Mrinal Kukarni is star of the day
Friday 13th April 2012 is the biggest day in the life of Mrinal Kulkarni. It’s neither her birthday, nor is she getting any award on this day. But, certainly a reward for her association with the Marathi film industry. Mrinal’s three films are releasing on the same day. The first being ‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’, the second being ‘Raja Shivchatrapati’ where she plays an important role of Jijamata . And the third was ‘Aarohi’, which was slated for release; but, perhaps, due to all these simultaneous releases, that film failed to find theatres this week. But, this film has already been acclaimed at many film festivals .
When we spoke to Mrinal, just four days ago, during the music release of Gautam Joglekar’s film ‘Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha’, we reminded her about this happy moment in her life scheduled for 13th April and she gave us another surprise to count the fourth film too. “ You haven’t counted my fourth release on the same day. It is “Chodo Kal Ki Baatein’ the Hindi version of ‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’ which is also being released simultaneously,” she said. When asked about the progress of her own production “ Prem Mhanje Prem Mhanje Prem Asata’ directed by her; she said that she had finished 50% of the shooting and the remaining 50% will be completed by 15th May, in the next schedule.
Marathi Movie world wishes a grand success to this evergreen actress, who is the real star of today.
Raj Thackeray presents First look of ‘Kaksparsh’
You may call it a coincidence, but Monday evening witnessed two rival politicians as chief guests, in two different functions of Marathi film industry held at different places. While at MIG Club, S. S. President Mr. Udddhav Thackeray launched the music of Gautam Joglekar’s forthcoming film ‘Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha’, just beyond the sea link at Blue Sea, Worli, MNS Chief Raj Thackeray presented the first look of The Great Maratha Entertainment’s film ‘Kaksparsh’.
‘Kaksparsha’ has a special significance, as the film is being produced and directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, who has given the best films under his banner. On the occasion of the first look of this film, a Coffee table book , giving detailed information about the making of this film, was also released by Mr. Kiran Shantaram & Rahul Mehta of Parshv Publications. Bollywood actor John Abraham was also present as a special guest.
‘Kaksparsha’ has been shot on the backdrop of the period 1930- 1955 and revolves around the happenings in a Brahmin family. Written by Usha Datar with the screenplay dialogues by Girish Joshi, the film’s music is composed by Rahul Ranade on the lyrics by Kishore Kadam. Art directors Prashant Rane and Abhishek Vijaykar are behind the hard work of erecting the sets of that era little before independence and immediately after independence. The films photography is done by Ajit Reddy and editing by Rahul Bhatankar. There are high expectations from this film, as it is being directed by Mahesh Manjrekar himself.
Music of ‘Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha’ launched on a grand scale
Film maker Gautam Joglekar is back again. After ‘Pak Pak Pakak’, this time he has something big to offer in the form of new Marathi film ‘Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha’, which is scripted and directed by him. On Monday evening, the music of this film was launched on a grand scale at MIG Club, Mumbai in presence of Shiv Sena President Mr. Uddhav Thackeray, his wife Rashmi Thackeray, Ms. Sai Paranjape besides the stars, unit members of the film and many invitees from Marathi entertainment industry.
Jai Jai Maharashtra Majha
After releasing the Music CD of the film Mr. Gautam Joglekar appealed to Mr. Uddhav Thackeray to come for the premiere of the film to be held on the occasion of Maharashtra day and the shrewd politician quickly responded, “If I am invited, I will surely come.” Thankfully, there were no speeches on the occasion and even the bouquet presentations were restricted to the chief guests-Mr. Thackeray and Mr. Aniruddha Deshpande, Managing Director of City Corporation. Mr. Deshpande belongs to Amanora Group, who are the main sponsors of this film, as indicated by Gautam Joglekar. Sanjay Ghodavat Group are presenting this film, which also has many co sponsors.
Before the release of music, the hosts had arranged the first look of the film, when during screening of one song on leading lady Anusha Dandekar, they offered a surprise. To complete the song on the screen, Anusha with few dancers appeared on the stage and performed the dance live, only to receive a laud applause from the invitees. Prior to this show, when Mr. Uddhav Thackeray arrived with his wife and was asked to occupy his seat in the first row, he noticed Ms. Sai Paranjape on the other side. He immediately approached the veteran film maker, to wish her and spent few minutes with her.
‘Jai jai Maharashtra’ is a tale of a young girl Ashwini, who is adopted by an American couple at the age of 4, from an orphanage in Pune. After becoming a Top tennis player in the world, she returns to India only to offer donation to the Orphanage. Her trip is sponsored by Mohite family from Kolhapur and they depute their son Vishal (Hemmant Dhome) to receive her at Mumbai airport. On her journey to Mumbai-Pune-Kolhapur and back on the same track, she comes across many people including a photo-Journalist – Rajat (Siddharth Chandekar), a couple Dilip and Amruta Rege (Mahesh Manjrekar and Mrunal Kulkarni) and many others.
