| Viva In-En, Ravi Jadhav Films and Mumbai Film Company’s Balak Palak (Marathi; tax-free; UA) is the story of how parents ignore imparting sex education to their children, who then pick up the knowledge from dubious sources.
Avya (Subodh Bhave) catches his school-going son with the DVD of a blue film, and scolds him a lot. Avya’s wife, Dolly (Amruta Subhash) , calms him down and tells him to explain to their son with love, not by shouting at him. She reminds him of the days when they were in their early teens. The film then goes back into the days when Avya and Dolly were adolescents. In 1982, Avya (Rohit Phalke), Chiu (Bhagyashree Sankpal), Dolly (Shahwati Pimplikar) and Bhagya (Madan Deodhar) are close friends. They live in the same chawl and go to the same school, so they spend a lot of time together. One day, the kids realise that something is wrong with a girl staying in the same chawl as the neighbours are speaking ill about her. They vaguely understand that she has brought shame to her family but are unaware of what exactly has happened. The young kids try to find out by asking their parents but only get angry responses from them as they are in no mood to share the fact that the girl has had sex before marriage. Finally, the kids meet an older kid, Vishu (Prathamesh Parab), who gives them pornographic books to explain to them about sex. He even shows them a blue film on the VCR. After their initial curiosity is satisfied, the girls feel disgusted on learning about sex by watching a blue film. On the other hand, the boys are enthralled by the film as they start understanding about sex. After seeing the blue film, Bhagya and Avya keep ogling at girls and passing lewd remarks among themselves. Chiu and Dolly don’t like the change in the boys’ attitude and start avoiding them. Though Avya is attracted to Chiu, she stays away from him. Bhagya gets attracted to the 22-year-old Neha (Saie Tamhankar) who treats him like a younger brother. One day, Bhagya says ‘I love you’ to Neha who is startled. The chawl’s do-gooder, Kadam Kaka (Kishore Kadam), hears of this and is shocked. He tries to explain to the parents of the four young children but they don’t take him seriously. The moral of the story is that parents need to teach their kids about sex as otherwise they would try to do wrong things to learn about it. After growing up, Avya has gotten married to Dolly. Dolly’s explanation opens Avya’s eyes and he realises that his son is going through the same dilemma which he had gone through when he was young and his parents had not imparted him sex education. Ambar Hadap and Ganesh Pandit’s story is nice and novel. The screenplay, penned by Ravi Jadhav, Ambar Hadap and Ganesh Pandit, is excellent. There are a lot of light scenes and they have been written so wonderfully that even the touchy topic of sex education is treated in a manner which will be loved by all kinds of audience including the orthodox. The trio’s dialogues are extraordinary. It needs to be mentioned here that although there is so much talk about sex and blue films, there is not a single scene of nudity or sex shown. The performances are wonderful. All the kids – Rohit Phalke, Bhagyashree Sankpal, Shahwati Pimplikar and Madan Deodhar – have performed exceedingly well and deserve kudos for their acting. Prathamesh Parab is supremely impressive and shines. Saie Tamhankar does well and leaves a mark. Kishore Kadam is adorable. Anand Ingle (as Bhagya’s father) and Avinash Narkar (in the role of Avya’s father) lend fine support. Vishakha Subedar is excellent as the gossip-monger of the chawl. Supriya Pathare leaves a mark as Chiu’s mother. Satish Tare provides able support as the video cassette dealer. Subodh Bhave is nice in the small role of the grown-up Avya. Amruta Subhash, as the grown-up Dolly, is also good in a brief role. They are well supported by the rest of the cast. Ravi Jadhav’s direction is fantastic. Music (Vishal-Shekhar) is quite nice. Lyrics (Guru Thakur and Ravi Jadhav) are very appropriate. Chinar-Mahesh’s background score is effective. Mahesh Limaye’s cinematography is first-rate. Art direction (Dilip More and Santosh Phutane) is good. Jayant Jathar’s editing is super-sharp. Production values are as per the demands of the script. On the whole, Balak Palak is a surefire hit and will win box-office rewards as well as critical acclaim. Released on 4-1-’13 at Bhratmata (daily 1 show) and other cinemas of Bombay thru Rajat Enterprises. Publicity: good. Opening: very good. |
