The Marathi Film Festival And its Surprisingly Decent Offerings
This is not a festival where you hear a lot of English or Hindi, and or see many folks wearing blue jeans or summer dresses. The men who attended the 6th Goa Marathi Film Festival wore old-fashioned checked shirts and the woman wore saris and flowers in their hair. In the end,order itâs a testament to Goaâs diversity that every festival seems to come with its own fashion statement, from IFFI to ThinkFest to the DD Kosambi Festival of Ideas.
Marathi-lovers from Ponda to Pernem bussed it to the Marathi film fest with their âtiffinsâ and water bottles. The security men were firm about following the rules. But unlike in most places in India, the tiffins and bottles kept on tables outside the halls were not empty or missing when their owners came to claim them after the shows.
I intentionally skipped the inaugural function (canât stand speeches), and was in time to hear the veteran actor, Vikram Gokhale request Goans to encourage Marathi cinema and theatre by being good (paying?) audiences.
The opening film, âPremsutraâ was the only boring one. The reason it âinauguratedâ the festival was because it was filmed in Goa. It showed an atypical Catholic family speaking terrible Konkani, poor English and a little bit of Marathi. The director could have cast age-appropriate actors. Itâs awful to see middle-aged folk prancing ungracefully all over the screen. Reminded me of the inelegantly clad hairy non-money-spenders that come to Goa in hired four-wheelers to have âfunâ by vomiting out whatever theyâve drunk and drunk and drunk over a weekend.
The rest of the films I saw were way above average. This was the first time I heard of âcatapoooltingâ: âCrowd funding as a means to finance filmsâ. There were so many must-sees that I missed all three premiers: âLangarâ, âDuniyadaariâ and âPostcardâ. Had there been better food organized (KA had overpriced cold stuff and the Marquinez complex had nothing at all), I might have been able to attend at least one of these.
âInvestmentâ brought home the ills of over-ambition and the thirst for wealth and power. The teenaged, only son of an upwardly-mobile couple kills his classmate and gets away with the murder because his parents can afford to pay their way through the âsystemâ. The producer, Ratnakar Matkari, used to write, direct and act in several plays that were favourites in my childhood. Glad he is still involved in socially relevant themes.
âPrem Mhanje Prem Mhanje Prem Astaâ was about two divorcees, one from a conservative background, the other more liberally-inclined, who fall in love. Quite unusually handled.
Nikhil Mahajanâs âPune 52â (like âKahaniâ in which Vidya Balan has acted) is a really nicely made detective film. The twists are unexpected, the experience a good one.
In my previous job in a hospital Iâd seen heart-breaking scenes of poor relatives running from employers to charitable institutions trying to raise money for (un)salvageable patients. Gajendra Ahireâs âAnumatiâ made me live through those scenes again. Vikram Gokhale won the national award for his acting in it. Well-deserved. He wasnât acting. He lived that role. And the music was worth buying the CD for.
âSamhitaâ was about a woman film-maker visualizing a story from a princely state during the British Raj. By itself a good film, but didnât make an impact because the other films were better.
In âAjacha Divas Majhaâ, Chandrakant Kulkarni brought home the lethargy and heartlessness of a government office. Sachin Khedekar as the chief minister who wants a disabled musician to be given an apartment due to him before the night is over, played his role well. The movie entertained the audience, and brought home the fact that there is inefficiency and insensitivity to human suffering in government offices.
Vikrant Pawarâs award-winning âKaatalâ was thankfully 22 minutes short. The Konkani âDigantâ, the other short film, seemed more preachy than real.
It was incredible how many people came over to Panjim over the rainy weekend. For âAnumatiâ, there were more willing viewers than number of seats. So a few people were disappointed. The woman sitting next to me said,âWe need more theatresâ. Having observed the way people had commuted, Iâd add to it: âWe need more shuttles from the bus-stop for functions like these, and metred autos, tooâ. Hoping thatâll happen before the 7th Festival next year.
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