Cast: Dilip Prabhavalkar, Nandu Madhav, Anshuman Joshi, Ketaki Mategaonkar
Director: Sujay Dahake
The name can be misleading. Shala is not about kids going to school nor is it a children's film, even remotely. All that it has in common with Stanley ka Dabba begins and ends at the animated sequence that plays with the opening credits. Shala takes you to the next level: while you are still at school and your friends are important, you step onto the threshold of the adult world and start making sense of it.
Based on a story by Milind Bokil, Shala is a ravishing debut feature by Sujay Dahake. It is an adolescent love story set in a small town in the politically charged decade of the 70s. In the backdrop, there is the fear of the Emergency on one side and the insinuation of rebellion in youth who idolize Che on the other. The atmosphere is filled with palpable tension, and a premonition of something that will disturb the natural order of things. Amidst all of this, the film takes you back to your adolescence: when you experienced the first gushing of love hormone in your body which meant little more than the stolen glances, reciprocated smiles, small talks and love notes.
Joshi is a student of Std 9 and loves talking about sundry things with his motley group of friends. They are in an age when they drool over their attractive female teachers, discuss girls in their class and have time for everything besides studies. Joshi is a bright student who is inquisitive by nature, curious about everything from love to emergency.
He is falling for his classmate Shirodkar who seems to nurture similar feelings for him. This is that innocent love of juvenile years, naïve, carefree and overwhelming. You see it unfolding beautifully before your eyes, and a smile lingers on your lips as you see it growing beyond the classroom into rendezvous in temple and on the street. But what about our future: Joshi asks the girl and she never manages an answer. For these love affairs hardly ever have any, and as Joshi's uncle Naru mama quotes John Lennon: Life is what happens to you when you are busy making other plans.
Shala is one of the few films that have such a soulful background score to complement the brilliant narrative. The original music by Alokananda Dasgupta deserves special mention for its contribution to the emotional impact of the film. It is the music that lets one immerse in the innocent romance and yet never lets go of the sense of the impending peril. It connects the dreamy world of the teenagers to the outside world that is harsh and unromantic.
The unsympathetic world of adults is represented by a host of characters: the ruthless English teacher who pulls up her students for not having their notebooks covered in brown paper, the History teacher with inferiority complex and the righteous headmaster who would beat up his students black and blue for the pettiest of mistakes. You have met them all in school. And then there are a few understanding adults like Mr. Joshi (young Joshi's father) who seem to know the vagaries of adolescence.
Most actors in the film have delivered a restrained performance. Anshuman Joshi emotes wonderfully as the protagonist Mukund Joshi. Ketaki Mategonkar who plays Shirodkar does a contrived act initially but entices with her charm in no time. Joshi and the other boys, particularly Mhatre (Ketan Pawar) are required to dabble in a range of emotions as they come-of-age: love, fear, rage and rejection. They do it naturally and convincingly.
Do not give Shala a miss. It is a self-assured and grounded debut by a filmmaker which offers a lesson or two in simple storytelling straight from the heart, complete with soulful music. It is one of those gems that Marathi cinema throws up once in a while; totally localized in flavor yet universal in appeal.
####
Comments
0 comment