Valu-e for Money. Review on Valu Movie

This is the most delightful story to emerge from the world of Marathi movies for a long time. I have kept my mouth shut on Mouthshut for a long time, and I am glad I chose this movie to break my silence. The premise of this complete entertainer is one of the quaint traditions existing in rural India. A bull that was once the sacred bull in a village temple has been set free to roam the village. This type of bull is called a valu, hence the name.

The village folk are content to feed the bull everytime he turns up at their doorstep. Until one day, for some reason, he runs amok, chasing and terrorizing unsuspecting villagers. Desperate to free the village from the fear of the bull, yet reluctant to eliminate the bull due to its sanctity, the village sarpanch, played by Dr Mohan Agashe, compels the local forest officer to help track the bull down.

The forest officer, played by Atul Kulkarni, wants to get this rather unglamorous task over with so he can get back to his pet projects. He doesn't expect too much effort or excitement. His savvier brother, a budding film maker, senses this could be a great subject for a documentary and persuades the officer to let him film the chase.

The brothers arrive at the village to discover that the village folk are more excited about the film, thinking they would feature in it as the stars. Even as the forest officer struggles to prise accurate information from the village folk about the bull's movements, the villagers' native insouciance and starry-eyed excitement provide much of the fun in this little adventure. The chase is on, against the backdrop of a hilarious local political rivalry between the old-timer sarpanch and a brash young challenger. How the rebel bull runs rings around the energetic but disorganized villagers makes for one of the truly  value-for-money movies in Marathi.

The actors range from the well-known giants of Marathi stage and screen, Dr. Mohan Agashe and Dileep Prabhavalkar to new actors who showcase an amazing ease and naturalnesss in their performances. The direction is sufficiently competent, as are the editing and cinematography, which were crucial to such a story. The technical expertise is proof of talent in a regional language industry that has over the years descended into Govinda-style farces or obtruse art-house cinema. Production design is not quite top-class, but this could be forgiven given the setting. The rural landscape is used very well, so there's not much cause for complaint on that aspect.

About the only other disappointment for me was the presence of some characters who seem irrelevant to the larger story. Funnily enough, one of these is the character of the village priest played by Mr Prabhavalkar. His role is peripheral and is reduced to a caricature; I suspect it was driven by the need to pull in the crowds using a popular and big name.

Regardless, if this movie reignites interest in good Marathi movies, the likes of Dr Evil and Mini Me(yes, you can guess who I am referring to), will have no excuse. By the way, the movie was distributed by Mukta Arts(you know who that is). It is sub-titled so non-Marathi speakers would enjoy it too. It was recently showcased at the MAMI festival in Mumbai. North Indian business savvy and Maharashtrian creativity together at their best.

Enjoy!