User:Patilvikram/sandbox

This is the story of a doctor, who is young and intelligent, ready to take in her life with full enthusiasm. But for Neeraja, the protagonist, the things are not as smooth as for others. She has vitiligo, white patches in her skin, on her face especially.

Though vitiligo is just the lack of a skin pigment, it affects the entire identity of a person. It is definitely not contagious and has not been proved medically as a hereditary disorder.

After passing through the internal turmoil since her childhood, Neeraja has overcome her inferiority complexes. But the outside world is not as ‘human’ as it should be.

Neeraja enters her friend Ananya’s elite and high society family as a doctor and every person in this well educated family is taken aback even with just the possibility of Neeraja becoming their family member.

The story unwinds itself, portraying societal insensitivity and cowardice. On the other hand, it illustrates rationality emerging in younger generation about vitiligo.

Ananya is in emotional paradox penduling between the stereotypical preferences of the family and his own sensibility. The story ends on a positive note where he undergoes attitudinal change, driven by Neeraja’s confidence about her self image.

Plot
Nital means transparent.....Crystal clear....

Nital, which literally means transparent…one can see the base….so clear. It is a portrait of inner beauty, the inner self, which is hidden beneath the obviously visible outer coat-skin.

It touches the crux of the issue of self image and acceptance, thus the need to redefine our arena of ‘vision’, where different senses of body emboss different perceptions of beauty.

The story reflects undercurrents of contradictions and confusions of so called sophisticated, civilised and elite people, who are directed by social stereotypes, while those who are closer to nature have much more acceptance for people as ‘humans’.

Cast

 * Devika Daftardar as Dr.Neeraja


 * Dr.Shekhar Kulkarni as Dr.Ananya
 * Deepa Shriram as Grandmother (Annanya's father's Aunt)
 * Vijay Tendulkar as Grandfather
 * Uttara Baokar as Malini


 * Vikram Gokhale as Shridhar
 * Jyoti Subhash as Vasudha
 * Reema as Rama
 * Neena Kulkarni as Vishakha
 * Ravindra Mankani as Vishakha's Husband
 * Kishore Kadam as Dr.Gautam
 * Amruta Subhash as Amruta
 * Abha Auti as Abha
 * Sarang Sathye as Parth
 * Sujeet Soman as Aseem

About Producer
A surgeon with her own hospital, Tulpule has founded Shweta Association, a vitiligo support group, to help others with vitiligo to understand the condition and to help to fight the social stigma which is attached to it.

In her professional life when she came across patients who had vitiligo, she would counsel them.vitiligo affects people adversly. They lose their self confidence and they go to great lenghts of treatment which often drives them to quacks. In women, especially, the reaction is often one of desperation because it affects their chances of getting married as well as job prospects.

As a doctor and as one who had vitiligo herself, Dr.Tulpule realised that she was in a unique position to help others like herself. In 2001, Shweta Association was established as a support group.Meetings with doctors, a counselling group,a marriage bureau for vitiligo affected, advice on corrective cosmetic camouflage and an informtion data bank are all part of its activities

Through all these activities Dr.Tulpule has had the unstinted support of her family, her husband Shriram and children Niranjan and Mukta.Knowing how effective a medium films are to spread awareness, the group has produced the Marathi film 'Nital'