Tributes to Laxmikant Berde
Was Laxmikant Berde a real Vidushak of Marathi film and Theatre ? This question would obviously get 100% response with ‘Yes’, from our readers. Laxmikant served this entertainment world with a simple logic ‘Jeena Yahaan Marna Yahaan, Iske Siva Janaa Kahan’. The enthusiasm with which he performed on stage and in front of the camera clearly indicated that he was sent on this earth with a mission and that was to entertain the audience. And he did his job with perfection and complete devotion.
No one really expected that his term as an actor would come to an end so soon, when he finally said Good bye to all on that fateful day of 16th December 2004. On the coming 16th will be his 5th Death anniversary. MMW pays sincere tributes to Laxmikant Berde by remembering his contributions on this occasion. We invite our readers to pay tributes to this great actor in their own words.
‘Stars of India’ will pay tributes to Laxmikant Berde
A star was born on the earth. It glittered for almost 15 years non stop, entertaining the Marathi and Hindi film industry. It did not fade away, instead it preferred to quit its place from the earth and today it is glittering in the sky. The name of that star is Laxmikant Berde. Today, his wife Priya Berde in the name of ‘Late Laxmikant Berde Foundation’ has been organizing a variety entertainment programme called ‘Stars of India’. So far, they have successfully performed 15 shows.
On the occasion of Laxmikant Berde’s 5th death anniversary, ‘Stars of India’ will be presenting a special programme of singing and dancing performances by new young artistes, who will display their talents on the 16th December 2009, at Balgandharva Rangmandir, Pune . The entire programme will be in Hindi which will include hit melodies from the time of Raj Kapoor to latest offerings from A.R. Rehman. The artsites will particularly perform dances picturised on popular stars of yesteryears like Dilip Kumar, Waheeda Rehman, Vaijayantimala, Shammi kapoor and today’s popular stars like Aishwarya Bachchan.
Maya Jadhav, popular dancer from Marathi films, will handle the choreography of all dances, while Madhav Moghe will be the programme host. Priya Berde herself will be part of the artsites, who will be performing on that day. The duration of this programme will be 2 hours and 45 minutes, offering total entertainment.
Rima Amrapurkar’s ‘Janani’ is best shortfilm
Rima Amrapurkar, who shot into fame as a director with Marathi comedy film ‘Ara Ara Aaba Aata Tari Thamba‘, recently made a sensible short film ‘Janani’. The film was shown at the Goa International film festival and was adjudged as the best short film in the video format category. The film also won honours for the best story (Rima Amrapurkar) , besides Best editing( Sanjay Sankla) and Best actress( Darshana Kharat) . It is a great achievement by this young film maker, who thought of making this short film during the distribution of her debut film, when she witnessed the hardships of rural women.
Rima attributes the success of her film to all the artistes of this film. The film has also entered the competition at the Iran short Film festival.
Sulochana Chavan launches ‘Natarang’ Music
Popular Lavani singer of yesteryear- Sulochana Chavan was invited as the chief guest to release the Music CD of Zee Talkies’ film ‘Natarang‘ which is due for release shortly. While speaking on the occasion she said that it was a happy moment for her to revive the popularity of Maharashtra’s most popular folk art through the music of this film. Music directors Ajay-Atul have given a new look to the traditional Tamasha art, by almost recreating it with their modern beats of technology.
The film’s hero Atul Kulkarni was also present on the occasion along with other artistes Bela Shende, Sonali, Priya Berde, Vibhavari Deshpande, Amruta Khanvilkar. The film is directed by Ravi Jadhav .
Kedar Promotes ‘Iraada Pakka’ in his own style
Marathi Cinema is also moving in a professional manner, as far as the film’s promotion is concerned. Right from ‘Mi Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy‘ we found this difference, when the powada based song was used in the film’s promotion. Now, film maker Kedar Shinde has used a new approach for promotion of his film ‘Irradaa Pakka’, staring Sonali Kulkarni and Siddharth Jadhav.
Recently, he picturised a song for the film’s promotion, where he had involved about 20 popular artistes along with their spouses. This experiment is first of its kind in Marathi cinema. “The film lovers will be happy to see their favourite artistes with their real life partners together in this song,” feels Kedar. When this song was picturised for two days, Kedar and his wife paid personal attention on all these special invitees, to see that they were comfortable for that event.
Some of the artistes who took part in this special promotional song were veteran Atmaram Bhende, Kishore Pradhan, Ramdas Padhye, Alka Kubal, Bharat Jadhav,Sandeep Kulkarni, Ashok Shinde, Ankush Choudhary, Sumeet Raghavan, Prasad Oak, Vijay Patkar & Shreyas Talpade. The film will be due for release soon .
Third Eye Film Festival opens with ‘Harischandrachi Factory’
The 8th Third Eye Asian Film festival was inaugurated on Friday 4th December 2009 at 8 pm, when the Chief Guest Ms. Vijaya Mehta lighted the lamp and declared the festival open. In her short speech the former theatre personality and director narrated the excitement during their good old days, to watch foreign films at such festivals, whenever held in Mumbai. She was more keen on watching the opening film ‘Harishchandrachi factory’ which was to be screened after the inaugural function.
