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iView Author: KC Pingle (Dubai, UAE)
EMAIL: kcpingle@gmail.com

Title: Ek Daav Bhutaacha - 1982 - Marathi

I could write a few lines more than my usual one liner posts, only because I had typed this article much before I joined PFC, for a group of friends. Nahi to like Pavan says, saans lene ko bhi phursat nahi. Poora PFC padhna, aur RK jaise lambe lambe posts likhna to bahot door ki baat hai ;)

This name of the film itself invokes a cheerful smile, a surge of nostalgia for any Marathi person who is now in his 30’s, or of more in age. The reason being that every Marathi person ( at least that’s what I believe ) was fond of the Marathi movies been shown on Doordarshan in the 80’s. And as soon as anybody saw this movie for the first time on television, I am sure he would wait …

Murphy’s law (From Wiki):

“If there’s more than one possible outcome of a job or task, and one of those outcomes will result in disaster or an undesirable consequence, then somebody will do it that way.”

“Whatever can go wrong, will go wrong” .

Murphy’s law , this is what one of the protagonist narrates at the very beginning of the movie, and what follows is almost proof to it.Checkmate tells a story of three young men from different backgrounds,duped by a fake financial company.They lose whatever money they had, money their family had earned ,the property they had, in short the only option they have is to recover their money in any damn possible way.So all three come together and plan , plan to recover their losses.The rest of the movie shows the execution of the plan and how each …

54. That is the number of films that I and two of my co-jury members watched in just five days at the 10th Mumbai International Film Festival for Documentary, Short & Animation films (MIFF). The festival was held over seven days, from February 3 to 9, but the films in the Indian competition section (in which I served on the critics jury chosen by the Indian chapter of the International Federation of Film Critics – FIPRESCI - along with Uma da Cunha from Mumbai and M K Raghabendra from Bangalore) were screened from the 4th to the 8th. Of these 40 were documentaries, nine short fiction films and five animation films. We had a tough task at hand, since we were mandated to give out only one award – I personally felt it was a great injustice to the films as we had to select the winner from among three …

Three characters, a wild bull, a reluctant forest officer and a village deep in the interior of Maharahstra. The wild bull goes on a rampage destroying a lot in the village and to stop it, a forest officer is called to catch the bull. The Marathi film “Valu” directed by debutant director Umesh Kulkarni has this one line story which forms the skeleton of a interesting two hour movie.

Valu is a village tradition in Maharahstra where a bull is let loose in the village in god’s name. The bull is free to roam anywhere in the small village of Kusavade until it goes berserk and starts destroying crops and the village. To counter the menace, a forest officer is called from the government forest department. What happens after that is what the story about.

Valu is not as much of a story as in having a start or a …

The Indian Panorama for the 38th IFFI (Goa, Nov 23-Dec 3) has been just announced.

Lenin Rajendran’s “Ratri Mazha” (Night Rain) in Malayalam and Samir Chanda’s “Ek Nadir Galpo” (Story of a River) will represent India in the Asian-African-Latin American Competition section. The Panorama section will open with another Malayalam film, Shyamaprasad’s “Ore Kadal”.

The other films in Indian Panorama are B S Lingadevaru’s “Kada Beladingalu”, P R Ramdas Naidu’s “Moggina Jade” K Shivarudraiah’s “Daatu” (all Kannada), Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s “Naalu Pennungal”, Renjith’s “Kayyoppu”,
Babu Thiruvalla’s “Thaniye” (all Malayalam), Bhavna Talwar’s “Dharm”, Sameer Hanchate’s “Gafla” (both Hindi), Sanib Sabhapandit’s “Jaatingaa Ityadi” (Assamese), Mangesh Hadawale’s “Tingya”, Gajendra Ahire’s “Maai Baap”, Bipin Nadkarni’s “Aevdhe Se Aabhaal” and Vishal Bhandari’s “Kaalchakra” (all Marathi), Gnana Rajasekaran’s “Periyar” and Padma Magan’s “Ammuvagiya Naan” (both Tamil), Anjan Das’ “Jaara Brishtite Bhijechilo”, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s “Ami, Yasin Aar Amaar Madhubala” (both Bengali), Makhonmani Mongsaba’s “Yenning Amadi Likia” (Manipuri).

