Valu (The Wild Bull) is a delightful Marathi film. Presented by debutant director Umesh Kulkarni, it shows the simple yet entertaining events in a small village in Maharashtra. It is interesting to watch how the wild bull’s behaviour and the arrival of the forest officer has an impact on the ordinary villagers. The film was successful and has achieved cult status over the years.

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The Plot

Valu’s story is set in a village called Kusavde. Swanand Gaddamwar (Atul Kulkarni), a Government forest officer is suddenly requested by his boss to visit Kusavde village to deal with Valu or the wild bull that is causing trouble in the village. Swanand has other pressing matters to attend to (he has a hearing in an important case the next day), and the wild bull doesn’t come under the wild animals category that is his remit. He tries to argue but to no effect. He needs to attend to Valu himself. His staff member Jagnade (Ashok Kulkarni) will accompany him.

That night, he has an argument with his wife (Poornima Ganu) on this matter. He is a forest officer who captures leopards and bisons, and is absolutely not pleased. His younger brother Sameer (Vrushasen Dabholkar) offers to come with him. He wants to shoot a documentary of some thrilling experience. Swanand retorts that all he will be doing is hitting the dart on the wild bull, capture him and return. What’s thrilling in that? But he agrees. So Swanand, Sameer and Jagnade head for Kusavde.

The first person they meet on the way is Jeevan Chowdhury (Girish Kulkarni, sent to receive them by the village chief (sarpanch). On arriving in Kusavde, Swanand is heartily welcomed by the sarpanch Anna (Dr. Mohan Agashe). His wife is Bharati Achrekar. The villagers have gathered in Anna’s house. Anna begins to tell about the village’s colourful history etc but his wife gestures to Jeevan, who skillfully diverts the subject. Swanand asks about Valu. It has been 6 months since the problem started. Initially, the villagers tried to control the animal but were not successful. Swanand asks him not to worry. He will soon capture the “on the run” animal and relieve them of the problem.

Jeevan takes the trio to their accommodation and ensures they are well settled. Sameer tells him that he will need to interview as many villagers as he can for his documentary. Jeevan ensures the news of the documentary shoot is spread all over the village. All villagers are instructed to gather at the village temple. But hardly anyone knows the meaning of “documentary”. For them it’s an opportunity to be part of a film shooting.

Swanand and Sameer soon find that filming the villagers is a daunting task. They are more interested to talk about the village’s problems rather than talk about Valu (they refer to Valu as “Durkya”). Swanand is frustrated as he needs to intervene multiple times to get them on track and talk only about the animal. And it needs a lot of sifting through the details to get a picture of Valu.

Swanand comes to know that Valu / Durkya is considered a holy animal. He would roam freely in the village. Children would play around him, the women would feed him. Overall, he was part of the family for the village. He was welcome everywhere. But one day things changed. He was no longer the gentle giant. He started causing trouble into the lives of the villagers. Valu would eat crops, damage the fields and other property. He injured a few people. One day, someone tries to poison Valu but the food is inadvertently eaten by another bull who dies. Apparently, Valu is also the cause of death of an old and revered man Aaja (Chandrakant Gokhale).

Swanand tries to sketch a daily schedule of Valu. What are his favorite spots, when does he eat, graze and so on. During the course of the filming, not only Valu’s character but the nature and motives of the villagers are also revealed.

Not to forget the egos of the so called prominent people of the village. The sarpanch Anna refuses to come for the shooting. It is a matter of his standing and prestige of his position. The documentary should come to him rather than the other way round. And Jeevan is ever ready to massage his inflated ego! On the opposite side is Aaba (Nandu Madhav), who is Anna’s challenger with his set of sidekicks. He wants to be successful in politics and move ahead. This becomes a game of one-upmanship at every opportunity. Like Anna, Aaba also refuses to attend the documentary shoot. He sends his wife (Renuka Daftardar) and son instead. He knows that Anna had sent for the forest officer. He has plans to catch the Valu single-handedly in an effort to downplay Anna and his efforts.

There is a romantic couple Sangi (Amruta Subhash) and Shiva (Mangesh Satpute). Their fathers are against the match but they do not care and are ready to elope and get married.

Jeevan’s mother is Sakhubai (Jyoti Subhash) who cares for Valu. She feeds him everyday and hopes he will be left to enjoy his freedom. She appears to be a practical woman who has her eyes and ears open and doesn’t shy away from voicing her opinions.

And then we have the village priest (Dilip Prabhavalkar) and his wife (Nirmiti Swant), with their own motives. They would like to maintain equal relations with Anna and Aaba, so that their position is not impacted.

So, this is the overall set up. After gaining all the information, it is for Swanand to get into action and achieve his mission. Will he be successful, will Valu oblige?

The Music

There are no songs but the music by Mangesh Dhakde suits the mood of the proceedings.

My Thoughts

Valu is not the regular movie with a hero, heroine and villain. It is also not a typical comedy film with laugh out loud dialogues. But it is still impactful as a satire on the day to day happenings in the life of the villagers. It also questions whether Valu the animal is to be blamed for all the wrongdoings or the attitude of the humans also needs to be investigated?

The interaction between the villagers is natural and has touches of light comedy in the dialogues. Each person has his own motive and the arrival of a Government employee causes a bit of disruption. They look at it as an opportunity to share their daily concerns with the Government, hoping for a resolution.

Umesh Kulkarni ( as the co-producer and writer with Girish Kulkarni) is successful in delivering a cohesive plot in spite of the multiple characters. An FTII alumnus, this was his first feature film as a director. The talented cast contributes adequately. From the veteran actors to the younger cast, they bring out the colour of their respective characters to full effect. Some of them were not so famous names back then, but the spark is visible. The Valu played by Raja is memorable in the few scenes that he appears in. Hope he was cooperative during the shoot!

Sometimes, an unconventional film manages to catch attention and Valu is one of such efforts.