Vidya Balan looks elegant as Geeta Bali in Bhagwan biopic

Curiosity about Marathi cinema has been piqued by the success of Natsamrat (2015) and Sairat (2016). Marathi cinema fans had more reason to celebrate when Vidya Balan agreed to play Geeta Bali in Ekk Albela, a biopic on India's first dancing star Master Bhagwan aka Bhagwan Dada.

ManglMurti Films, the makers, launched the official trailer of the film online. The film has Marathi actor Mangesh Desai playing Bhagwan while Vidya plays a pivotal role as Bali.

Ekk Albela is the untold story of Bhagwan and his journey to fulfil his dreams. The biopic, which explores the era between 1930 and 1951 has several dialogues in Hindi and also has two Hindi songs from the original film – ‘Shola Jo Bhadke’ and ‘Bholi Surat’.

For decades, fans identified Bhagwan purely with the 'Bholi Surat' song from Albela (1952). However, the struggle behind making the film remained largely unknown. Ekk Albela promises to unveil the many facets of the life of the enigmatic actor.

Gauging from the trailer, Mangesh Desai looks the part. Fans often saw the funny and humble side of Bhagwan but Desai will present the aggressive side as well.

Meanwhile, Vidya seems to have watched a whole lot of Geeta Bali videos. The Dirty Picture (2011) actress looks elegant as Bali, but, more importantly, she appears to have turned the clock back to the 1950s. Her presence will go a long way in boosting the film's prospects at the box office.

Directed by Shekhar Sartandel, Ekk Albela is scheduled to release across Maharashtra and other parts of the country on 24 June.