Recently in September, the India International Festival of Boston opened with a film of a very experimental genre- Navras Katha Collage. The film is being hailed as one of the best acting performances in a long time. The film is now looking towards its theatrical release in India on October 25th.
The film is quite like Navarasa- a 2021 Tamil anthology of 9 episodes containing nine different stories. In the film though, the nine stories appear in a single film and are dedicated to the nine rasas (emotions) mentioned in the Natya Shastra (a book of Indian poetics). On the top of it, the central figure in each of the stories is played by the same actor- Praveen Hingonia.
Praveen, who also is the director and writer of this film, looks really great in each of his characters. He is simply unrecognizable and has perfectly fitted himself in every character- even in that of a transgender. The film also features many other great actors and known faces like Sheeba Chadda, Rajesh Sharma, Alka Amin, Paritosh Tripathi, Dayanand Shetty and Revathi Pillai. The supporting cast also does a great job in bringing to the screen what the vision was behind this creation.
The film is a great work of art and Praveen especially does a great job in evoking nine different emotions on the same screen. The reception of the film was very positive in the festival and now the cinema enthusiasts wait for the film to be released on the silver screen.
The film has already been accepted to be screened in the PVR-INOX which will automatically give the film a push. With lack of competition especially in the Hindi genre in the market, the film can expect a good response. Although, such experimental films have not been very popular among the people. Dashavataram had been such an experimental film where Kamal Hassan played ten different roles in the same film, and it became the first Tamil film to gross 200 crores worldwide. But the best thing about it was Kamal Hassan bringing star power in the film. Such a response cannot be expected for Praveen Hingonia.
Still, the film will be expecting a good response from the audience to get the encouragement to make more ambitious and artistic projects.