Vidya Balan starrer Natkhat is a 32-minute short film. The story narrated is a well-known shadow of our society.
Star Cast: Vidya Balan (Sonu's Mother), Sanika Patel (Sonu), Raj Arjun (Sonu's father), Atul Tiwari (Sonu's Grandfather), Sparsh Srivastava (Sonu's Uncle), Samarth Mahor, Anuraj Patel.
Director: Shaan Vyas.
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala, Vidya Balan.
Movie Review: The story depicts a small town, where a 7-year-old boy, Sonu (a girl in real life, Sanika Patel), is playing cricket on a field, where he meets some of the young teenage boys who were planning to kidnap a girl. Being innocent, Sonu takes this conversation seriously and considers it 'normal' as girls cannot go beyond the boy's wishes or orders.
In one of the movie scenes, Sonu, while having dinner with his grandfather, father and uncle, suggests kidnapping a woman if she does not listen to them. And then, he narrates the incident from the school where a girl was picked up because she slapped his friend.
Sonu, further says "Jab bhi koi ladki tang karein naa, use uthaakar jungle le jao. Dobaara kabhi tang nahin karegi."
(Whenever a girl bothers you, pick her up and take her to the jungle. She will never bother you again).
Listening to this undersized statement from a little 7-year-boy, Sonu's grandfather (played by Atul Tiwari) smirks and says, "Ladka hai, ho jata hai." (He is a boy, it happens). And he asks his 'bahu', the role played by Vidya Balan, to make sure that Sonu doesn't watch much of TV as his behaviour is only influenced by TV. If needed, he should watch only Ramayan and Mahabharata on TV.
Sonu's mother (Vidya Balan) gets worried after hearing this kind of thinking and statement of Sonu. And then, she narrates a fable to her son, Sonu.
The story told by Sonu's mother is a well-known shadow of our society. How do we teach a boy child the wrong definition of masculinity right from his childhood, and how do we tell that a woman is only weak and is 'only an object for pleasure'. We found the answer to all these questions in the story told by Sonu's mother.
Our notions such as 'man is always a man' or 'men never cry' have become so deeply ingrained in society that our young generation unknowingly imbibes it. And start understanding these mental pictures to be correct.
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The screenplay is very well written, wherein through just a bedtime story, the main character depicts a society drowning in its filth without women. The king with the young brats and the women with the birds have been compared with great merit through the story.
Vidya Balan, a co-producer of this short film, Natkhat, has exceptionally played her role as a homemaker and a loving mother of Sonu. The debutante child-artist, Sanika Patel, has tremendously justified her character, Sonu. The dialogue delivery and her presence being a boy have added lots of stars into the picturisation of the movie plot.
Final Verdict: 4.5 stars out 5.
The movie, Natkhat, is absolutely a must-watch film. It is a movie that can be well relatable with the famous phrase - "saying big things in a small time." The movie Natkhat demonstrates the thick wall of patriarchy, which can be broken when we instil proper upbringing in our children.