Gabhricha Paus: Topnotch Cinema
{Spoilers Ahead}
We Indians are basically very emotional. I may be wrong but I think no other ethnicity in the whole world is as emotional as us. So we tend to like all things which are emotional. Be it movies, tele-serials etc. Even in a reality show which is meant to judge a person’s singing, dancing etc like talent have full blown emotionally directed parts. No wonder the person for whom the public has the most sympathy ends up winning the show irrespective of his talent. I have met people who love TZP only for its 2nd half.
Now Gabhricha Paus as we all know, is a marathi film on the sad state of farmers in the Vidharbha region of Maharashtra. It means “The Damned Rain” in local Vidharbha slang. It is a term used to actually abuse the unpredictable nature of the rains.
The movie for me personally is a brilliant piece of cinema.The best thing about the movie, unlike all the things I have said above, is that it is not sad. Ironic as it may seem that a movie on the Vidharbha farmers does not make you depressed. A tinge sad, yes it is. You can’t make a slapstick one on this topic, can you? But it is not depressing for sure. This happens because the director has used the genre of “dark humor” in the film. This genre has seldom been used in Indian cinema. It is commendable that the first time director Satish Manwar hasn’t taken the easy way out and made an overtly emotional- “come on let’s all cry for the poor farmer” movie. He shows amazing restraint in his work as well.
If anybody wishes to watch this movie, hopefully in a theatre or an original dvd, should stop reading this post right now as the plot has been given away.
The plot revolves around the farmer Kisna and his struggle to grow cotton. With suicides happening all around, Kisna’s family gets worried about him. So they start sending Kisna’s son alongwith him wherever he goes. The son is then supposed to report to his mother about the happenings of the day. He is to specially make a note of any ‘suspicious’ activities. The complex and tensed character of Kisna is played brilliantly by Girish Kulkarni. The kid is a fine actor as well. He doesn’t overact as most kids in Indian Cinema do. The Grandma (Jyoti Subhash) and Kisna’s wife Alka(Sonali Kulkarni) have also played their roles exceedingly well. The way they try to keep Kisna in a positive mood (especially the puran poli thing) is brilliantly potrayed. Jyoti Subhash is my personal favourite of the movie.
Right from the opening shot the director takes the movie straight to the point. The opening shot shows two kids, one on a bicycle and another following him crying for his turn to ride it and suddenly they see a man’s body hanging from the tree. This for me is one of the best opening shots in Indian cinema for a long time. The good thing about it, is that it feels very true to the scenario. Right from the name of the film to the language to the music in the film is very earthy which makes it very authentic.
The director then shows extraordinary grip over the subject through his storytelling. He understands his subject exceedingly well. He practically knows it inside out. Such restraint and maturity in storytelling is rarely seen in all of Indian, let alone regional cinema. Regional cinema tends to be more emotional as it caters to the rural audience as well. But not this one. The director literally holds up a mirror to the society, obviously without the gloss.
The various contemporary topics that he touches like the schools in villages, the economic divide etc without diverging from the main plot is amazing. I am no expert in cinema, but I found the treatment of such contemporary scenarios of GP comparable to the Lives of Others. The other characters in the film also leave an impact on you. The dead farmer’s Father and Wife are such examples.
At some places the director’s smartness also shines out. Just for example the use of the radio. First I was a little annoyed with it as I thought it was used only because radio mirchi is one of the sponsors and it doesn’t complement the movie in any way. But just I was thinking this the intro of a song plays out and the song is apna nasal king’s “Ek baar aaja aaja”. The smart part of it was that only the intro music played out. Even making a thing basically used for the sponsors to complement to the movie in a subtle way was nothing short of a masterstroke for me.
The cinematography is intriguing too. Vidharbha has been captured captivatingly. It reminds me of Manorama’s cinematography.
The climax of the movie though kind of expected is still very chilling. For some who have seen the movie the climax just stops it short of becoming a classic. It is a classic for me nevertheless.
But that day, as we all know here, at a multiplex in Dadar in Mumbai, the manager looked at the small queue outside the booking office and refused to sell tickets. The 20-odd people who had come to see the film were unceremoniously turned away. It is said that multiplex managements don’t like Marathi audiences like me because we “Ghatis” don’t buy popcorn. So the good seed that a filmmaker sows gets blown away by something as light and silly as popcorn.
Where were the sons-of-the-soil politicians when such a thing happened? They naturally don’t care because the public and media in general don’t care about this film. They won’t get their publicity. If it was about Mee Shivaji…. they would have blackened the manager’s face and stoned the multiplex.
On the positive side Gabhricha Paus is being shown at Arthouse theatres in USA. Though it had released recently in India it wasn’t that big. Guess, after winning some national awards it gets re-released in theatres.
Franlky, this year I have liked quite a few movies like Kaminey, DevD , Luck By Chance and Gulaal. But for me Gabhricha Paus scores over all of them. It is the best Indian movie for me this year yet.
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
Seems Promising.. Thanks for the review.