Also present on the occasion were Mr. Kiran Shantaram, Chairman of the Asian film Festival, Mr. Sudhir Nandgaonkar, Creative Director of the Third Eye Asian Festival, Mr. K.J. Verma, Regional Manager of State Bank of India( The sponsors) and Mr. Paresh Mokashi, Director of the film ‘Harischandrachi Factory’. During the ceremony, the organizers welcomed all the Jury members coming from different countries like Poland, Iran, Sri Lanka, Turkey and Japan. Mr. Nandgaonkar briefed the delegates about various categories under which the films were classified. The Festival will also screen short films from different countries. The Third Eye festival will focus on Egypt, as there will be seven films from this country. Films will be screened at Plaza Cinema, Chavan Centre and Rangswar till 10th of December 2009. Registration of delegates is in full swing and the schedule is available on their site also
Music Launch of “Yelkot Yelkot Jai Malhar”
MNS Chief Raj Thackeray launched the Music of forthcoming marathi film “Yelkot Yelkot Jai Malhar” at a simple ceremony held at his residence in Dadar (Mumbai). Producer & Director Santosh Eknath Raut was present on the occasion along with Lyricist Jagdish Khebudkar , music composer Achut Thakur, Singer Milind Shinde with and other prominent cast of the film.
“Yelkot Yelkot Jai Malhar” is produced under the banner of Rainbow productions & Aviraj flowers Pvt Ltd. The film is complete & due for release by end of 2009. The idea of making this film was thought of some years ago, in Jejuri a small town near Pune, as there was a case of robbery of an Idol of deity of Maharashtrian people – Lord Khandoba, which sent shock waves all in the society, and especially among the devotees, who believed in the lord. According to the makers, the film pass a social message as well as entertain the people.
There are seven enchanting songs in the film, written by renowned lyricist Jagdish Khebudkar on the Enigmatic Music of Achut Thakur. Most of the popular singers like – Suresh Wadkar, Devki Pandit, Milind Shinde , Archana Gore, Vithal Umap , Swapnil Bandodekar and Vaishali Samant have lent her melodious voices to variety of songs. This collection is now available on T SERIES music CD’s at a cost of Rs 35/- all over Maharashtra.
Milind Gunaji plays lead role of an inspector called Vikram Bhosle in this film while Shweta Shinde plays his wife’s role. The other prominent star cast includes Ashalata Wabgaonkar, Suhas Palshikar, Kuldip Pawar, Vijay Chauhan,Nutan Jayant, Priti Joshi, Suhas Bhalekar, Ravi Patwardhan, Ali Khan, Ashok Samartha, Kiran Mane & Mohan Joshi. While, Vithal Umap, Kshitij Zarapkar, Jayram Kulkarni, Prashant Neman & Rajendra Jadhav are in guest appearance. Dialogues of the film are written by Manish Kulkarni & Ramesh Chavan and Screenplay by Santosh Raut.
‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is now all set for its all-India release
After making waves for its entry for Oscars from India and having won the hearts of audience abroad during various film festivals across the globe, ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is now all set for its all-India release. UTV Motion Pictures has scheduled the release of this much talked about film on January 22, 2010 all over India.
‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ which is co-produced by Paprika Media and Mayasabha Production is Paresh Mokashi’s directorial debut and stars many talented actors like Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande, Mohit Gokhale, Atharve Karve, Dilip Joglekar, Ketan Karande, Dhiresh Joshi, Sandip Pathak, Vaibhav Mangle, Ganesh Mayekar, Ambarish Deshpande, Pravin Tarde, Mayur Khandge, Gary Richardson and Gary Tanton.
It is not only a beautifully crafted cinematic presentation about the making of India’s first feature film, but also depicts in a simple way as to how perseverance, hard work and a splash of humour, could make a realistic film. Besides the Oscars Academy Awards, ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is also competing at the Golden Globes and the British Academy (BAFTA) awards. The film already had multiple screenings across the US and UK, where it was well received.
‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ for Sulochana Didi
Veteran Marathi film actress Sulochana, popularly known as ‘Didi’ in the film world, has been conferred upon Maharashtra’s most prestigious award- ‘Maharashtra Bhushan’ for the year 2009. The award comes at a time when the Government of Maharashtra is celebrating the Golden Jubilee year of the state’s formation.
The award comprises of Rs. 5 Lakh, besides the Appreciation certificate and a memento. It will be presented to the legendary on 26th January 2010. After hearing about the news, Didi thanked the people of Maharashtra for showering the love and affection on her all these years. She did not forget to mention about her mentor and Guru- Bhalji Pendharkar.
‘Janma’ enters at Goa Int Film Fest
Gone are the days when Marathi films were doing business only on comedy films. In the recent past we have seen the change coming in and that change is for good. Many Marathi films released during the recent past were based on new subjects and they were well accepted. Some of them even found their entry at the international film festivals held at different parts of the world.
‘Janma’ produced by Tapan Acharya and Kajal Kiran and directed by Shirish Rane is one such film which has found its entry at the prestigious Goa International Film festival and that too in the premiere section. Only last year, Shirish Rane’s film ‘Mare Paryant fashi’ was shown during this festival; hence with the screening of ‘Janma’ he finds a special place during the festival.
Recently, after completion of the film, the film maker carried the print to Siddhi Vinayak temple to seek blessings of God, in the presence of few artistes of the film- Anand Abhyankar, Deepak Karandikar and Veena Jamkar .
According to Shirish Rane- the director, he had come across a news in the newspaper column few years ago and had decided to present a play. But, that did not work. Finally, he along with Anand Mhasvekar worked on the script for a film. When they narrated this script to Kajal Kiran, she agreed to make a film and that’s how the show began. “ Now, that the film has found its entry into this festival, I am more than happy. After this screening, the film will soon be released all our Maharashtra”, says Mr. Rane. ‘Janma’ stars Reema, Ashok Shinde, Arun Nalawade, Sanjay Mone & Varsha Usgaonkar in lead roles.