Gabhricha Paus (the damned rain) is brilliant !!!
Gabhricha Paus (the damned rain) is brilliant !!!
Yesterday had gone to attend the preview screening of the marathi film Gabhricha Paus which according to the director means (the damned rain). As the name suggests the film revolves around the theme of farmer suicides in the villages maharasthara.
The synopsis and the promos of the unreleased film can be found here
http://thedamnedrain.com/main.html
Most must be knowing that in the recent times, the number of farmer suicides in villages has increased manifold. This is a film set against such a backdrop.
“Kisna, our farmer like many others in India or for that matter, in many parts of the world is trying as hard as he has always been. But so many things, including nature are stacked against him. Kisna’s wife is convinced of the fact that he is contemplating ending his life and hence ropes in their 6 year old son, albeit against his wish and comprehension to be with his father all the time and report any irregularities in his behaviour.”
From the synopsis and the trailer, it can be made out that the film is not just “another tragic film on a tragedy” and that elements of black humor have been dosed in. In fact this reminded me of the korean films in which a tragic subject is taken and elements of black humor is sprinkled. I could also see a bit of Pather panchali and The Bicycle thief in it, and i mean it as a compliment.
Sonali kulkarni is as usual brilliant. Girish kulkarni playing kisna has played the part with perfection. You cannot make out if he’s about to commit suicide or contemplating it or trying to think of a solution to his problems, in scenes like when he is standing on the well. The mother and the kid are almost outdoing each other all the time in terms of performances….both are so good. Of the supporting cast the first character coming to my mind is the cynic farmer whose land is next to Kisna’s. He de-motivates and feeds Kisna with cynicism and pessimism at each of Kisna’s attempts, and listens to Radio mirchi all day along on his ‘charpai’ next to the land, watching Kisna and yet taunting him. He has given up long ago.
His logic is simple. Even if Kisna manages to take the loan and and manages to sow the cotton and if it rains at the right time and if the transport available is cheap; in the larger scheme of things Kisna will get back exactly what he has invested. No profit and a lot of probability for losses. So why bother farming ?
The film also deftly touches upon the government compensation issue (how it does or doesnt reach the farmer’s family in the end, thanks to beaurocracy).
How the already depressing situation becomes worse and how kisna manages to face the ever increasing problems is what forms the rest of the film. Cinematography is picture postcard. The music and background sound is haunting.
This film has been selected for many awards and film festivals both national(PIFF) and international (Rotterdam)
http://marathitheatre.wordpress.com/2009/01/20/gabhricha-paus-gets-piff-sant-tukaram-award/
http://www.marathimovieworld.com/news/gabhricha-paus-acclaimed-at-piff.php
http://dearcinema.com/indian-filmmakers-debut-film-at-rotterdam/
http://www.punemirror.in/index.aspx?page=article§id=59&contentid=2009011820090118055926133107ab4d8§xslt=
As soon the film got over, and people went upto the makers to congratulate. It was heartening to see anurag kashyap and sudhir mishra liking the film a lot and giving advice to the producer as to how to promote it.
Unfortunately, ths film is still hasnt has released yet. May be the production houses like Zee, UTV, BIG etc pick up this film and release it subtitled not just for the marthi audiences but also for the multiplex junta. It’s an awesome film.
After the screening I could hear Sudhir mishra saying …
“it does tread into the dangerous humour territory which was soo present towards the end in my film (hazaron) and I specifically love that territory”
Will have to agree with him …
Someone give a proper theatrical release to this film as soon as possible please.
Tags: Anurag Kashyap, Gabhricha Paus, Marathi cinema, PIFF, Prashant Madhusudhan Pethe, Rotterdam, Satish Manwar, sudhir mishra
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
thank you for this… !!!
Sounds like an important film. Hope it comes here also. Will try and spread the word.
Just saw the promos, look great, awesome picture quality. Reminds me of Avakai Biryani.
Great and promising promos.
Finaaly a break from thos mindless crap marathi movies.Hope to see it soon.
KK cheers for bringing this refreshing piece!
Regional cinema has lot of potential to be tapped…thats where the change would happen if any.
Thanks for this kk….hope to catch it soon…marathi movies somehow keep deceiving me …..everytime i think of all the crap marathi movie, once in a while comes a gem of a movie …
and i want to see more of sonali kulkarni …she is a brilliant actor ..but dont know why her performance lacks those punch in hindi movie ..watch her performance in “sakharam Binder”- play by Vijay Tendulakar …..she has nailed it and the play has some best dialogs you will ever hear ..
Thanks KK!
Indeed it’s a nice film. it has won award for best film @ PIFF. Being a Puneite, I was fortunate enough to be able to see it in PIFF.
I wish it releases soon.
where was it playing? when will it play next? at what place?
Thank you so much for this Kartik.. You really made this film reach a lot of cinema lovers. Its on my radar. I will pakka catch it. Hope it reaches some Producers!!
thanks guys.
I saw the film at a private screening intended/aimed at distributors/exhibitors/producers etc who could help release the film theatrically.
Am hoping the film releases soon so that everyone can catch the film easily rather than at a private screening. Hoping this article reaches some producers and they do the needful
@Anand – have been a fan of sonali since the tamil film May Madham …. will definitly catch her sakharam binder performance…have read the play and liked it
@hardik – i dnt know when it will play next.Preview theater fun republic yesterday evening
Thanks KK. Will wait for this. Added to my list.
‘Tingya’ briefly touches the farmer suicide topic in a couple of scenes.
(off topic: BTW, my parents loved your presentation in ‘Theater beyond words’ and met you at the party)
Please ignore my off topic note in earlier comment i confused KK with RR ;-)
KK, let us do our bit here by promoting the movie in this space as much as possible..we need great efforts like this gain and again..
I am very glad to know that such movie is made.I belong to Vidharbha,I am not able to express my feelings in words.Here is short film i made on the same topic.It might be another perspective on the issue.
http://www.filmaka.in/premiumshorts.asp?contestid=9999&id=1847&Keyword=
My best wishes for all who involved in the film.
KK…I wish i knew it was playing yesterday. :(
Somebody rightly pointed out – regional cinema is from where the change will come. Hindi Cinema, for good or bad, is too mired in stars and their egos…and the damages are much more if a good film fails here (meaning too few people go off the safe route.)
Valu, Tingya, Harishchandra Factory and Gabhricha Paus…all these films in just last 18-months or so!! (And people who know Marathi cinema closely may chip in with a few more names here…)
Hope this wave breaks at the shores only.
(Like those cheap suhaag-raat metaphor shots in good ol’ hindi films :P)
Thanks KK!
Thanks Kartik!!
And yes – dangerous territory it is.
So easy to play in the comfort zone.
To play in dangerous territory and come back alive and provide new sensibilities to the audience is a task that only few films achieve!!
Three cheers to the team of GP!!
This film has the potential to go places if syndicated properly, pity if it isn’t!
Dear KK (Kutte Kaminey), tu mujhe bulaye bina preview screening dekhne chala gaya – woh bhi Gabhricha Paus…yehi teri dosti yehi tera pyar!!!!
I just saw this movie and it is terrible.It should have been edited heavily.I mean neither technically it is brillaint ,nor interesting in the content.The probem with the so-called non main-stream cinema is that,they take a new topic and expect the audience to watch it without expecting nothing.Fact is that till these different subjects oriented movies are not made in an interesting fashion,people are gonna watch Kambkhat Ishq and such mindless stuff.
i saw the movie yesterday at cinemax sion…was glad to see the 50 seater small sceen almost full…n was even more glad to see the movie…it is indeed brilliant…the Best Marathi movie I have seen…