Veteran Marathi Journalist Isaq Mujawar is no more
On the eve of Jagatik Marathi Din reached a sad news of demise of veteran film critic Isaq Mujawar. A reputed and highly respected film critic, columnist and writer, he was active with his writings even at an advanced age of 80+. Considered to be an encyclopaedia of marathi and hindi film industry, he had more than fifty books to his credit, Eka Songadyachi Batavani, Teen Pidhyancha Aawaj – Lata, Mukhavata, Chitramauli are to name a few. ‘Marathi Cinemancha 100 Varshancha Aadhava’ was his latest contribution.
After starting his career at an early age in 1955, he held various posts in print media publications. His writing on films and film people commanded respect. His passion for ‘film’ writing brought many stalwarts like V Shantaram, Bhalji Pendharkar and Sachin Pilgaonkar, Ashok Saraf, Laxmikant Berde closer to him, in personal life. He was felicitated with Kalamaharshi Baburao Painter Lifetime Achievement Award a couple of years ago and last year he was awarded Chitrabhushan award by Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal.
Marathi Movie World joins his family in the time of grief. Rest in peace Isaq Mujawar.
‘Natasamrat’ muhurat in a big way at Nashik
27th February 2015 is the 103rd birth anniversary of well known Marathi writer Vi.Wa. Shirwadkar, who was popularly known as Kusumagraj. On this day, Marathi film industry paying tribute to the great poet & playwright by launching a film ‘Natasamrat‘ based on his hit play with the same name. The event taken place at 12 noon on 27th February 2015 at Kusumagraj Bhavan, Nashik. Incidentally, Mr. shiwadkar spent most of his life in Nashik.
Now, prominent Marathi actors like Nana Patekar, Vikram Gokhale & Reema Lagoo will be part of this cinematic version, which will be directed by Mahesh Waman Manjrekar. The tragic tale of a well known stage actor Ganpatrao Belwalkar was written by Shirwadkar on the same day 53 years ago. Since then, many well known actors have been part of this play including Dr. Shreeram Lagoo.
The film is being produced jointly by Fin Craft Entertainment, Gajanan Chitra and Great Maratha Entertainment. Vishwas Vinayak Joshi & Nana Gajanan Patekar are the producers of this film. Since both Nana Patekar and Vikram Gokhale are part of this film, It is interesting to know, who is playing which character in this film? But, Reema Lagoo will surely play Kaveri Belwalkar. The characters of Raja-the Bootpolish boy and Vithoba the actor and well wisher of Ganpatrao are also equally important roles in the story, as all other characters are negative characters, excluding the little innocent grand daughter of Ganpatrao. So, let us wait for more details.
Shooting for ‘Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai’ sequel to begin
‘Mumbai Pune Mumbai’ was a runaway hit a few years ago. It helped Swwapnil Joshi to find his base in Marathi films, after working in hindi television shows. Through this film, Mukta Barve once again proved her mettle as a splendid performer. Though Mukta is not visible on screen these days, Swwapnil has become a sought after star, of Marathi films.
Satish Rajwade, who directed ‘Mumbai Pune Mumbai’, wanted to make sequel of the same, for quite some time now. Almost five years have passed after the release of ‘Mumbai Pune Mumbai’, but, it was getting delayed due to various reasons. Now, it seems he is all ready to roll the sequel and will start the shooting soon. He wants the complete team of the original film on board this time too, like Mirah Entertainment, Director of photography Suhas Gujrati, Music duo Avinash-Vishwajit, Editor Rajesh Rao, co-writer Parag Kulkarni, all technicians, and even the spot boys.
The sequel will be called ‘Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai-2′ with a tagline … ‘Lagnala Yayachach’. The makers are targeting for a Diwali release. One thing for sure, superstition does prevail in entertainment world!
‘Image of Woman in Marathi TV Serial’ discussed
‘Image of Woman in Marathi TV Serial’ was the subject of discussion at Asiatic Society, Mumbai as a part of ‘Jagatik Marathi Din’ which is to be celebrated on 27th February. The panel of discussion consisted of Marathi film producer-director Viraaj Raje, Writer Ambarish Mishra, Aruna Joglekar, Marathi Film Critic Soumitra Pote and actress Rohini Hattangadi. After a brief introduction, Ambarish Mishra ,channelled the discussion by stating that TV serials do decide the cultural standards of the society.
