Pallavi Joshi returns on Marathi television with ‘Grahan’
In the past horror based TV u like ‘Ratris Khel Chale‘, ‘Girls Hostel‘ invited the attention of many horror subject lovers among home viewers. No wonder, such serials are telecast after 10:00 pm. Now, from today onwards one more Marathi serial ‘Grahan‘ will be telecast at 10.30 pm from Monday to Saturday on Zee Marathi channel . The first look of this serial has already created curiosity about the subject of this serial which clearly indicates through its title.
But, the big news is also that Pallavi Joshi will be making her comeback in Marathi television through this serial. Earlier we had seen her as show anchor for the popular musical programme ‘Sa Re Ga Ma..‘ This serial is produced by Tejendra Neswankar under the banner of Trump Card Productions. Presently his serial ‘Majhya Navryachi Bayko‘ is being aired on TV. So, let us wait and watch what this serial is going to offer.
Discussion on ‘Woman in socialistic reality and cinema’
8th March is celebrated throughout the globe as International Women’s Day and to mark the occasion variety of programmes take place e.g. Bike rallies, Half Marathons, talk shows etc. Varsha Tawde, better half of Honourable State Minister Vinod Tawde, through her Bharatiya Stree Shakti organisation, organised a panel discussion on ‘Woman in socialistic reality and cinema’, through a film festival ‘O Womaniya’ which screened international, national and regional films, at Sathye college auditorium in Mumbai.
National award winning film/drama director, Chandrakant Kulkarni , Pallavi Joshi, a national award winning actress , Abhiram Bhadkamkar, director, actor and writer , Samruddhi Porey, national award winner film maker, were the panellist , whereas Rajni Velankar, a well known name in acting field, conducted the function. The discussion started on a controversial documentary ‘India’s Daughter’ on Nirbhaya, with a question on film’s impact on crimes and rapes in society.
Chandrakant Kulkarni denied any such impact and said at length ‘All my body of work has been women-centric in some way or the other. If films are responsible for atrocities in society, then why the image of police depicted in films is contrary to that?’ Though Samruddhi Porey admitted that fractionally it may be true, but posed a counter question, how come good things are not picked up from films?’
On aggressive views of Ragini Chandratre, President BSS, writer Abhiram Bhadkamkar countered saying ‘no one wants labelling on these issue’ and stated that females in films are still searching for an identity. “Because, films raised issues of women, women started realising about their own issues. Rapes existed even before films were made.” he continued . Pallavi Joshi, who joined the panel a little late ,realistically stated, “Earlier villain/vamps in films showed us a mirror as to what was wrong in our society. But in today’s scenario no one knows who the villain is; and we are witnessing circus in the name of cinema. A lot of film makers are interested in women-centric subjects but lack of viewers’ patronage discourages them. We as a audience should support these ventures as we support other commercial films” she was talking in depth. In fact both Joshi and Kulkarni, with their light hearted comments, kept the audience in good spirit.
Mrinal defines meaning of ‘love’ in her own style
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Rating: ★★★ ½
Banner: Bhupat Bodar Enterprises, Amol Production Producer: Praveen Thakkar, Director: Mrinal Kulkarni Story: Mrinal Kulkarni Screenplay: Manisha Korde Cinematography: Amalendu Choudhary Cast: Sachin Khedekar, Mrinal Kulkarni, Pallavi Joshi, Sunil Barve, Suhas Joshi, Mohan Agashe, Smita Talvalkar, Neha Joshi, Vidyadhar Joshi, Sidharth Chandekar. Movie Review by: Ulhas Shirke |
A marriage ceremony is usually a happy event. It’s only the living together with understanding in the post marriage period, is all that important to make the couple happy. Today, we hear about rising number of divorce cases, taking place soon after marriage or sometimes even after spending over 10-15 years together. In some cases, it is just a mutual consent between the couple keeping friendly relations, after their divorce; just to keep their children happy. But, does that make the children really happy?
In some cases, either the wife or the husband is away pursuing their career. Among today’s young lovers even before marriage, there are a few break ups. The new trend especially among girls is to postpone the marriage; till they find a suitable match. Till then, live-in-relationship is preferred by them.
