Valu

I was at the preview of a Marathi film last night – Valu. Valu is set in a village in Maharashtra. The villagers live in mortal fear of a wild bull, which no one seems to be able to tame. The bull creates havoc in the lives of the villagers and the sarpanch finally decides to get some help. A forest officer is called for the same and his brother decides to make a documentary on ‘The taming of the bull’

Soon the village is abuzz with news of the arrival of the forest officer and the documentary film maker. The focus of the villagers quickly changes from the bull to being part of the documentary. Everyone harbours ambitions of being in the documentary and makes his/her won plans for the same. Eventually, with the help of the villagers the forest officer manages to catch the bull. The taming of the bull is nothing but making sure that it is held captive and not allowed its freedom.

The film is a welcome change from other slapstick Marathi movies. Visually Valu is a delight and the characterization of villagers is interesting and endearing. The humour is understated and lies in the finer nuances of the situations and characters. The star cast is interesting - Atul Kulkarni, Dilip Prabhavalkar, Mohan Agashe, Girish Kulkarni and Bharathi Achrekar. It is going to be interesting to see what the reaction of audiences to Valu is going to be like.