Aruna Joglekar, who is a dialogue writer of many popular Marathi serials, stressed that the daily soap scenario is not dominated by creative people, but people with money bags. She stated, “An Advertisement company approaches a channel to make a serial, with a particular region in mind, because their surveys show that there’s huge untapped market available there. The interference is so much that I had to dilute my dialogues in ‘Zoka’ due to pressure from marketing team.”
Rohini Hattangadi was honest in admitting that image of woman in serials, is totally controlled by non-creative people. “The channels should at least make one thought-provoking serial, even if the TRPs are low, after making 3-4 successful serials,” she suggested. Soumitra Pote was of the opinion that in today’s daily soaps, woman characters are utterly unrealistic and there’s no value addition for young audience. Viraaj Raje stated “I have given up being creative head of TV serials, due to unnecessary, unwanted & unwarranted interference of marketing teams. “TRPs are supreme, but strangely and surprisingly the sample strength to measure TRPs is only 60 to 70 thousand,” he stated factually.
Ambarish Mishra concluded the discussion, hoping that the channels would project the women on TV, more realistically and the audience should exercise their right to switch off the TV for the programmes they don’t like, so that the channels are forced to cater to their demands.
‘Katti Batti’ – a battle between Ketan & Kangana
‘Shala’ and ‘Popat’ fame actor Ketan Pawar is in news these days. We are all aware of his next film’s release on 6th March 2015. But, recently, when the first look of Kangana Ranawat’s film with the same name was released, it has created a buzz everywhere.
But, besides title, is there any similarity between these two films? And, the film lovers would like to know more . It is understood that Marathi ‘Katti Batti’ directed by Rajendra Pawar revolves around adolescent children with a bold theme. And Nikhil Advani through his film has dealt with the storm in the lives of a couple living together in ‘live in relationship’. This is also a bold subject. Now, it remains to be seen, which film will pull the crowds ? Though Marathi ‘Katti Batti’ is releasing next month, Hindi ‘Katti Batti’ will release in September 2015.
‘Tujhyamule’ music album unveiled by Priyanka Yadav
‘Tujhyamule’ a melody filled Marathi Music Video album was unveiled recently by actress Priyanka Yadav, in presence of chief guest of the function, Mr. Vijay Patkar, president of All India Marathi Chitrapat Mahamandal. Priyanka appreciated the efforts of Ayush production House, for presenting this musical album. This music album is directed by Praveen Raja Karle on the music of Chandrashekhar Janavade. The melodious songs in the album have been rendered by singers Mangesh Borgaonkar, Rohit Raut & Kirti Killedar.
The musical song video has been picturised on artistes Prashant Vanshiv, Kamakshi Kulkarni & Suchitra Goswami. The video has been shot on the picturesque locations in Nagar district. Camera by Santosh Khadapure and choreography by Sangram Bhalekar and Aishwarya Kale are the other credits. The programme was anchored by Ashwini Kulkarni.
‘Ticha Umbaratha’ making rounds at Film Festivals
Many Marathi films are receiving good response at film festivals. In fact, it has become a trend to first do the rounds of numerous National and International film festivals, get recognition and then release the film commercially. While doing so, these film makers use the laurels and awards received, during the promotions of their film.
While still unreleased ‘Court‘ is busy with film festivals, one more Marathi film ‘Ticha Umbaratha’ is also doing the rounds, at film festivals. This film has been produced under the banner RDX Cinema by bollywood action director Ravi Dewan and directed by Pradeep Ghonsikar. It was honoured with Best Cinema Today award at PIFF (Pune International Film Festival) and has also won couple of awards, including the best actress award (Tejaswini Pandit) at Sangli International Film Festival. It has also bagged five nominations at one of the TV channels’ awards.
‘Ticha Umbaratha’ is about trials and tribulations of an urban middle class house-wife, who is forced to cross her limits at one point of time in life; and how she fights it without compromising on her values. The story is by Jayant Pawar and bollywood’s renowned cinematographer Yogesh Jani is behind the camera. The cast includes Chinmay Mandlekar, Tejaswini Pandit, Jyoti Chandekar, Suyash Tilak among others. As this film is busy with film festivals, the release date has still not been finalised.
