Madhyamvarg’ music released with First look
Music of new Marathi film ‘Madhyamvarg’ (The Middle Class), was launched in Mumbai recently, in presence of lead pair of the film – Siddharth Jadhav & Sujata Joshi. After all the artistes and crew members were welcomed by the anchor, senior actor Anant Jog, who is also part of this film, thanked the producers Lakshmi Babaji Anjarlekar , Sanjay Gopal Chhabriya and director Harry Fernandes.
In this film Siddharth Jadhav plays a Police Inspector for the first time, while Hindi film and TV actor Ravi Kishan is making his debut in Marathi, through this film. All the five songs of this film were shown during the first look, which have been rendered in the voices of popular singers, on the music of Gunwant Sen.
The film’s star cast comprises of Siddharth Jadhav, Sujata Joshi, Anant Jog, Nayana Apte, Kashmira Kulkarni, Hemangi Kaaz, Kishore Nadalskar, Vasant anjarlekar, Anil Gavas, Deepali Sayed, Ramesh Vani, Allan Fernandes,Tanvi Mehta,Raj Khatri and others. Film’s Cinematography is by Shafiq Shaikh and choreography is by Umesh Jadhav. This film will be released on 12th December 2014.
‘Swami Public Limited’ promises entertainment with a timely message
In today’s modern world each and every person, whether rich or poor, is oppressed by the circumstances and gets into depressed mode, at some point of time in life. Then, he starts finding solace in something or somebody. Many a times that ‘somebody’ happens to be a saint or a philosopher or a spiritual person. But frankly, mental peace can not be bought or bartered. This state of mind is cashed upon, literally, by some fake gurus or as locally called ‘Swami’s who roll into wealth offered by devotees. How these fake ‘Swami’s mastermind and take advantage of people following them blindly, and how ‘Swamigiri’ is packaged and marketed as a brand is the central theme of a new Marathi movie ‘Swami Public Limited‘.
Producer of this film Poonam Shende, had organised a press conference recently, when she said, that she had come across this concept, suggested by Vijay Munde. She, then went around meeting different directors, in all 25, but could not get the idea rolling. When she met Gajendra Ahire, he liked the concept and presented a storyline within 25 minutes. “In fact during the shooting we happened to meet Narendra Dabholkar, anti superstition crusader, who has suggested the climax of this film.” she added. Director Gajendra Ahire was very forthright and candid and said “I have made this film for entertainment. It’s a fiction and the researched inputs are by associate producer Vijay Wagh. About social message or moral, each viewer can derive that individually.”
“This film is not about ‘swami’s but how ‘swami’ is being sold as a brand with proper marketing” said Vijay Wagh. Demure Sanskruti Kher, who is debuting with this film, who happens to be a grand daughter of a very famous yesteryear actress Usha Kiran, opined that she detests the commercialisation of gods and temples. Chinmay Mandlekar was also present said , “Gajendra is the only director, that I know of, who has done 40 films and each one different from another, never repeating ideas. We always wanted to work together and doing this film is full of good memories. As a preparation for a role I stated watching ‘Aastha’ channel but alas I could not find anything interesting or worth grasping.”
However, other leading actors, Subodh Bhave, was absent due to his night shoot.
Swami Public Limited is being produced under the banner ‘Saarrthi Entertainment and music is composed by ‘Dil To Pagal Hai’ fame music director Uttam Singh. Cast comprises of Subodh Bhave, Chinmay Mandlekar, Vikram Gokhale, Nina Kulkarni, late Vinay Apte, Sanskruti Kher among others and is set to release on 28th November 2014.
Candle March’ promises justice to rape victims
International media was aghast with the news of infamous Rape incident ‘Nirbhaya’. People in India in all walks of life were raged and vented their anger on social networking websites. There were spontaneous protests from common people, one of them being the ‘Candle March’. A new Marathi movie, Candle March, is based on such real life incidents of Rape, sexual abuse & sexual exploitation.
