Naal (film)

Chaitanya, an eight-year-old mischievous boy living in a remote village in Maharashtra and is a son of a small-time landlord and loving mother. The film explores his family relationships when he comes to think his mother is not his real mother. [4]

When Chaitanya is told by an uncle that his mother is not his real mother but a woman named Parvati, he tests his mother to find out if she loves him. When she says she never cries and has never cried, he thinks she must not love him, as surely at times she would have cried over him? His older friend, Bachchan, sometimes runs away and causes his own mother to cry, so Chaitanya decides to run away for a bit to test his mother. When his friend tells him his mother cried, he comes home but she then beats him because she is upset that he went. He then decides his 'real mother' would never beat him and becomes more distant from her. He stops calling her Aai (Mum).

Chaitanya's father returns but says he must go to the market with the bullock but Chaitanya wants to keep his father with him. His mother asks her husband to take the grandmother to the market as she interferes too much and she needs a break from her. Chaitanya asks Bachchan what to do to stop his father leaving, and Bachchan suggests making the grandmother unwell by putting something in her food.This does make grandmother unwell but she recovers quickly and so Chaitanya spills marbles on the ground to make her fall. However, she staggers but does not fall. Lastly, he resorts to charging at her with the young bullock, pretending that the calf is too strong for him to control. Grandmother falls from her chair noy the ground and says she has broke her hip. Father and mother take her indoors and the trip to market is cancelled.

But now the calf has run off and father is worried. There is a search but the calf is not found by nightfall. Next day some villagers bring the calf to the family, but he is dead having run into some electrified wires. Chaitanya blames Bachchan, but does not say he suggested hurting the grandmother, instead he says he set the electric wires in a field to trap wild animals.

Father is concerned the family's cow will stop yielding milk and asks a man to stuff the calf to encourage the cow to keep in milk. A few days pass and he decides to go to the city with the grandmother to get medical advice and see his brothers. Chaitanya wants to go too as he thinks his real mother lives there, but mother says he would be in his father's way and he cannot go. Chaitanya gets round this by telling his grandmother he wants to go with her. Father hires a man and his cart to take the three of them to the city. Grandmother is not able to walk without support on both sides and she lies down in the cart. Chaitanya is impatient to get going. They cross the fields, cross a river and ride on to a bus stop where the bus is waiting.

When they reach the bus stop, Chaitanya leaps into the road and runs ahead. He is very excited and calls to his father to hurry up. Father discovers that grandmother has gotten much worse (unconscious or dead, it is not clear). The cart-man says they must return home. The bus leaves. Chaitanya is upset that they did not catch the bus and does not realise what has happened to grandmother.

A funeral is arranged. Chaitanya is excited because his grandmother's sister will be arriving from the city with Parvati, the woman he thinks is his real mother. His mother gives him a tray of tea to pass around relatives but Parvati does not make eye contact with him despite his constantly staring at her. When these relatives leave he chases their cart to return an umbrella but Parvati still does not address him directly. When he cannot see her, she appears upset. Chaitanya is sad she never spoke to him as her son. He has not been 'rescued' from his current mother.

The stuffed calf is brought to the house and father sets it up by the cow who will now allow mother to come close enough to milk her. Mother gives Chaitanya a beaker of milk. He drinks it feeling happy at last. Mother gently brushes milk from his upper lip. He looks after her and calls out 'Aai' (Mum) and she turns. He offers her the beaker (for more milk, or to share what is left is not clear). This the first time he has called her 'Aai' in a long time. This makes her happy and they both smile at each other.

• Shreenivas Pokale as Chaitanya Bhosale (Chaitya)
• Sanket Itankar as Chaitya's Friend Bachchan
• Nagraj Manjule as Chaitya's father
• Devika Daftardar as Chaitya's Mother
• Seva Chavan as Chaitya's Grandmother
• Maithili Thakare as Devi
• Deepti Devi as Parvati
• Ganesh Deshmukh as Gajya
• Om Bhutkar as Chaitya's maternal uncle

• Naal at IMDb
• Naal at Rotten Tomatoes