the same time. I was lucky enough to see PL as a pig-tailed girl albeit dressed as a peacock at the platinum jubilee celebrations held in the writer’s honour in my school. And the fact that he berated school education as a waste of time (while he himself spent years teaching as a professor) made him my favourite author without having read a single of his books.

But as we saw ‘Tee Phularani’ and memorised ‘Tula Shikveen Changlach Dhada’, and then read Pygmalion, PL’s proficiency to use the structure of GB Shaw’s original work and adapt it to Maharashtra with the smallest of nuance, we realised the genius of the man. One had to be careful around PL, for you never knew when he’d nitpick on your traits and write an essay about you. And if he did, it was of course, an honour. He immortalised Antu Barva, Babdu, Narayan, Gampu, Gatne, Chitale Master, Nanda and many others by encasing their lives carefully in a page with the aid of his words.

The prospect of making a film on such a personality’s life is daunting, as much as it is exciting. However, as an industry, Marathi cinema did owe PL a glowing tribute. Kshitij Zarapkar, who debuted as a director with Ata Karyua Udyachi Baat, a badly-executed film on an extremely relevant topic, ie global warming, rose up to this challenge. Armed with a budget of about Rs2 crore, Zarapkar signed up a stellar cast and even enlisted the great literary figure’s granddaughter (Neha Deshpande-Kamat) to essay Sunitabai (PL’s wife) for a film that would have been a magnum opus for any director.

The film opens like a typical Marathi play and in a true theatrical style we peek into PL’s childhood as Avinash Narkar hits you with his signature over-the-top, loud nee garish performance of a story-teller. As PL’s mother (who was Karvari) speaks the Goan dialect of Konkani completely out of sync with the audio, the film begins to take a nosedive. Time and again, the dialogue, the interesting personalities and excellent performances resurrect your interest. Dilip Prabahvalkar’s Antu Barva, Subodh Bhave’s posh Nanda and Dr Mohan Agashe’s Chitale Master all bring PL’s words to life. My problem is that these characters, these words have been brought to life on Marathi theatre a couple of thousand times, why would I watch the film?

The film flows in a linear narrative, in PL’s voice, going through the various episodes of his life in an unimaginative fashion. Agreed that the film is based on PL’s books, but I want to see what Zarapkar brings to the table as a director. The treatment of the film is flat, one-dimensional and highly uncreative. The director originally wrote this screenplay for theatre and he presents it to us in exactly that format.

The camera work is clumsy, the picture is grainy and the song Ithech Taka Tambu has a rather emotionless danseuse gyrating to it. The director said he wanted a nobody so that the focus remained on the song and not on the star, but couldn’t they have found a slightly graceful, emotive face? The film fails on many accounts but Nikhil Ratnaparkhi’s portrayal of PL is its saving grace.

While Zarapkar deserves a pat on the back for standing up to the challenge of making this film, the fact that he purely recycles PL’s material with the who’s who of Marathi industry in a half-baked job is inexcusable. PL Deshpande deserved a far better biopic, treated with the grandeur that often he looked to create through his writing. Sure, this film is a quick introduction to the works of PL, but it is not a good film as far as films are concerned. And the two stars that it earns are for the love of PL and for the fact that it forced me to hunt for my copy of Vyakti Ani Valli leading to an evening well-spent. Even through a bad film, PL shows the way to get a few good laughs out of life. Sigh!