Will the drama theatres screen Marathi films?
In spite of successful commercial hits Marathi cinema is still facing problems. The reality is that a majority of the Marathi films are facing the issue of availability of screens, and not getting proper time slot for screening. Though the multiplexes, under the guidelines from authorities, allow Marathi films to be screened, steep ticket prices and odd show timings deter Marathi viewers to watch films there. Efforts are being made by many well wishers of Marathi cinema to sort out the problems faced by an average Marathi film producer.
Now, One of the leading actors of Marathi film industry, Makarand Anaspure has come up with an idea to benefit the parties concerned. He has reportedly, approached the State Government and the Municipal Corporation with a proposal, to utilise the free time-slots of drama theatres for marathi film screenings. This way, both, the drama theatre owners and film producers, will be benefitted financially, which in turn can cut down the ticket price drastically, as not every marathi cine-goer can afford the multiplex ticket prices.
The positive response from the authorities, will certainly benefit Marathi film industry.
‘Bugadi Mazi Sandali Ga’ Release Postponed
Miss India 2013 Manasi Moghe will have to wait for some more time to watch herself on a big screen in theatres. Her debut film ‘Bugadi Mazi Sandali Ga’ is not releasing on 20th Feb. ’15 as announced earlier. The film was ready for release, with promotional activities in full swing, but it is learnt that the makers are rescheduling the release date of BMSG.
The makers did have an advantage, as they have Miss India Manasi Moghe in their project. She too was putting in real hard work, in the form of live performances of laavni and getting appreciation from all quarters. It is given to understand that the real reason for the sudden postponement of release date is that, BMSG has received invitation to participate in a few film festivals.
The makers will announce the fresh release date for BMSG very soon . This seems a good decision, considering invites from film festival for a maiden venture and of course, the schools and colleges are gearing up for the ensuing exam fever, this time around.
Rahul Roy unveils the music of ‘Just Gammat’
Today, Modern day life has become a lot more stressful .It requires a stress-buster to cool the nerves. This is where, Humour in our films, play a pivotal role, to cure stress. One such stress-buster Marathi movie coming our way, is ‘Just Gammat’, presented by Sharadkumar Shrivastava and produced under the banner Silver Screen Entertainment by Seema Shrivastava. The music of the film was released recently, at Mumbai.
RJ Mayuresh Shirke, who anchored the event with ease, welcomed the guests and introduced director, Milind Arun Kavade and the musical team. Nitin Kumar Gupta, who is debuting as a music composer with this Marathi movie. Deepak Angevar, who has written the title song, appears twice in the movie ; has been rendered by Avadhoot Gupte , in two different styles. Mandar Cholkar has penned an item song using all liquor names. Heena Panchal, who has done an item number on ‘Bewda’ song was also called on stage. N K Gupta showcased the ‘virtual 3D girl’ (an animated version of an item girl, done @Russia) which they plan to upload sometime next month, just before the release .
Original ‘Aashiqui’ guy, Rahul Roy was the chief guest and unveiled the music of a ‘Just Gammat’. “I stay at Shivaji Park and am in touch with lots of Marathi film makers. In fact we want to rope in these talented people to Bollywood, but the trend seems to be the opposite. Lots of non-Marathi film-makers are getting attracted to Marathi films.” he said and continued “I was in the process of making a Marathi film, but unfortunately my director (Rajiv Patil) died untimely “.
The lead actor Sanjay Narvekar arrived late due to a stage play in distant suburbs of Mumbai. He narrated, how in an intoxicated state, two friends plan to kill each other each other’s wives and after getting sober the next morning; what ‘Gammat’ happens, is the one-line of the film story and he expressed the film to be a commercial success.
Arun Kadam, Vijay Patkar, Jaywant Wadkar and Smita Gondkar, who was looking stunning in a black mini, represented the cast. Apart from these actors, Aditi Sarangdhar, Jitendra Joshi, Atul Todankar, Sanjay Kulkarni, Aarti Solanki, Deepak Shirke are also part of the film.