Naal (Marathi) Review - A Tender, Heart Warming Tale of Love & Maternity

Suhansid Srikanth

Sudhakar Reddy Yakanti's Naal opens with a dandelion swaying and free falling to a barren landscape that has a river in the middle of it. It swirls and swirls and swirls enough to attract the bathing protagonist.. Chaitu, who himself is no less tender than the dandelion.

Naal is a heartwarming story about maternity and what the very word 'mother' and her love means to a child. It deals with it in three layers. One, the direct plot.. which forms the core of the film.. Chaitu desparately looking forward to meet his real mother. Two, there is a cow which after its calf dying in an accident refusing to secrete milk anymore. Three, the relationship shared between Chaitu's father and Chaitu's grandmother.

The grandmother's role sorta holds the subplots together. She keeps telling that the entire village grew in front of her. It paves way for the final act of the film as well. The conversation between the guy who runs a bullock cart and Chaitu's father about old people passes off as a normal walk and talk but only later you get the emotional implication it adds to the story.

Despite this, the film constantly revolves around the boy's quest to measure a mother's love. He watches a scene in television where a mother and son passionately reunites in a film. He asks how come chickens don't find they were swaped while hatching when they were eggs. He asks his mother to cry because he firmly believes that that's what mothers do.

For the larger part of the film, I kept thinking about the similarities the film shares with ManiRatnam's 'Kannathil Muthamittaal'. The detachment that protagonist kids in both films develop from their adopted mother.. the prep they rehearse to meet their biological mother.. there is so much to draw parallels to. I get so choked when Chaitu patted away his mother's hand citing that she might dirt his powdered face.

Shrinivas Pokale as Chaitanya delivers a supremely memorable performance as this kid stranded between reality and a secret he is holding within. His has to be the best performance of a child artist since that of Darsheel Safary as Ishaan Awasthi in Taare Zameen Par. Watch out the stretch of emotions he expresses when his real mother visits his house. He erases the melodrama of the moment with his adorableness.

From Cinematography to Score.. Editing to Sound Design.. the film perfectly balances the technical aspects without drowning the emotional drama in the film. Nagraj Manjule who himself plays Chaitu's father has written the dialogues for the film and produced it as well. Two minutes into the film, the geography of the locale gets stamped in your eyes. The characters are humanely beautiful that makes the film.. a shining leaf of hope to appreciate the little things and happy moments of life.