Monthly Archives: May 2022

This actor played both Ram and Sita in a movie

Legendary filmmaker Dhundiraj Govind Phalke aka Dadasaheb Phalke gave birth to Indian cinema after he made the very first Indian movie Raja Harishchandra in 1913. Hence, he is known as the father of Indian cinema.

Phalke was smitten by the Hindu mythology. Hence, his films were mostly based on various mythological tales. One such film he made four years after Raja Harishchandra was Lanka Dahan.

Lanka Dahan is based on one episode from the epic Ramayana. Sita is abducted by Ravana and kept in Lanka [now Sri Lanka]. Her husband Lord Rama joins hands with his greatest devotee Hanuman along with his vaanar sena [army of animals] to help free Sita. In order to confirm if Sita is indeed in Lanka, Hanuman flies off to the island and finds Sita over there.

He presents the ring given by Rama as his identity and proof. While Hanuman is about to return, he is captured by Ravana’s army and is presented in the court. Ravana orders Hanuman’s tail to be set on fire. As soon as his tail is ignited, Hanuman escapes from the court and burns the entire city of Lanka with his tail [Hence, the title Lanka Dahan. Dahan translates to “setting anything on fire”].

Anna Salunke as Sita in Lanka Dahan — Photo courtesy: Wikipedia

Hanuman escapes from Lanka and gets reunited with Rama at the other shore of the Indian ocean. His act gives a blow to Ravana’s morale.

Women weren’t allowed to act in movies in those days. So it was a common practice to cast men in female characters after working a lot on their look and attire. Actor Anna Salunke regularly played female characters in Phalke’s movies. The filmmaker had cast him for the first time in his first aforementioned movie Raja Harishchandra.

Salunke used to work in a small restaurant in the Grant Road locality of Mumbai. When Phalke was struggling to find a female to play the role of Taramati in Raja Harishchandra, he, out of sheer co-incidence, came across Salunke in the restaurant. After getting convinced that he can be a good fit for Taramati, Phalke immediately cast him. Salunke continued his association with the filmmaker in his future films.

Salunke achieved a rarest of the rare feat in Phalke’s Lanka Dahan after he was cast as both Rama and Sita in the movie. The reason for casting the same actor in both the roles isn’t known. But it made Salunke the first actor in Indian cinema to play a double role.

Even more than 100 years after the film released, this remains a rare feat of a man playing the role of two people of two different genders in one movie. In the picture above, Salunke is seen as Sita.

This trivia was recently shared in the event CineTalkies in Mumbai organized by the Information and Broadcasting Ministry.

Rare find of a scene from Lanka Dahan:

Also read:

Review of Harishchandrachi Factory – based on the making of Phalke’s first movie

Book review: On The Deathbed by Karthik K B Rao

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To say that the Coronavirus or COVID-19 played havoc in the world in the last two years or so would be an understatement. It made people go through hell and changed the way of life for the entire world.

This was more evident during the second wave of the virus. When the first wave subsided, many of us assumed that the worst was over but that turned out to be false and how. Many healthy individuals literally went through horrid times.

One of those unfortunate ones was author Karthik K B Rao. His book On The Deathbed: My Encounter With The COVID-19 Virus lists down his ordeal after getting infected and his fightback in a narrative form.

Karthik and his wife Sushma got infected with the virus in May 2021. While his wife’s condition wasn’t severe, the same wasn’t the case with Karthik. The virus started affecting him at such a high level that he started facing numerous issues, including low oxygen levels. It was an uphill task to get him admitted in the ICU (Intensive Care Unit) of a government hospital.

But that wasn’t the end of the ordeal for Karthik. It was actually the beginning. He had to be shifted to a private hospital in the middle of the night as his condition deteriorated further and there were doubts being raised about his survival.

The aforementioned description of the content might give an idea that On The Deathbed is a sad or, at least, a very serious book. But that is far from the case. While the book does narrate how he went through hell and had to struggle even to carry out the simplest of tasks as answering nature’s calls, it is told in an engaging manner with regular doses of witty and, at times, dark humor.

In fact, after finishing the initial few pages itself, I forgot that On The Deathbed is non-fiction. It actually appears more like those survival genre films like Trapped (2017). Just like the film, we feel for the protagonist here as he goes through a rollercoaster ride of survival. There is a feeling of relief in the end, although we know beforehand that Karthik has survived.

Also read: Book review – The Hidden Hindu

A surprise element is the portion in the end written by his wife Sushma. One realizes that she went through a bigger hell than her husband. Even this aspect is narrated like gripping fiction.

The author is able to achieve the means despite using simple, everyday language that can appeal even to an ordinary layman, just like his earlier book The Mahabharata Code.

The only minus point here is the author addressing the virus as ‘Chinki virus’ once. This could have been avoided as it sounds problematic.

Overall: On The Deathbed: My Encounter With The COVID-19 Virus is a gripping tale of survival of a couple that went through hell during the second wave.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Publishers: Notion Press

Pages: 124

Price: Rs 200

Puneet Issar to play a film director in the period musical play Dhappa

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The last time veteran actor Puneet Issar was seen on stage was in his mythological play Mahabharata: The Epic Tale where he played the iconic character of Duryodhan for which he is known.

He will now be seen in a completely different production titled Dhappa in the role of a foreign-returned filmmaker named Shyam.