In comparison, the people of old generation, who try their best to keep such aggrieved couples together, consider themselves lucky to find their suitable partner and living with them with perfect understanding, throughout their life. But, how is it affecting the young generation, comprising of children? How are they looking at marriage? This is what actress turned director Mrinal Kulkarni has tried to show through her latest released film ‘Prem Mhanje Prem Mhanje Prem Asata’.
Dr.Rohit Phadnis (Sachin Khedekar) is a reputed Doctor in Pune, running his OPD in his own bungalow. His career oriented Astro-Physicist wife Pradnya (Pallavi Joshi) has preferred to migrate to USA after divorcing her husband, leaving him in the company of two children. Living in the same area is Anushree (Mrinal Kulkarni) with her mother-in-law (Suhas Joshi) and two daughters Piya and Ria. Her husband Kedar (Sunil Barve) has deserted her for the past four years. Yet, Anushree’s mother-in-law having a soft corner towards her daughter-in-law, prefers to live with her, taking good care of her grand-daughters; while Anushree is busy running her own florist’s shop.
Dr.Rohit’s and Anu’s children are studying in the same school. One day, while Piya is injured during her basketball match in the school, she is attended by Dr.Rohit. And that incident brings both Rohit and Anu together. While Dr. Rohit still maintains good relationship with his ex-wife, like a good friend, regularly communicating over phone; Anu doesn’t want to see the face of her husband, who has deserted her. But, Kedar is regularly in touch with his daughters over phone, especially his elder daughter Piya (Asmita Joglekar).
At a time when Dr.Rohit and Anu come closer; Kedar returns back home to drop his mother and daughters from a ceremony and so does Pradnya at Rohit’s place , to attend her brother’s wedding. The relationship between Dr.Rohit and Anu reaches a stage, where both of them have to take a crucial decision. Rohit is firm on his decision and suggests Anu to take her own decision; suggesting that he would always welcome her in his life. In the climax scene, Writer-Director Mrinal takes her bold decision.
As a debutant Director, Mrinal does have certain limitations; but, her sensible script and a desire to send across a strong message with the help of realistic characters helps her to make her presence felt, both as an actress and a director. However, the screenplay by Manisha Korde could have been much more interesting to create the desired impact through few important situations present in the script. She has managed well to take that sudden twist during the interval ; but barring that she has not used the shifts during important sequences skillfully. The wedding ceremony of Pradnya’s brother, has been used just namesake. Similarly, the character of Kedar hasn’t been highlighted much, to indicate the reason for deserting Anu. It is only the fine performances from the artistes, makes you ignore such minor lapses in screenplay.
As a director, Mrinal shows her concern for children who are witness to such estranged relationship of their parents. She clearly shows it through their emotions. At the same time, she shows the sufferings of a woman who has been deserted by her whimsical husband. In that climax scene, she literally stands up to speak up for all such women, who helplessly welcome their husbands back home, in spite of being deserted by them for years. In the same scene, she questions, whether a husband would welcome his wife with the same fervor, when his wife returns back home after staying away for years, deserting her family?
At the same time, she also shows an elderly couple, living with perfect understanding through the characters of her parents played by Mohan Agashe and Smita Talwalkar. Last but not the least, she has presented her younger sister’s ( Neha Joshi) character so perfectly, showing the trend of break ups between young couples even before marriage. In short, she has tried her best to define ‘love’ and its relevance to marriage in her own style. And that really makes this film a worth watch for all age groups.
Excellent photography by Amalendu Choudhary, good music, meaningful lyrics, sensible dialogues and above all, the wonderful performances by all the artistes, gives an artistic touch to this thought provoking film.
Two new serials on E-TV Marathi
In spite of the recession period in other sectors, the Marathi film industry stood firm with good business during the year 2009. Even the fear of swine flu did not deter the enthusiastic audience from watching the films in theatres in places like Pune and surroundings which generally attract a good crowd for Marathi films. In fact, the strike observed by producers and distributors of Hindi films, indirectly helped a Marathi film like ‘Mee Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy’, which was released around that period. The multiplex owners in Maharashtra welcomed this film, which made a good business for them too.