The jury was headed by veteran …

Laaga Chunari Mein Daag (dir Pradeep Sarkar) is an ‘inspirational’ work. That is what is being said in some sections of the media and the Net.

Here are 4 films which have similar story backgrounds. Decide for yourself.

1. Doghi (Sisters) Marathi (1995)

Dir: Sumitra Bhave & Sunil Sukhtankar; Cast: Renuka Daftardar, Sonali Kulkarni, Uttara Baokar, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Suryakant Mandre.

Synopsis: The story of two sisters, Gauri and Krishna, two ordinary middle-class girl in a village who, as their fate would have it, fall into different circumstances in life. After her husband’s fatal accident, Gauri comes to her poor brother in Bombay only to end up as a sex worker. Her sister, Krishna tries to help her in vain. A social drama with human pathos lifted by superb performances from the main cast.
It went to a lot of international film festivals and won some awards too, including Torino (Italy) where it …

IFFLA 2008 Announces Call for Entries
The Sixth Annual Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles (IFFLA) seeks narrative, documentary, music videos, experimental, children’s and animated films of any length and format. IFFLA will run April 22-27, 2008 at ArcLight Hollywood, a state-of-the-art facility located in the heart of Los Angeles. Jury and Audience Choice Prizes will be awarded for Best Feature, Documentary and Short Film.
IFFLA 2007 had over 6,000 attendees and screened 36 films from 8 countries. In addition to the high-quality of presentation of their work, filmmakers in attendance gained access to an eclectic mix of professionals from the Los Angeles film industry.

Check out what our past filmmakers …

Pickle, an online journal on the entertainment industry, believed to be backed by one industry body, has reported that the Film Federation of India (FFI) has started the process to select the Indian entry for the Best Foreign Film Oscar in the 80th Academy Award.

It says that a cross section of industry experts and critics contacted by it “squared in on” Feroz Abbas Khan’s Gandhi My Father (Hindi), Ameer Sultan’s Paruthiveeran (Tamil) and Maniratnam’s Guru (Hindi) as their favourite choice for nomination from India for the Oscars.

Some of the other films that are in the “radar of Oscar watchers” are Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s Eklavya (Hindi), Shanker’s Sivaji (Tamil), Radhamohan’s Mozhi (Tamil) and Rosshan Andrews’ Notebook (Malayalam), it claims. But it adds the rider, “Analysts appreciated the films listed in this para but were not confident to bet on any of these movies.”

According to Pickle, Gandhi My Father and …

One look at it, and you will realize that it is a typical South Indian village.

The vista evokes nostalgia in every Anna, Chetta, Thambi and Thamma — the rusty red (Mangalore) terracotta tiled roofs on the cute little row of houses that are huddled together like one single cozy family; the dusty roads, all of them ending in unison near one chowk - the center of the village and a major landmark - where a grand colonial looking statue stands aloft ceremonially adorned by the crows and pigeon poop; a post office; a cinema theater - sinima hall - that plays old South Indian movies; a push cart ice cream seller; a huge Pipal tree under which sits a fortune teller, who has decorated the tree with his handmade hand charts that explain his expertise; a beggar clad like a sadhu; a sweetshop and the disillusioned owner …

Mumbai rains played truant almost throughout July..Then suddendly today it started raining again..Not raining..But pouring..It hardly drizzles in Mumbai.

Whether it becomes Shanghai or not one thing is for sure, Mumbai scores over it in terms of rainfall. It receives almost the double the amount in Shanghai.For your gyan the average annual rainfall of 2120mm is almost double of Shanghai’s 1143 mm. Moreover no other global cities match Mumbai’s average.