Written and directed by Akshay Mishra, the play is produced by him and Sharon Chandra for Aum Theatre Mumbai. Chandra is also one of the actors in the play and she will also be performing an eight-minute kathak dance. She is a trained Kathak dancer from Jaipur Gharana. She is originally from Fiji Islands and has worked in numerous plays.

The play also stars Pavitra Sarkar and Anuradha Athlekar.

Dhappa is based in the film industry of Bombay in the 1950s. Kumar is a struggling actor who could never make it big. He is also infamous in the media for his rude and crass behavior. Even though acting was never his choice, he still tried to keep the flame alive only for his sister Iravati, whose ambition of dance could never be a reality.

Along comes Shyam, a foreign-returned director who is going to film his dream project. Shyam soon becomes a friend and confidant to Kumar. Kumar is overjoyed thinking that maybe he will get a chance to prove his mettle as a successful actor. But Shyam has other plans in mind.

Speaking about the play and his casting, Issar said in a statement, “It is an utmost delight working with Akshay Mishra and Aum Theatre Mumbai. My role in Dhappa is something that I have never explored but have always yearned for. I remember asking Akshay why he thought of me for the role as I have always played opposite characters. I always wanted to play a soft-spoken character but never got the opportunity. This young team is very close to me and they are my people. I am excited for everyone to see Dhappa and believe me this magnificent play is here to stay!”

As part of this performance, Issar will also be seen giving a monologue titled Patthar Ke Pankh, which was written decades ago by his father Mr Suresh Issar, a noted director and producer.

On how the play came into being, Mishra said, “These two years, I resorted to re-watching some old movies and I was still mesmerized. Movies from the 1950s and 60s are never a one-time watch. The dances, music, costumes, and sets were so endearing. One always looks up to these veterans who have worked tirelessly and given us such invaluable gems. We are forever indebted to their work which gives us a glimpse of a beautiful era gone by. I wanted to recreate some of that time through a play. And Dhappa was born!”

He added, “But it was not an easy feat. I researched a lot on the types of thumris that were played during that era and endeavored to write thumris that resonated with my audience. I was inspired by the thumris sung by Shamshad Begum, Begum Akhtar, Siddheshwari Devi, and many more and tried to recreate a little sprinkle of that golden era that these maestros ruled in. I can’t wait for the audience to hear these beautiful pieces of music.”

Mishra has also written the lyrics for the play, including the thumris. He is famous for his experimental play Nangi Aawazein, based on a short story by Saadat Hasan Manto.

The play will feature live singing from singers, Radha Srivastava, Amit Ranjan Srivastava and Ajit Kumar Srivastava.

Dhappa will be premiered on 18 June at Bandra’s St. Andrews Auditorium at 7 pm.

Why Kaluwitharana’s stint in ’96 World Cup is overrated

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Note: The aim of this article is not to insult or badmouth Romesh Kaluwitharana. This is just an attempt to present some facts and statistics that are generally overlooked when it comes to the 1996 World Cup

The 1996 World Cup turned out to be memorable because an underdog team like Sri Lanka not only emerged victorious but played like true champions throughout. Aravinda De Silva became the hero for them in the final against Sri Lanka at Lahore where he scored an unbeaten 107 and picked up 3 wickets.

But a large amount of credit has been given to Sri Lanka’s openers Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana. Both the batters were given the license to go after the bowling right from the word go and score as many runs as possible during the field restrictions (15 overs).

Both were known to revolutionize the role of opening batters. They started opening the batting in the series in Australia just before the 1996 World Cup and it worked during that tour.

Till today, Jayasuriya and Kaluwitharana are known as the destructive opening pair of the 96 cup. I have read numerous articles saying the same and heard commentators over the years glorifying both of them as dangerous batters of that series.

However, that is far from true. There is no doubt that Jayasuriya had a great world cup both with the bat and the ball and was rightly adjudged the man of the series. But to say that Kaluwitharana was also a success story in that series doesn’t sound logical.

While this might sound harsh, that isn’t my intention here. Just have a look at his scores in the whole series:

v/s Zimbabwe: 0

v/s India: 26

v/s Kenya: 33

v/s England: 8

v/s India: 0

v/s Australia: 6

ESPNCricinfo in an article says “he [Kaluwitharana] was an integral figure in Sri Lanka’s astonishing World Cup victory that winter.” But his aforementioned performances tell a completely different story. He played 6 innings in that series and his total number of runs amount to just 73! His average comes down to just 12.16.

When you say that a batter had a good world cup, one would expect at least one score of 50 from him. If not this, there should be at least few scores in the 30s and 40s as that would have helped the team get a good opening partnership. But Kaluwitharana scored in double figures just twice.

He gave a good start to Sri Lanka in just two matches and one of them was against an associate team that was playing international cricket for the first time. On top of that, he had two golden ducks. He failed to score in all the three matches in the knockout stage where his total remained just 14 runs.

How can he be considered a ‘integral figure’ in Sri Lanka’s victory? You can’t be considered an important contributor to the team if you don’t contribute.

Kaluwitharana’s overall career was surely much better than this. He was a good partner for Jayasuriya before and after the 1996 World Cup. But to say he was a part of a destructive opening pair in the 96 cup would be more than an overstatement.

Also read:

One of Wasim Akram’s biggest achievements is forgotten