Pak Pak Pakaak (2005)
Nana Patekar made his directorial debut with Prahaar. This was his only directorial venture till date. The movie had well known faces like Dimple Kapadia and Madhuri Dixit and an unknown face called Gautam Joglekar who played a very important character in the movie. He was if we could define the second hero of the movie.
Gautam Joglekar is son of Sai Paranjpe who gave us movies like Katha, Sparsh and Chasme Bhadoor. Gautam Joglekar made his directorial debut with “Pak Pak pakaak” and the person who stars in the movie is Nana Patekar and with this film, Nana patekar returned to Marathi movies after a long time.
“Pak Pak Pakaak” (PPP) is a Marathi movie about a small naughty boy and a supposedly ghost living in a forest. The story is conceptualized by Sai Paranjpe and is very similar to her 2001 movie, “Bhaago Bhoot”
The story is of a parent-less little boy, chiklu who plays pranks on everybody in the village. Her old grandmother is also fed up with his activities that she resorts to punish him now and then. The village is surrounded by a big forest which inhabits a ghost named as “bhootya”. The villagers are afraid to venture into the forest alone in the fear that they will be harmed by bhootya. Bhootya is actually a herbal doctor living in isolation from the society. He has been wronged and his wife killed which makes him loose hope and trust in humanity.
Chiklu while playing another prank on his teacher ventures into the jungle to find he facing Bhootya. After some confrontation, Chiklu and Bhootya accept each other. Bhootya teaches Chiklu to be good and Chiklu convinces him to come back to the society which he had shunned long back. Just as Chiklu changes, he understands the changing attitude of others toward him. He understands that earlier people who had cursed him were appreciative of his behavior.
The journey of Chiklu from being a naughty brat to a nice well-mannered boy is what constitutes the rest of the movie.
In spite of having a small boy as a central character, it cannot be termed as a children’s film. I would call it rather a fun film to be enjoyed by everybody. Some of the scenes do remind of Shyamalan’s “The Village” like the flags on the forest’s boundary and the torches on the boundary. It would be described as beauty and the beast without the love story.
Nana Patekar plays Bhootya, a eccentric man who has lost everything in his life. He detests people who kill for ego, pleasure and money. His life is shown in flashback where he is shown as an efficient herbal doctor. After his wife’s murder by an influential person, he becomes a hermit like character wearing his own hand made clothes, living on trees, building a small hospital for animals and keeping alive the legend of ‘Bhootya’. He has played many characters like that like in “Diksha” but this one has a comedy track.
Saksham Kulkarni is Chiklu and he matches Nana Patekar at every step. I think Chiklu is more interesting in PPP than Bhootya and ofcourse occupies more space than bhootya. Shaksham bring alive Chiklu and his prank. Earlier child artist were mostly over-acting. Now they have become more professional. Directors tend to show more real children than children coming straight out of a Moral Science text book, all with a goody goody image.
Jyoti Subhash plays Chiklu only relative, her grandmother. She is a veteran stage actor in Marathi theatre and plays her part effectively. She can convey her emotions perfectly without going over board.
TV Actress Narayani Shastri plays shalu, Bhootya’s love interest. She looks beautiful and is given a very rustic rural marathi dialogs supporting the story adequately.
The songs in the movie are in tune with the naughty nature of the movie. The movie starts with the title song and is hum able. The other songs like “Aaga aaga Shalu” and “Dipadi Dipadi Dipaang, anadi panachya nanachi taang” are a treat to watch.
Gautam Joglekar keeps the story tight and interesting till the end. Like his mother, he has made a light-hearted movie which gives a feel-good feeling. He also writes the story and the dialog. PPP is a light comedy and does not intend to divert from that concept. Some of the sequence would not be termed logical but you tend to ignore them. Aren’t movies mostly fantasies?
It does preaches about nature conservation but there are no heavy duty dialogs. Some sequence like Chiklu trying to kill neighbor’s cow and Bhootya’s idea of sending Chiklu to school by different means and some more scenes are well handled.
Gautam Joglekar like his mother has made a light hearted comedy. One of better Marathi movies to watch out for. So if you need a nice movie and can find this movie, see it, you won’t regret it. The question is, are we looking at another Sai Paranjpee? Its a long way off maybe.
Rating : 8/10
Tags: Marathi
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Wow … makes me wanna go and watch it !!!! Will watch a subtitled version soon (can’t understand marathi)
Between Faltu – How about doing an encore for Dobivali Fast and Shwaas ???
And one last question – WHERE THE HELL IS SAI PARANJAPE THESE DAYS ?????? PLEASE TELL HER TO MAKE MORE (HINDI) FILMS. I’ve seen most of her films and she is BRILLIANT. If u can review some of her marathi films ….. hmmmmmm … nothing like it my friend ….
That’s what I wanna know. Where is Sai Paranjpe?
- Punds, When was this movie released?
Ohh wow.. i feel so ashamed sometimes that i always used to detest Marathi movie( though i am a maharashtrian). watching them on the Sunday afternoon on DD. Now i want to braoden my Horizons in Marathi cinema. Thanks Punds for bringing to light so many Interesting Marathi Movies.
Yes where is Sai Paranjpe? She also had a daughter, i do not remember her name but was seen on and off on DD back in those days…Where is she and where is Archana Joglekar?
Kartik
I am trying to get Dombivli Fast> I have Shwaas but its already been reviewed by many as it had received good publicity. I am trying to find the movies and plays which very few people have heard about.
Sumeet
I use to detest marathi movies too. But now I look at them in different light. Morever you get a wide range with wide topics in Marathi movie. Yes there is crap around but better than Hindi movies.
Oz
Sai Paranjpe has made “Chaka Chak” a movie on school children taking the responsibilty of cleaning the town where elders go on dirtying it. Winnie Paranjpe (her daughter) has acted in it with her husband and children.
I dont think Archana Joglekar has any relation with Sai Paranjpee.
And Domivili Fast story seems to be very similar to “Falling Down” where Michael Daouglas goes on a rampage.
Next review “Dahavi Pha”
Punds
Yes Winnie Paranjpe… that is right…
Archana Joglekar has no relation with sai..yeah..i shud have said out of context.. but i remember one of the plays directed by Sai Paranjpe which had archana Joglekar in it..
marathi picture baddal marathitach bolalela bara
kharach khup chan pic hota
hi
saw this movie…it was quite good…wonderful acting by Nana n also by the child actor…the story was new…yes it is not a children movie but anybody can watch it…i saw it on cbale recently…one reason i think few marathi movies being quite nice don’t work bcoz they r not promoted properly