During her stay at these places, Ashwini is highly impressed by the culture and loves all the places she visits. The director has cleverly picturised a song on Pune city to highlight the rich heritage of the historical place. The music for this song has been specially composed by Yashwant Deo. There are total four Music directors for this film including Gautam himself for one song, besides Ajit Parab and K.C. Loy, the official Music director.
Speaking to Marathi Movie world after the function, Gautam said that he would release the film in May after the 2 premiere shows to be held on 30th April and 1st May respectively. About the selection of Anush Deshpande for the lead role, he said that there was no other girl, to meet the requirements of this role. Anush should have been dressed up in tennis kit; but, since she was to perform on the occasion, she was presented in a traditional Nine yard saree with typical Maharashtrian look. Among the other invitees were artistes of the film, Mahesh Manjrekar, Mrunal Kulkarni, Aditi Govatrikar, Yatin Karyekar, Hemant Dhome, Siddharth Chandekar. Also present on the occasion to wish the unit were Aniket Vishwasrao with Pallavi Subhash, Santosh Juvekar, Jitendra Joshi, Adinath Kothare, Atul Sarpotdar, Manva Naik, Kshiti Jog , Music director K.C. Loy and many others.
Five new Marathi films crowd during the week
Who says that marathi films are not competing with Bollywood ? On 13th April 2012, you will witness not just one or two, but five Marathi films not only competing with Bollywood, but amongst themselves. The much awaited award winning film ‘Babu Band Bajaa’ has finally found this day for release, when another talked about film ‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’ also releases on the same day. This day is also found auspicious by Nitin Chandrakant Desai to release his mega film ‘Raja Shivachatrapati’ and at the same time the long awaited ‘Arohi’ which has also been acclaimed at few film festivals, also releases on this day. But, the last one hasn’t been able to find theatres in Mumbai yet.
‘Kashala Udyachi Baat’, which releases with its Hindi version ‘Chodo Kalki Baatein’ shows the journey of an IT professional (Sachin Khedekar) from his workaholic stage, craving for more to a stage where he is satisfied and content. During this journey, he meets an interesting inspirational individual- a charismatic Blind man (Anupam Kher) who makes him understand the importance of living life wholeheartedly. It’s a different film on the subject written and directed by Pramod Joshi. The film is likely to attract audience from all age groups. The film also stars Mrinal Kulkarni & Atul Parchure in important roles.
‘Uchala Re Uchala’ directed by Yashwant Chaughule, Amol Bhave, sounds like a traditional Marathi comedy film with a team of artistes who have entertained the television audience in comedy reality shows. Four of them- Anand Ingale, Vaibhav Mangale, Abhijit Chavan & Sanjay Khapre are already popular TV and stage stars. And, Anand – Vaibhav pair has established themselves as popular anchors during the award functions. Now, it all remains to be seen, how much successful they will be on big screen. Script of this film will play a crucial role to invite the audience to movie halls. This movie is being released on 12th, instead of 13th April.
Nitin Chandrakant Desai, who presented his mega project ‘Raja Shivachatrapati’ on television, is now ready with the feature film with the same title . This film will also be released on 13th April 2012. Certainly, watching the great Maratha warrior on big screen, will also be a big attraction for children during vacation.
High command will focus on the Maharashtra-Karnataka border dispute, and how the play of politics takes precedence over development issues. Directed by Yashwant Bhalkar, High Command features actors Sharad Ponkshe, Sunil Barve, Rahul Solapurkar, Ashwini Ekbote, Priyanka Yadav and Swapnil Rajshekhar. While the story has been written by Manish Ram Kulkarni, the dialogues have been penned by Pradip Patil.
Finally, all eyes on ‘Babu Band Bajaa’ which is tale of a son of a Band artiste. It’s a tug-of-war between fate and hope; which shows the irrepressible surge to soar in life, pitted against the vicious grip of circumstances. The film has already won 33 awards in different categories, including 3 national awards last year. Mitalee Jagtap, who plays the mother of the boy, having won the best actress national award for her performance in this film. ‘Babu Band Bajaa’ is a sensible film from director Rajesh Pinjani and is sure to invite the attention of many people.
Naach Tuzach Lagin Haay’ a psychological subject
Based on the theories of Darwin and Sigmund Freud, new Marathi film ‘Naach Tuzach Lagin Haay’ seems to have been inspired. The entire shooting of this film is over and the film will now be released in May 2012. Produced by Mr. Sanjay Khamkar under his banner Eric Fusions, the film is directed by well known actor Milind Shinde, who has also written the script and songs of this film.