‘Another unique aspect of Mumbai rains is that no other city handles as many intense rainy spells. Hongkong and Shanghai get six to seven months of rain, while Mumbai piles up its staggering average in just three very wet months.’ So much and such muck for Mumbai rains.

You might wonder what is the link between Mumbai rains and Bollywood.It’s said that Mumbai ki barsaat aur producer ki baat ka kabhi bharosa nahin kiya ja sakta( Mumbai rains and producers’ claim can’t …

An awesome review was already done for this by Full2Faltu here. I am not going to write a big review or analysis or the movie or its characters, acting, direction, etc. I just felt that I had to express the feelings and emotions this movie evoked in me. Coming from a Maharashtrian family from Mumbai and personally knowing many such regular white collar straight-jacket Madhav Aptes, this movie gave me goosebumps, had me in tears, brought a smile to my face at times as the movie hit the right spot!

The movie definitely sets you off on a spiral of introspection. Brilliant is an understatement! A review in words really can’t do justice to this movie. The emotions that the audience goes through are the real review of this awesome work!

Human beings always like to categorize, segregate other people in a particular group or category. It is always US against THEM. This groupism can be based on religion, region, sex, caste and many more categories. Its always those Bengalis, Marathis, Tamils, Europeans, Muslims, Americans, Indians, Dalits, Brahmins, Nerds, Yuppies, blacks, whites, brown and a number of groups. If a person can be categorized in a group, he/she will be. This groupism a lot of times leads to alienation of that group which can have a negative impact on the society.

The Marathi movie “Dahavi Pha” (10th Standard division F) explores this very concept without going into too much preaching. Dahavi Pha is a story of group of student studying in the 10th Standard of a school in the “F” division. The students in the school are grouped according to their …

Received from Worldwide Film Distribution yahoogroup… Please spread the word!

Let me take this opportunity to introduce you about me and social activities of our organization. …

I am working with a government organization, one of the most important & entertainment department called “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” is given to me and I am looking for your help to expand the membership.

What is “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE” ?

The National Film Development Corporation Limited (NFDC) is a Government of India Enterprise set up with the objective of fostering excellence in Indian Cinema. It provides film enthusiasts in Mumbai an opportunity to see good meaningful World-Class Films throughout the year through the “NATIONAL FILM CIRCLE”.

For the past twenty-five years, National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) has produced/co- produced more than 200 films in 15 languages, including English. Amongst these all several internationally acclaimed films like Gandhi, The Making of Mahatma, Mirch-Masala, Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, Sardar, Parinda and …

Warning: Contain Spoilers

A lower-middle age house in the Mumbai Suburb of Dombivli, an alarm rings in the morning, the household goes into a frenzy of activities where the man of the house, Madhav Shreedhar Apte gets ready for work, goes to work travelling in the Mumbai Locals, works and then comes back in the evening, feeds his young daughter and then goes to sleep. The next morning the same routine starts again, and the next morning.

The Marathi movie “Dombivli Fast” (DF)starts with the above routine scene about a middle class home but ends with the most under-rated climax of all, simple yet hard-hitting.

Madhav Apte is a common man with strong principles. He has strong values and he does not believe in bending any rules for anybody, even when the future of his children is involved. He fights with people around when he sees injustice and corruption, which include his …

The hero and the heroine gets married and live happily ever after. Most of the old Indian movies ended with the hero and heroine getting married in the end. The other alternative to the end would be the song from the movie shown again with “The End” shown. The marriage end would have the title as “The beginning”

Kedar Shinde’s Marathi movie “Yanda Kartavya aahe” (YKA) starts from the point where the above movies had ended. The days after the marriage. The only difference is that the marriage is an arranged marriage, not the typical love marriage. The term “Yanda Kartavya Aahe” literally translated means Taking responsibility this year and actually means that the person is ready for marriage.