The first look of the film was released along with a promotional song, recently. At the press conference, almost entire cast and crew was present to express their solidarity to the subject raised by the film. Writer Sachin Darekar said, “I felt for the victims and started writing this story without anybody, actor or maker, in mind. And it was difficult to find a producer for this subject. When I narrated rough draft to director, Sachin Deo , he instantly liked it and luckily his family friends, now producers, Anjali and Nilesh Gawde, agreed to produce it. They were on the look out for a subject like this, for their debut production.” Director of Candle March opined, “We have avoided unnecessary dramatisation of the subject. A lot of unusual locations have been explored for shooting and we even shot at public toilet. There are four separate stories of rape or sexual abuse, which get intermingled in the latter half.”
Smita Tambe interacted, saying that she was overwhelmed, when she heard the story. She said, “I understood the gravity of the situation as a woman from a very close quarter and have tried to the best of my ability to express the psyche of the character, while portraying. Actually, I reinvented myself.” Tejaswini Pandit said, “The mentality of everybody in general should undergo a radical change. It’s laudable that all these innocuous makers, all males, are raising female issue like Rape. Really commendable. Physical assault by merciless men should be fought with much profound mental strength of women.” Manava Naik addressed, “Each of the four victims in the film express about the change expected from the society around. This optimistic movie not only poses inordinate questions, but also provides or suggests solutions.” The producer, Anjali Gawde, said that they were reluctant to do a ‘typical’ film and were on the lookout for a thought provoking subject for their debut production. “We are going to approach the government and request them to change the law about Rape, so that the accused do not go scot free” she concluded.
‘Candle March’ is produced by ‘Chanakya Creations’ and ‘K 4 Enterprises’ and is releasing on 5th December 2014 across the Maharashtra.
P. L. Deshpande Yuva Mahotsav to begin with overnight shows
This year’s Pu.La. Yuva Mahotsav 2014 will have a different look. Unlike the festival held every year, this year’s event will not have one act play competition. Instead, the organizers have decided to host the inaugural show of ‘Wada Chirebandi‘ on the first day, i.e.at 8 pm on Saturday, 8th November 2015. After the end of this play, selected one act plays which have won awards at different competitions will be staged whole night, till 6 am following day, i.e. Sunday.
The names of these one act plays to be staged overnight, are ‘Black out‘, ‘Laka Kana ka’,’ Jigri’, ‘Punarjanma‘, ‘Flower Pot’ & ‘Sangeet Sharda’. On Sunday evening at 4 pm a group of children from Kolhapur will stage their popular play ‘Mission Mummy Daddy‘. This will be followed by a play by a group from Nagpur ‘ Manasaparis Mendhre Bari‘. On Tuesday 11th November at 6 pm, the hearing impaired children will present their play ‘Bharari’. The festival will conclude on Wednesday 12th November at 8 pm, with staging of P.Deshpande’s famous play ‘Varyavarchi Varaat’, which will be directed by veteran Marathi actor-director Shrikant Moghe.
Well known Marathi artistes will be performing in this play. They are Anand Ingale, Atisha naik, Pradeep Patvardhan, Nayana Apte, Amol Bavdekar, Supriya Pathare, Sameer Chougule, Aparna Aprajeet, Vighnesh Joshi, Shraddha Ketkar, Ramesh Vani, Suhas Chitale, Amit Jambhekar, Pranav Raorane & Shrikant Moghe. Mr. Ashutosh Ghorpade, the director of P.L.Deshpande Kala Academy has appealed to all the youth to make this year’s festival a grand success. Complimentary Passes for this event can be collected at the venue.
It’s Comedy v/s a love story, this friday
This Friday, two Marathi films have released together. Though ‘Bol Baby Bol’ set on the backdrop of a comedy, has some big names like Aruna Irani, Aniket Vishwasrao, Makarand Anaspure Neha Pendse & Siyaa Patil; ‘Goshta Tichya Premachi’ which is a different kind of love story, has Bhooshan Pradhan and newcomer Vaishali Chandorkar in the lead, with Priya Berde, Vijay Patkar, Prema Kiran, Upendra Date,Aniket Kelkar and others.