According to Milind Shinde, this subject is new for a Marathi film and it is likely to receive recognition at the national and international level. He has thanked the producer, for showing the courage to produce the film on this subject. The film’s star cast comprise of Milind Shinde, Chaaya Kadam, Dr. Suresh Shinde, Vaishali Salvi, Namrata Aawate, Sourabh Bahadure & Tanvi Fiske. Camera by Pratapan Nayar, Music by Mangesh Dhakade and Sound by Kamod Kharade are the other credits.
Global Marathi TV awards in Dubai
After watching the Marathi film industry spreading its network all over the world, now we find the Marathi television industry also going worldwide with the hosting of the first Marathi Global television awards in Dubai on 16th April 2012. This destination has been selected, taking into account large population of Maharastrians in this country. Mr. Abhijit Patil, managing director of Raja Rani Travels has taken the lead to host this event handing over the responsibility of Art and direction to Mr. Nitin Desai.
The Jury for the event are Sanjev Sabde, Smita Jaykar, Vandana Gupte, Mohan Joshi, Vinay Apte, Ajinkya Deo and Kanchan Adhikari. Ms. Smita Talwalkar is the head of the Advisory committee. On this occasion, artistes and technicians of the small screen will be felicitated.
Mukti’ all set to release on 6th April
Marathi films on Social themes have already invited attention at the national and international level. Films like ‘Deool’, ‘Mee Sindutai Sapkal’, ‘Valu’, ‘Gabhricha Paus’ and ‘Pangira’ have highlighted social issues in rural sector throwing light on exploitation of farmers. Now, the forthcoming Marathi film ‘Mukti’ to be released on 6th April 2012, is a story of a farmer from the draught prone district of Maharashtra..
The film talks about A life, a family, a dream and the aftermaths of a crashed dream. It raises a valid question as to how far can one endure sufferings? The draught prone Maharashtra has seen suicides of thousands of farmers in the recent past. The story of ‘Mukti’ revolves around Bhanudas (Nandu Madhav), a farmer with a dream of owning a well in his farm and flourish his land so that his children lead a happy life. He lives in one such small village called Bagadwadi, in western Maharashtra.
‘Mukti’ produced by Sachin Jankar is written and directed by Machhindra More. The star cast of the film comprises of Nandu Madhav, Tejaswini Pandit, Nagesh Bhosle, Milind Shinde, Satish Sal
‘Uchala Re Uchala’ to release on 13th April
After we witnessed the ‘Masala’ Bus leaving on tour of Maharashtra for promotion of that film; it is now the turn of Producer- director Yashwant Chougule. For his forthcoming film ‘Uchala Re Uchala’ he decorated a brand new Force Tempo Travelers with the posters of his film. This tempo was flagged off near Ravindra Natya Mandir, in the presence of Anand Ingale, Vaibhav Mangale and MNS leader Shirish Parkar. The tempo left for different places in Maharashtra , to promote this film.
‘Uchala Re Uchala’ has a very big team of 28 artistes including Vaibhav Mangale and Anand Ingale. The film directed by Yashwant Chougule and Amol Bhave together on the story of Gajendra Kore, is all set to release all over Maharashtra including Mumbai, on 13th April 2012.
Tukaram’ to reappear on Big Screen
Maharashtra has been blessed by many great saints and one of them was Sant Tukaram. In 1936, well known film maker V. Shantaram in association with Prabhat films made a film on the life of this popular saint and it was well received. The film had also won some awards that time.
Now, Everest Entertainment have produced a new version of ‘Sant Tukaram’ which is directed by Chandrakant Kulkarni. Popular actor Jitendra Joshi plays the title role in this film in the company of other artistes like Radhika Apte, Veena Jamkar, Sharad Ponkshe and Pratiksha Lonkar. Music of this film is provided by Ashok Patki and Avadhoot Gupte together. This period film, is an ambitious project for producer Sanjay Chabria, who has produced some good Marathi films in the past. ‘Tukaram’ is all set to release in May 2012.
Mangesh Desai all set with his Game
Popular Marathi actor Mangesh Desai has entertained the audience till now, playing different characters in TV serials, reality shows, dramas and films. But now, he will be seen in a serious type of role in Mirah entertainment’s new film ‘Khel Mandla’ directed by Viju Mane. Mangesh plays Das-a puppeteer, which is a difficult role, for which he trained himself for two months.
The film has already been applauded by critics during various film festivals, where it was shown, prior to its official release, which takes place on 27th April 2012.