Reviewed by
Praveen Lulekar
In about fifteen minutes after the intermission, Ptiruroon became another film for me.
The meticulous affair now startled me with its speed, the obvious looking suspense
became thicker thanks to the shades of the characters and without giving any
time to think, the story wrapped up with the same, predictable but now
impactful end. In his unique way of story-telling, director Nitish Bhardwaj has
built up a film that is not flawless but is an experience that touches many
chords of human emotion. To top it, are performances from three reliable actors
– Sachin Khedekar, Suhas Joshi and Tanuja.
Pitruroon,
as
the title suggests, is the story of a
father’s unpaid debt which a son – Vyankatesh Kulkarni (Khedekar) has to pay. The
film is based on a story written by writer Sudha Murthy and the first half moves with the pace of literature. The
unhurriedness does not make it slow as such, but establishes background for the
edge-of-the-seat effects of this whole setting up. I was lost on the
micro-elements in this part. There is a forcefully established character of the
daughter of Kulkarni (Poorvi Bhave) as a photographer. She has a camera in hand
even on the breakfast table. As the daughter and father (who is a professor of
archeology) set on a journey to an archeology site, we see attempts to show how
candid their relationship is. Some skillful still photography works here but
artificiality creeps into these scenes owing to their typicality.
On the way, Kulkarni meets his look-alike of the
same name as his. We then come across a village where humour is attempted. The
other Kulkarni has a dance to perform which has practiced ‘steps’ and as he
sees his look alike, he faints and falls, again, in a very artificial manner.
We meet Bhagirathi, the villager Kulkarni’s mother (Tanuja) who narrates her
tragic past to her son’s look-alike. We see a light-eyed Ketki Palav playing
the younger part for Tanuja – the veteran who speaks a lot through her eyes,
black eyes. Professor Kulkarni now begins to doubt if there is some connection
between him and the other family. The doubt grows as the story moves forward
and we see the mystery unraveling.
If you have read your Chandamas as a child, you will sync with the story immediately.
There is a fantasised background and simple moral coming out of the
complications. Nothing is preachy or intellectual. The film considers realism
as elemental. Bhardwaj understands that details are not the crux of the story.
It is the pain of Bhagirathi, who comes out flawlessly in the form of the experienced
Tanuja, in the doubt eating the professor’s mind about his father’s past and in
the agony of the professor’s mother (Suhas Joshi) who has had a futile
relationship with her husband for 55 long years. Khedekar, as the protagonist,
takes us into the maze of a riddle that starts haunting us like it does to him.
Joshi’s character has a chance of fading away but with a constant spite
underlining her everyday behavior, she makes her presence felt strongly.
Kaushal Inamdar’s music has held the film together
with a lot of grace. The violins at the background bring the pain of the
characters to fore. Mahesh Aney’s camerawork captures the moods of the story and
the same locations change faces as the situation changes. The product becomes
high in quality due to such contributions. What you will take away is an
emotional experience with a tinge of melancholy that complicated human
relationships and emotions create. That is the realism, and the success of Pitruroon.
M4M Says: A Must Watch
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