In 1922 George Bernard Shaw wrote Pygmalion and it was premiered in Vienna before it was staged in New York a year later. The play’s central character is a professor who is confident of training anyone to speak chaste English. He takes a wager with his friend that he’ll train a poor girl from a small town to pass for a duchess. The diversity in the society and the contrasting central characters made the play popular with almost all sections of the society. Later it was made into a film, #MyFairLady, which became a runaway hit. This film and the play had been adapted, translated and staged in various languages in many countries. In Marathi too, famous playwright #PuLaDeshpande adapted Pygmalion and staged Ti Phulrani which is considered a classic play till date. Director Vishwas Patil (who earlier has produced Nana Patekar starrer Natsamrat) has adapted Pygmalion into #Phulrani giving it a modern and marathi touch.
Vikram Raje is over confident yet successful businessman, running a grooming centre where he dishes out beauty Queens every single year. Movie starts with one such contest and while celebrating his success he bumps into his journalist friend (Sushant Shelar) and under the stage of intoxication picks up a challenge to convert a poor Koliwada girl into a beauty Queen. Shevanta Tandel is a rough, rowdy girl who sells flowers for living and after bribing her father (Milind Shinde) with crates of booze and handsome amount Shevanta reaches Vikram’s training centre. The story advances showing Shevanta’s struggles to cope up with the language, poise, manners and ragging of co-contestants. What transpires during and after Shewanta is taken under Vikram’s wings forms the crux of the story.
Director and co-writer Vishwas Joshi’s Phulrani’s screenplay is reasonably well written and a few surprise elements create a little drama. The dialogues are of high quality and some punches land very well. The music is good and Hirve Hirve, Beautiful Rani are good and Chadhavila Patta stands out. Prouduction values are not that high which affects the film’s visual quality. Vishwas Patil’s honesty depicts in most of the scenes. Subodh Bhave, as usual, aces the portrayal of Vikram Raje. With a variety of emotions he captures viewer’s attention but his wigs are a bit of a distraction. Debutant Priyadarshini Indalkar suits the character very well and her acting emits fragrance of fresh flowers. She has a bright future in Marathi film industry as she has a combination of good looks, dancing skills and abundant acting talent. Sushant Shelar, Ashwini Kulkarni, Milind Shinde, Gaurav Ghatnekar, Vaishnavi Andhale are good too. But who brings smile on your face is Vikram Gokhale.
Phulrani is a decent film and could be watched in theatres.
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