मथुरेच्या बाजारी

Finished watching नटरंग, again. Such an underrated song this is! Guna (Atul Kulkarni) and his तमाशा group perform this song at their first gig, in their own village. It's a story about Krishna and his antics with the Gopikas in Gokul. It starts with the lady singing, but then Guna sings these lines in the antara -

नकोस फोडू कान्हा माझी घागर आज रिकामी हसेल सारी गोकुळ नागरी, होईल रे बदनामी। आज दिली बघ नंद किशोरा हाथी लाज तुझ्या रे रितीच घागर नशिबी माझ्या, शरण तुला मी आले।

Which roughly translates to - Do not break my empty pot (pride) today, Oh Kanha (art) The city of Gokul (society) will laugh at me, I'll be humiliated. I've placed my honour in your hands now, Oh Nanda Kishora (art) An empty pot is now my fate, I've surrendered myself to You (art).

For Guna, his art is his कान्हा (God). He's given up his masculinity (pride) for the sake of his art. Guna, a pehelwan is reduced to a feminine nachya as nobody else is ready to take on the responsibility. He's disowned by his family. Even raped later in the movie.

You can see it in his eyes when he sings those verses, he pleads not to God but to the art itself - " I've given up everything for You. There's nothing more to give. The society will laugh at me for what I've done, but I did it for You. I hope someday people will try and understand You as I do. "

Great performance by Atul Kulkarni and rest of the cast. Watch the movie if you haven't yet!