YKA is a sweet funny story about two people thrown into matrimony and discovering each other. It could be called a realistic version of Sooraj Barjatja movies without the overly candy floss treatment. …

Every once in a while the Marathi film industry gets a hic-cup of pure excitement. Maharashtrains will be quick to point out that the popular belief that ‘Shwaas’ ushered in a sort of ‘New Wave’ in the Marathi Film Scene, when it was chosen as India’s entry to the Academy Awards the year after ‘Lagaan’ had it’s magnificent flight to the short-list, is a fallacy that disregards gems like “Limited Manuski” and “Bangarwaadi”, the likes of which were being made at about the same rate then as they are now. The staples of the Marathi Film Industry were and still are family centric tearjerkers that milks every once of tears from its premise ranging from the death of a loved one to love marriages, dominating saasu-maas et al and comedies that revel in a loud brand of double entrede. But every few months a saving grace would emerge- an absurd …

Shriranga Deshmukh or Ranga as he is known to his family and friends is a frustrated angry man. Ready to blow any time, he is especially angry with women. He has a female boss in his office, who is angry about all men. At home, he is surrounded by his wife, his mother, his sister and his grandmother. He feels women are in control and from time to time he feels all women are ready to torture him and make his life hell. A yearly trip to the village’s festival gives him power to listen to women and what follows is a hilarious journey of one man trying to understand what women want and say. Sanjay Narvekar stars as Ranga in Kedar Shinde directed Marathi movie “Aga Bai…. Arechya”
The story appears familiar to Mel Gibson’s starrer “What women want”. Although the central idea is the same, the story is highly …

An Indian Engineer, Tushar Khot working in America comes on assignment to the village of his ancestors. He tries to stay away from his father who believes in ghost and claims to talk to them. A person of modern times he refuses to believe his father and finds his process disgusting.

The Marathi film “Chakwa” starts with a simple story line of a person returning back to his village. The story changes into a mystery journey once he reaches his village. Staying in his ancestral house, the first night he hears a scream. The second night he hears the scream again and he investigates to find a frightened girl, Janhavi who asks him to leave. He starts feeling that somebody is following him even in the house.

A parallel mystery is the mango pulp factory which has a problem of low production inspite of a bumper crop. The …

Nana Patekar made his directorial debut with Prahaar. This was his only directorial venture till date. The movie had well known faces like Dimple Kapadia and Madhuri Dixit and an unknown face called Gautam Joglekar who played a very important character in the movie. He was if we could define the second hero of the movie.

Gautam Joglekar is son of Sai Paranjpe who gave us movies like Katha, Sparsh and Chasme Bhadoor. Gautam Joglekar made his directorial debut with “Pak Pak pakaak” and the person who stars in the movie is Nana Patekar and with this film, Nana patekar returned to Marathi movies after a long time.

“Pak Pak Pakaak” (PPP) is a Marathi movie about a small naughty boy and a supposedly ghost living in a forest. The story is conceptualized by Sai Paranjpe and is very similar to her 2001 movie, “Bhaago Bhoot”

The story is of a parent-less little …

You have worked all your life, you have lived alone for many years now after the death of your spouse, your son is getting married and he is supposed to move to US for his work and you meet your childhood crush and then you look at your life without a partner.
The marathi movie “Uttarayan” directed by Bipin Nadkarni explores the story of an individual who has reached the zenith of his life. Released in 2005, this movie was in race for Indian entry of Oscar. Ultimately “Paheli” was selected for the Indian entry for Oscars. Its an adaptation of Marathi writer, Jaywant Dalvi’s marathi play “Durgi”.
Shivaji Satam plays Raghuveer Rajadhyaksh or Raghu, a widower who has just retired and comes to live in Mumbai with his son who is getting married. His wife had already passed away 14 years ago. He meets his teenage crush. kusumavati who is also …