Saturday 24 February 2018

Katyar Kaljat Ghusali- A Marathi Movie Review!

Some are movies and then some are masterpieces. Movies have actors while, the masterpieces comprise the characters portrayed with perfection. The masterpiece –
Katyar Kaljat Ghusali– is a beautiful movie which has music as its central character, and that too classical music. Moreover, it has many firsts. Shankar Mahadevan has debuted as an actor, Subodh Bhave has debuted as a director, Sakshi Tanvar has debuted in the Marathi film and Sachin Pilgaonkar playing a classical singer for the first time! The 4 ‘S’ brings a lifetime experience, that goes hand in hand with drama, music, cinematography and dialogues.
It has the stalwarts singer Vasantrao Deshpande playing one prominent role and Pt Jitendra Abhisheki playing the other. The drama is set in the pre-independence period and has the whole setting accordingly which carries the weight and nostalgia of the whole play. The story revolves around the ego and ambition of Khansaheb to become the king’s musician. It is narrated in the form of a musical fight between the 2 schools (gharanas) of music represented by him and Pandit Bhanu Shankar Shastri. It has all the elements of film- deceit, greed, revenge and politics while the opposite side has determination, love, devotion and righteousness.
The music is so mesmerising here that it truly transcends the boundaries of language and culture and one does not need to understand Marathi to appreciate this movie.
Classical music lovers like me, will will treasure this movie, while the uninterested one’s will come out with a new admiration and passion for this genre of music. The music is the heart and soul of the film. The presentations of the bandishes like Soorat Piya Ki and Dil Ki Tapish are sure to bring tears to the audience’s eyes. Such a wonderful renditions all the songs are! Shankar Ehsaan Loy have really done a fantastic job with the music.
Cinematography is top-notch while there are some magical scenes- like that of fireflies behaving as per the music also the silence after Shankar Mahadevan’s first rendition. The beauty of Katyar Kaljat Ghusali is that one does not need any special liking for Indian classical music to like the film. More than sufficient elements come together to make the movie watching experience worthwhile. The movie also brings out the idea of how classical music can change the person completely i.e. from a evil person to a nice person.
But, the stereotypical portrayal of the Indian Classical Music was what I disliked. People still believe that such performances and such impact of classical music could only happen at that time-period, shown in the movie. Why couldn’t the director show the whole drama in the modern era?
Overall, the movie definitely does ‘pierce the heart’ with its performances and storyline. Its very rare that a movie is made where the central character in music that too Classical music. Repeating a dialogue by Panditji- The throat is strategically situated exactly in between the brain and the heart because a musician is required to use both. As a audience, I too appreciate this movie with both!

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