Mogra Phulala – A beautiful Marathi movie

Dr Vidya Hattangadi — Thu, 20 Jun 2019 01:01:58 +0000

On Saturday, 15^th June 2019 I watched one well-woven, well scripted, insightful Marathi movie “Mogra Phulala”. It was the second day of the release. The movie has an inimitable love story angle with a middle class Marathi man falling for a young widowed mother. He is brought up by a single parent (his mother), and, therefore he understands the young widowed lady’s dilemmas. Swapnil Joshi is the protagonist of the movie. He plays a man who has dedicated all his life attending to the well-being of his family, and forgets to take care of his personal life. The movie unfolds events after he meets the woman of his dreams. The situation becomes tough when his obsessive mother does not accept his relationship; there are other twists in the tale which are managed in a humorous manner without crouching into being frivolous or trivial. Swapnil has beautifully showcased how children get heavily influenced by the parent, especially the single parent who raises them.

The movie displays some deep human insights without being preachy or being conceited. There is subtleness for the sensitive viewer such as the fact that the hero at the start of the movie never rides his scooter past 40 kmph while at the end he is shown speeding away but there is no focus on the speedometer.

The movie is directed by Shrabani Deodhar and produced by Arjun Singgh Baran and Kartik Nishandar. Sachin Mote has written the dialogues and the screenplay. There are subtle comic timings in the movie; debutant Sonamm Nishandar plays the girl next door, who loves the hero, Swapnil Joshi. Sonamm has carried herself with ease and has played her role cheerfully. She has shown it perfectly what it is like being in love… When you are in love, you go all out to make the person feel good. A love-struck lady’s cheeks flush, her heart beats faster, she is dedicated to go all out to please the man she loves. She has portrayed all of these feelings brilliantly.

The director has trusted intelligence of the audience. The casting is brilliant with nuanced acting from the lead and support cast. Neena Kulkarni plays the obsessive mom to the perfection; Sai Deodhar is brilliant in the lead role, she has marvelously essayed her emotional breakdown scenes in the movie as the widowed single mother. She portrays the single mother’s longing to have her daughter with her, a mother trying to keep her daughter happy at any cost with lot of sensitivity. Chandrakant Kulkarni fits well in his character as Swapnil Joshi’s uncle; he is also a brilliant director in Marathi films and theatre.

As a viewer what I liked is the director has showcased how stressful single parenting can become. Each day they take on the world at the same time trying to give their kids the best of life. Each day they think about ways to make life better, and each day they worry that something will happen and they will not be able to provide for their loved ones. Their primary focus is on their children and making each child’s life as good as possible. But the children have their own set of issues; this fact has been sensitively portrayed in the movie. Running a household, working and bringing up children alone are not a gag thing.

Swapnil Joshi is considered as a Superstar and Chocolate hero of Marathi film industry. He has donned an entirely new look for the movie. Talented Swapnil has shed his image of a typical lover boy. He has essayed the role and look of a boy next door from a typical middle class family very well. I suggest all to please watch this movie at the earliest.

Katyar Kaljaat Ghusali

Dr Vidya Hattangadi — Thu, 17 Dec 2015 00:33:24 +0000

Katyar Kaljaat Ghusali

This film truly has set a milestone in Marathi film industry for terrific acting by Sachin Pilgaonkar, Subodh Bhave and rest of the team; Shankar Mahadevan’s acting debut needs a special mention here! The music is outstanding. The movie consists of great golden numbers and some new tracks effortlessly sung by Shankar Mahadevan, Rahul Deshpande, Arijit Singh and Mahesh Kale. The classical numbers consist of some great harkats and murkis.

The movie is based on the 45 years old, everlasting play of the same name, in which music was composed by Vasantrao Deshpande. It is now brought alive by Shankar Mahadevan and Sachin Pilgaonkar, who play Pandit Bhanushankar and Aftab Hussein Bareliwale, known as Khan Saheb. The story is set in the 1700s, when the British Raj was on the rise and Maratha power was on the decline. Set in the kingdom of Vishrampur, which is in the Deccan, the story is uniquely narrated by the Katyar (dagger), and her vision of the art forms in India.

Panditji appreciates Khan Saheb’s voice, his style of singing and helps him settle in Vishrampur. Panditji is a genuine artist who accepts Khansaheb’s aptitude and singing talent. He introduces Khan saheb in the court of Vishrampur King. The King of Vishrampur declares that the Royal Singer of the Court will live in a mansion and will own the coveted dagger. The King says that an artist has ego and does not like to be compared. The dagger will remind the artist to slash his ego. He also declares that the Royal Singer will be pardoned for one murder. Fourteen years Khan saheb loses competition against Panditaji and finally wins the competition viciously.

Shankar Mahadevan mesmerizes with his rendition of Pandit Jitendra Abhisheki’s magical compositions while Rahul Deshpande also fascinates with his classical harakats, tanas and murkis. This 45 year old drama is brought alive on the screen by Subodh Bhave’s directorial debut. This film restores the fact that music binds people across generations and boundaries. The storyline of this film revolves around two gharanas of music. Sachin’s Khansaheb wages a war of music against Shankar Mahadevan’s Pandit Bhanu Shankar Shastri. While Khansaheb represents the Mughal style Miraj gharana, Panditji belongs to the Hindu-Maharashtrian style gharana of Central India.

Subodh Bhave‘s Katyar Kaljat Ghusali succeeds in combining both music and the old drama while doing justice to the wide range of Indian classical music. The old natyasangeet is used as it is though new singers sing it while taking the story forward. This is extremely challenging. Bhave plays the role of Panditji’s disciple Sadashiv in the film. He has acted effortlessly. He is expressive and has shared screen space with Sachin Pilgaonkar’s par excellence acting. Mahadevan is vibrant as Panditji, growing on-screen throughout the film. A more self-effacing asset of the film is the relationship between Zarina played by Amruta Khanvilkar) and Uma played by Mrunmayee Deshpande, the daughters of the two singers, who also display commendable acting skill. The film’s main takeaway is Sachin Pilgaonkar’s performance; his chaste Urdu dialogues are worth listening to again and again. He has credited actress late Meena Kumari for his knowledge of Urdu. He effortlessly plays Khan Saheb with as much venom as love in his character. Khan Saheb believes in his art as Pilgaonkar does in his acting in the film.

Katyar Kaljat Ghusli literally means a dagger torn through the heart. All classical music lovers must watch this movie. It is a feast to ears; especially Marathi Natya Sangeet. The dialogues of the film are terrificly written by Prakash Kapadia.

Producers: Nitin Keni, Nikhil Sane
Director: Subodh Bhave
Writer: Purushottam Darwhekar
Screenplay, Dialogues: Prakash Kapadia
Music: Pt. Jitendra Abhisheki, Shankar Ehsaan Loy

marathi movie – Dr. Vidya Hattangadi

Mogra Phulala – A beautiful Marathi movie

Katyar Kaljaat Ghusali

Katyar Kaljaat Ghusali