Arun Irani, who is making her comeback into films, through ‘Bol Baby Bol’, feels that Marathi films have found new viewers, who enjoy films, offering good subject. Writer-Producer-director Narendra Aatmaram Thakur, who has presented ‘Tichya Premachi Goshta’ believes in passing a message to the society, to accept marriage of young widows. In short, both the films claim to invite the attention of the Marathi film lovers. Let us wait for the results, this weekend.
Sad demise of Veteran actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar
Well known Bollywood and Marathi film actor Sadashiv Amrapurkar passed away early morning today, due to heart failure. He was 64 . Mr. Amrapurkar was being treated at Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani hospital at Andheri, for lung ailment for the past several days. Few days ago. There were rumors flowing on social net working sites; but his family sources confirmed that his condition was stable but not out of danger.
Having performed in about 200+ Hindi and Marathi films since 80s till last year, Mr. Amrapurkar was basically a stage actor. Mr. Govind Nihlani, gave him his first major break, as Rama Shetty a villain; through his film ‘Ardha Satya’. He was highly impressed by the actor’s performance in a Marathi play. Mr. Amrapurkar bagged the Filmfare award for negative role portrayed by him in this film. He also went on to bag another filmfare award for his performance in Mahesh Bhatt’s film ‘Sadak’.
Mr. Amrapurkar was last seen in Marathi film, ‘Hou De Jarasa Ushir’, which also sent its entry privately for Oscars. In this film, he had played an important role of a central character.
Ajay Devgn presents ‘Viti Dandu’ in style
Husband of an extremely talented Bollywood actress Kajol, whose mother tongue is Marathi, as she is a daughter of a very famous yesteryear’s actress Tanuja; who, in turn is the daughter of vintage actress Shobhana Samarth, ( that’s more than enough marathi connection) for popular and successful Bollywood actor, Ajay Devgn. Now, he is furthering his Marathi connection by presenting a new Marathi movie, ‘Vitti Dandu’, which is being produced by Leena Deore.
“I have worked with Vikas Kadam and know him for years. When he narrated this story to me, I just loved it and immediately decided to be part of this film. We could easily have played safe by producing a rom-com, action or a comedy film. But, I genuinely wanted to be part of this content driven film.” reiterated Ajay Devgn, while talking to media at a press conference of Viti Dandu.
Vikas Kadam, who has written the story as well as screenplay of the film said “More than two years have been invested by all of us, as the time span of this film is pre to post independence. Also this being a period film, location hunting, casting, pre and post production, shooting etc. was an intricate process.” When asked about too many children’s films hitting theatres around this time, the director of the movie, Ganesh Kadam opined, “Though one of the major characters is a small child, all other artists have an equal footage in the film.” Producer Leena Deore said that it’s her first production and that her banner Rajradha movies is extremely elated to be associated with Ajay Devgn Films. The makers thanked media for the suggestion, to be part of Goa film festival as they did not give a thought to this aspect earlier.
Vitti Dandu is co-produced by Praveen Patil. Dialogues are by Abhiram Bhadkamkar, and lyrics are written by Shrirang Godbole, Manvel Gaikwad, Aashay Parab, Hrishikesh Paranjape. Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Meghna Mishra, Udesh Umap, Pandharinath (Paddy) Kamble etc have lent their voices to the music of Santosh Mulekar. Cast includes Dilip Prabhavalkar, Yatin Karyekar, Ashok Samarth, Ravindra Mankani, Nishant Bhavsar, Vikas Kadam, Shubhankar Atre, Radhika Deore, Mrunal Thakur, Uday Deshmukh, Gauhar Khan.
The film is set to release on 21st November’14 all over Maharashtra.
‘Classmates’ delay their reunion
Director Aditya Ajay Sarpotdar is already in news for making a remake of the hit 2006 Malyalam film with the same name. He has eight youngsters comprising of already popular Marathi stars and two newcomers. Recently Aditya and producers of this film Mr. Suresh Pai and Nanubhai of Video Palace had organised their reunion, after completing the film; only to present them before the media. But, at least four of them kept the media persons and guests waiting, as they arrived two hours behind scheduled time, for this reunion. The last to arrive was Sai Tamhankar; and it was only after her arrival, the function began. Isn’t that something strange! What happened thereafter, was noise, music and masti!