Hope to catch it whenever possible.
welcome and thank you too…hopefully it does get a bigger release all over India n the world…
Well written post. I liked the way you’ve mentioned some wonderful scenes shot by the debutant.
I think its the right time for the release of the movie. Unfortunately, as you said its tough to get it to the multiplexes forget about single screens.
Thank You.. it means a lot..hoping against all odds that it does gets released…
I have to say..this is the best review I have read about gabhricha paus…
i hope it would gather more than 20 people outside the multiplexes…
thnx a lot for this…
I have not seen the movie, but from the title it seems like a perfect movie for the year.
nice review..looking foward to catching it on dvd if not d mutiplex..
multiplexes that have come with huge subsidies and prime lands are exploiting the viewers. drinks purchases on one floor are not allowed to be taken into the screening hall on another. prices are exorbitant. In the name of globalised techniques there is a divide between single theatre films and audience and multiplex cinema and audience. Sooner we realise it, better for all.
I stopped mid-way after reading your disclaimer. Hoping to catch the movie soon, as you rightly said – on the big screen or an original DVD
Thanks for the review. I guess after the dadar FAME theatre incident, this movie wont be played in Mumbai theatres. So will have to wait for the DVD to be out
Wonderful review buddy..simple write-up..nice to see someone writing review for a reginoal language movie..i was really sick of reading reviews of kaminey and love aaj kal..
@Rasik, Thanks for this wonderful review.
I am hoping to re- release the film in Mumbai again soon and also releasing it in Vidarbha on the 11th of Sept. I do want to have its release in metros atleast with English subtitles..lets see how that goes. For now, the Us release is slated for this Friday.
Regards
Prashant Pethe
Producer
Gabhricha Paus
www.thedamnedrain.com
Thank You for the comment…it really means a lot…special kudos to you for producing such a film and promoting such cinema…
Best of Luck
Great review!! I will try and watch it.
BTW, Is it “Garibacha Paus” which means “Poor Man’s Rain” because I’m Maharashtrian but have not heard of the word “Gabhricha” unless it is a word that is originating from deep recesses of the Vidharbha region.
Sonny
Gabhricha can literally mean..Bastard…and a farmer never curses the rains..unless he gets so frustrated that he has to
does it have english subtitles???
@ Tejas -very true
@raunak-thnx…but watch it for sure…
@anil- that’s true
@Sameer- Yes man…do watch it for sure…
@Vinay- Hope it does get released
@Girish-Thanx
@Sonny-thnx
@robin walia-pls check out where the show will be playing…it depends on the print
Truely this is an achivement of producer Prashant pethe and brillient director sandeep manvar. Once again marathi cinema has proved its talent after masterpices like Valu, Dombivali fast, Devrai, and oscar nomiinated Shwaas. I have seen Gabhricha paus but after reading Rasiks review i discover how this movie actualy affects ur life.One of the best review i have ever red. i think we shuld drop a letter to that Multiplex manager about this review. Mr manager should realise that we Ghatis not buy those light popcorns, but our Marathi directors can make movies on Hard topics like Gabhricha paus, anyway hats off to you for writing such a true review for this dammned-good movie! We would love to see such movies again n again.
thnx man…i’m really flattered…
Here is a review by the Chicago Sun Times….They have compared it to Satyajit Ray’s work.
http://mobile.suntimes.com/suntimes/db_9719/contentdetail.htm;jsessionid=4197A385A2C444436089064BE06202A3?contentguid=Q3B5G6h0&detailindex=2&pn=0&ps=5&full=true
I think producer Prashant pethe and director sandeep manvar deserve appreciation from our side. As Margaret Mead rightly said: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has. All the people involved in this project are those handful of commited people. Let this not to be forget like Vanja.
One of the best reviews, COngrats dear!!! It has come straight from the heart. Keep it up.
We hope to see the movie soon ona big screen. If the big screen doesn’t work out then on DVD.
thank you…it means a lot..
Prashant & Sandeep, how did the US release go or how is it going? Please do update us on it and share your thoughts here on how you promoted the film there and challenges you faced and so on.
Thanks to very good reviews in Chicago, Gabhricha Paus gets a full one week run there at the following theatre…with 5 shows a day. And I know we struggled for even one show per theatre here in India
Those in Chicago or nearby, do check out this film
Golf Glen Theatres
9180, W. Golf Road,
Niles,
Chicago -60714
(630) 769-9170
Fri-Sun: 12:00 PM, 2:30 PM, 5:00 PM, 7:30 PM, 10:00 PM
Mon-Thurs: 1:00 PM, 3:30 PM, 6:00 PM, 8:30 PM
First of all heatiest congrates to Prashant & Sandeep for making such a grate movie and whatever success u achieved in d country as well as abroad. Really one of the best review I hv ever read. I am studying in mumbai. I was not able watch it because of some academic constrains . I just read above that it is going to be re-released in mumbai.So may I know the releasing date or when the DVD will come in the market? thnx in advance.