REVEW: PICASSO (Marathi)

Producer-Shiladitya Bora

Director- Abhijeet Warang

Star Cast-Prasad Oak,Ashwani Mukadam, Samay Sanjeev Tambe and Vittal Gaonkar

Platform- Amazon Prime Video

Jyothi Venkatesh

The film Picasso revolves around a young middle aged father Pandurang who is keen on making his only son Gandharva, a 7th grade student from a remote village in the Konkan belt take part in a National Painting Competition.

The winner gets to travel to Spain — Picasso’s birthplace — to hone his skills fee that his poor parents cannot afford.

With his ailing mother and alcoholic father Pandurang (Prasad Oak) was once an accomplished stage artiste and a sculptor but now his alcoholism stands in the way of him performing, which has been both his passion and a means to provide for his family.

The film Picasso was screened at the 10th edition of the Jagran Film Festival in Mumbai in September 2019.

It is now available on Amazon Prime Video.The film is about the small boy Gandharva in a small village who is compelled to chase his dream, a dream he saw together with his father.

What does a father feel when he is not even able to manage to get a small sum of money to help his son achieve his ambition? In fact, Picasso is a small but fascinating journey of a father and his son

Before the advent of the ubiquitous television, Dashavatar was the single most prominent source of entertainment for people in the Konkan region of Maharashtra.

According to the makers of the film Picasso (2019), the roots of the art form go back to the 13th century CE.

It is pertinent to note that the art thrived for more than seven centuries without much patronage from royalty or any government support.

Even today, more than 3,50,000 artistes perform this art form and it remains the only source of income for many of them.The film is about one such player of Dashavtara natak- Pandurang.

Will Pandurang be able to fight his demons back to life, if not for himself, but for his son? This forms the crux of the interesting climax.

Prasad Oak renders a sterling performance as the angst ridden sculptor father who also acts in plays to eke out his livelihood, Samay Sanjeev Tambe, is earnest as his son who aspires to be a painter.

Ashwini Mukadam does not have enough scope to perform as the mother of the son but is above average in spite of the limitations of her role

I’d say that the film which has real life Dashavatar stage artists playing most of the parts is a cute and warm heartwarming slice of life film though it has a running time of just about 76 minutes or so and has a snail’s pace that almost lulls you to sleep.