Year 2009 also saw the arrival of big wigs like Eros entertainment, Zee talkies and Sanjay Ghodavat Group entering the business and offering a good distribution network and required publicity that was very much required to popularise Marathi films. To name a few, films like ‘Ek Daav Dhobi Pachaad’, ‘Gaiir’, ‘Jogwa’ and ‘Rita’ did a good business. At the same time, a sensible films like ‘Gabhricha Paus’ invited the attention of foreigners during various Film festivals abroad. Both ‘Harischandrachi Factory’ and ‘Jogwa’ staked their claim for India’s entry for Oscars with their universal subject and finest presentation; but ‘Harischandrachi Factory’ which had an edge over ‘Jogwa’ for being the film made on the life of the Grand old man of Indian cinema, was finally selected.
It looked like that the new cinema had almost taken over from the traditional comedy films of 80’s and 90’s which remained dominated by Ashok saraf and Laxmikant Berde. Today, we find lots of new faces displaying their talents through new subjects. Renuka Shahane tried a new experiment with her own production through ‘Rita’ by making Pallavi Joshi to play lead opposite an ageing hero of Hindi films Jackie Shroff. She was more confident of her script. And, her experiment did work well . ‘Sukhaant’ directed by Sanjay Surkar and ‘Samaantar’ directed by Amol Palekar offered the audience totally different subjects, which were so necessary to change the taste of audience.
There were films like ‘Gandha’ ,‘Made in China’ and ‘Lonavala Bypass’ which were also based on new subjects, succeeded in inviting the attention of new audience particularly in multiplexes. While the traditional comedy films continued during 2009 with the focus on big screens, but except for ‘Ek Daav Dhobi Pachhad’ no other film could pull the crowds. Among the new directors, Satish Rajwade invited the attention of one and all for offering two hits.
What is more appreciated about today’s Marathi films is that there are more technically perfect films with better cinematic presentation. We also saw Ajay- Atul offering best of music in many films. At the same time we should also appreciate the efforts put in by all those cinematographers, sound & editing experts and choreographers. With 2009 now coming to an end, all eyes on 2010 which welcomes a bunch of Marathi films with new subjects lined up during the month of January, to offer some more variety. But, we are eagerly waiting for that most prestigious Oscar award to be won by a marathi film. Will ‘Harischandrachi Factory’ succeed in doing so ?
‘RITA’ REVIEW
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Rating: 2.5/5
Presenter: Walkwater Producers: Aarti Shetty, Pooja Shetty Devara Director: Renuka Sahane Story: Based on Marathi Novel ‘Rita Velvinkar’ by Shanta Gokhale Cast: Pallavi Joshi, Renuka Shahane, Jacky Shorff, Sai Tamhankar, Dr. Mohan Agashe, Tushar Dalvi… Movie Review by: Priyanka Dahale |
We always quivers from our past, present if it is painful. Even we never think about any relation, which is, cannot be accepted by society. Very few dare to face their past, their painful present and also dare to live unacceptable relation openly. Rita is the movie, which is based on the above lines concluded from Shanta Gokhle’s book. In the Marathi film industry, this movie gets special significance due to a sensible direction of Renuka Shahane, and also due to different presentation of different story.
Rita Welinkar is the main character in this film. Rita is the girl who got an English environment in her family by her father and mother. The image of her mother in her eyes is ‘a perfumed women’ just due to her high cultured, high fashioned lifestyle. She never saw original shade of mother’s love in her mother’s eyes. While growing in ‘conventry’ environment, suddenly a problem occurs in her family and she had to take all the responsibility of the family on her delicate shoulders. During this journey of a common struggle she met Viththal Salvi who is 15 years elder than her. As the time passes she realized that she is in love with Salvi. Same case about Salvi. And Rita starts a new life to understand herself and also to live for herself. She built up her own world with Salvi.
But lots of social, mental problems arise in their life due to their unacceptable relation. Rita always prefers to live openly, to make relations openly with divine and clear mind. But the situation does not allow her to live in her own way. In this travel one of her friend Saraswati helps her to stand strongly after facing storms.
The story puts lots of questions before the viewers patiently and in a decent way. Pallavi Joshi and Jackey Shroff had played roles of Rita and Salvi excellently. Mohen Aagashe, Makarand Deshpande, Renuka Shahane are the remarkable actors in this film who played their characters artistically.
The whole film have southern touch in its scenes, dialogues that give a beautiful feel of wonderful nature to viewers. Taufic Quereshi’s background music suits this feel very beautifully. This movie is the example of a ideal and sensible Marathi movie.