Anyway, the film’s release has been postponed to 16th January 2015. So, now the producers have ample time to promote their film, in a phased manner. In this function, they released only one song, a foot tapping number; and the rest of the songs will be released one by one. Perhaps, a new way of promotion. But, they should look for better venues, next time.
The movie presents all talented actors like Ankush Choudhary Sai Tamhankar, Sonalee Kulkarni, Sushant Shelar, Sachit Patil, Siddharth Chandekar, Suyash Tilak, Pallavi Patil along with versatile artistes Sanjay Mone, Kishori Shahane and Ramesh Deo, who are also playing key roles in this film.
The movie completely revolves around college, friendship, love, promises and more. There will certainly be several surprise elements hidden, which will be slowly unconfined, towards the movie release on January 16, 2015. The film is directed by Aditya Ajay Sarpotdar, produced by Suresh Pai, screenplay by Kshitij Patwardhan and Sameer Vidwans, dialogues by Kshitij Patwardhan while director of photography by K.K.Manoj, edited by Imran-Faisal, music is manned by Amitraj, Avinash-Vishwajeet, Troy-Arif and Pankaj Padghan on the beautiful lyrics of Kshitij Patwardhan, Guru Thaakur, Manndar Cholkar and Vishwajeet Joshi, art director Manohar Jadhav, costume designer Manali Jagtap and action director Manohar Verma.
It’s ‘Chintamani’ v/s ‘Aashiyana’ on this Friday
Two Marathi films are releasing this Friday. They are Bharat Jadhav – Amruta Subhash starrer ‘Chintamani’ and ‘Aashiyana’ with three new Marathi actresses making their debut. ‘Chintamani’ is all about common man, who is married but cannot fulfil the needs of his family. The film is directed by debutant film director Sangeeta Balachandran. The film has tried to show, how an advertisement, changes the life of this common man, but also invites problems.
While, Director Ajit Devle’s film ‘Aashiyana’ talks about the life of three young girls from different sections of the society and their journey, which lands them into the same profession. The three new girls performing in this film are Nehaa Patil, Sai Kalyankar & Krutika Gaikwad; while those in the supporting cast are Yatin karyekar, Sanjivani Jadhav, Anil Gavas & Prafulla Samant. Director Ajit Devle has also written the story, screenplay dialogues with Sagar Wankhede, while Music is by Prabhakar Naravade.
These two films have different subjects. So, it remains to be seen, which film invites more attention, this Friday.
‘Elizabeth Ekadashi’ – Children’s film for all age groups
An uncommon and unusual name certainly raises curiosity about the film. Essel Vision Productions Ltd and Mayasabha are presenting a new movie, supposed to be a children’s film for all age group, ‘Elizabeth Ekadashi’. This film is directed by‘Harishchancrachi Factory’ fame director, Paresh Mokashi, who is returning back after five years.
While talking to the media he stressed that this movie is entirely different from his previous film. Though there is going to be comparison, but this new movie’s story happens in Pandharpur and is about people of Pandharpur. Three main characters are children , who were picked in Pandharpur itself. Entire film is shot at Pandharpur and some portions are shot actually at Pandharpur Vaari.
All of them, Dnyanesh, Mukta, Ganya, are mischievous and Dyanesh is extra fond of Elizabeth, an unusual bicycle, creation of his father. Shrirang Mahajan, Saili Bhandarkavthekar, and Pushkar Lonarkar, child artists of this film, were present on the occasion and small town innocence was dripping from them.
Madhugandha Kulkarni, better half of director Paresh Mokashi, has written the story. She hails from Pandharpur and once when she was reciting couple of incidents of her childhood in Pandharpur to Paresh, he liked them and said that this can be a film subject and the story was born. Producer Nittin Keni opined that the secret to release strategy is an integration of promotion, strategy and content. He further added that they saw creative as well as commercial merit in this film. Film’s music is by late Shri Anand Modak. The event was compared in style by Spruha Joshi who kept the atmosphere lively.