Monthly Archives: February 2024

Big celebs endorsing UNRECOGNIZED Phalke Awards adds confusion & lowers value of real Phalke Award

Dadasaheb Phalke Award is the highest honour for a film artiste in India. It is given each year by the Government of India to one individual for his or her outstanding contribution to cinema. It is a part of the National Awards each year. However, over the last several years, a number of private awards have been started in the name of Dadasaheb Phalke, which has not only created confusion among the public but is also threatening to lower the importance of the actual Dadasaheb Phalke Award.

The new private awards in the name of Phalke that have cropped up in recent years are – Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards, Dadasaheb Phalke Excellence Awards and Dadasaheb Phalke Film Foundation Awards.

With the name ‘Dadasaheb Phalke’ attached to each of the awards, the public comes under the impression that a particular film artiste has received the prestigious Phalke Award given by the Government. What makes things worse is that a section of the media also reports as if an artiste has received the real Phalke award. At times, they don’t even care to mention the full name of the award and that this is not the actual Phalke award.

A few years ago, there was a lot of hue and cry on social media when news about Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh of MSG fame receiving the ‘Phalke Award’ spread like fire. It was later found out that he was given one of the private Phalke awards and not the actual one. It was all a result of a publication giving a misleading headline, which created an online uproar.

This year, the confusion regarding Phalke awards increased manifolds. Earlier, not many big stars used to attend and accept these awards. But this year, some of the biggest names in the industry – like Shah Rukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor Khan, Rani Mukerji, Ranbir Kapoor, Anil Kapoor, Shahid Kapoor, etc, – attended the Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards earlier this week and some of them even won in different categories. Also the kind of media coverage this particular awards function received this year was never seen before.

One can just imagine the kind of recognition this unrecognized Phalke Award has now received with the endorsement of some of the biggest names. On top of that, some media houses, like previous years, didn’t care to mention the full name of the award, making it look as if these stars have won the actual Phalke Award. The headlines in the press releases regarding these awards shared by some PR (Public Relation) executives also mentioned only ‘Phalke Award.’

These stars have either a shelf or a room full of awards. So it’s sad to see them endorsing these awards that are unrecognized by the government just to add on to their tally of awards. It is not possible to stop any firm or organization from organizing any private awards. So the least that the industry can do is to not give them importance in order to maintain the sanctity of the actual Phalke Award and, more importantly, the honour of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, the Father of Indian Cinema.

Tomorrow, someone might just start a parallel National or Padma Awards by adding a few more words in the title.

Also Read: Amaltash (Marathi movie) Review: Tenderly created saga on love, life & music

Aata Vel Zaali (Marathi movie) Review: Film about active euthanasia brings a smile

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Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Guzaarish advocated the idea of euthanasia on a patient who was completely bed-ridden and in a vegetative state from below his head. But filmmaker Ananth Narayan Mahadevan’s Aata Vel Zaali (English title: It’s Time To Go) shows two protagonists wanting to end their lives through active euthanasia despite not suffering from any major illness.

The movie starts off in 2018. A senior citizen couple Shashidhar Lele (Dilip Prabhavalkar) and Ranjana Lele (Rohini Hattangadi) lives alone peacefully in a middle-class household in Mumbai. They would appear content with life to anyone. However, they have a desire of ending their lives through active euthanasia despite being fit. They feel they have carried out all their life’s responsibilities and have nothing more to offer in terms of productivity. Hence, they wish to end their respective lives while being in a happy and peaceful state.

Mr and Mrs Lele are considered weird by their extended family members and neighbours but that is not going to deter them. They write to the President of India about their wish and try other means as well but to no avail. But they are not ready to give up.

The biggest challenge for Aata Vel Zaali was to make the audience take Mr and Mrs Lele’s wish seriously and the film achieves that convincingly. You might not agree with Shashidhar and Ranjana’s desire of ending their lives this way but the reasons given by them appear sensible and convincing. In fact, some examples presented are even praiseworthy. For example, Mr Lele once quoting a philosopher saying that if you want a happy ending to your story, you must know where to end it.

The idea about an old couple wanting to end their lives brings back memories of Mahesh Bhatt’s classic Saaransh (1984). However, in that movie, the couple decides to end their life out of depression born out of the grief of their young son’s untimely death. But Mr and Mrs Lele are far from depressed. Interestingly, the 1984 movie also featured Hattangadi as the wife, although in a completely different character.

Despite the film speaking about death throughout its duration, it never gets sad. On the contrary, Aata Vel Zaali also qualifies as a light-hearted drama with a number of dialogues by Mahendra Patil that either make you laugh or smile. The picturization (cinematography by Pradip S Kanvildkar) also plays an important part here. The entire film is visually rich even if it shows ordinary, everyday visuals. This was also the case with Mahadevan’s earlier Hindi movie Gaur Hari Dastaan.

There was huge responsibility on Dilip Prabhavalkar and Rohini Hattangadi’s shoulders. It was their performance that was largely going to be responsible for making the audience understand and agree to their unusual demand. To say that they succeeded in their task would be an understatement. The two veterans add plenty of life to a film about death. Their unusual chemistry is felt right from the first scene. The rest of the actors like Jaywant Wadkar, Smita Tambe, Bharat Dabholkar and others offer good support in a limited screen time.

After so many plusses, you expect a bit more from the final scene than what is offered. Nevertheless, the climax isn’t disappointing.

Overall: Aata Vel Zaali is a smooth-flowing feel good film despite the topic it deals with.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Director: Ananth Mahadevan Narayan

Producers: Dinesh Bansal, G K Agrawal and Ananth Narayan Mahadevan

Writers: Ananth Mahadevan Narayan and Mahendra Patil

Cast: Dilip Prabhavalkar and Rohini Hattangadi

Also Read: Amaltash (Marathi movie) Review: Tenderly created saga on love, life & music

Amaltash (Marathi movie) Review: Tenderly created saga on love, life & music

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Stories about protagonists suffering from a severe illness have been dealt brilliantly in India in films like Anand and Kal Ho Na Ho. Filmmaker Suhas Desale’s Marathi movie Amaltash, which also deals with an important character going through a serious crisis, reaches to that level, although its way different than both movies in terms of the story, narrative and handling.

Amaltash (which translates to ‘a month and a week’) takes place in Pune and it revolves around Rahul (Rahul Deshpande). He lives with his elder sister (Deepti Mate), her husband (Bhushan Mate) and their daughter Dimple (Trisha Kunte). Rahul is a musician and singer who works in a showroom selling and looking after musical instruments. He was once a part of a band with the same people he is working in the shop. The band was dissolved due to unfortunate circumstances.

Rahul once visits one of their customers and well-wishers Mrs Potdar (Pratibha Padhye) for some music instrument related work. Over there, he meets her young granddaughter Keerthi (Pallavi Paranjpe), who stays with her father in Canada and has visited Pune for some time. The two become friendly and she gradually becomes a part of Rahul’s life because of their common passion towards music.

Amaltash isn’t narrated as the synopsis above. The movie is a collage of scenes, sequences and conversations from real life where the viewer is a keen observer. The narrative takes a few minutes for one to get accustomed to. But once that happens, you just can’t leave the film. The observer in you becomes more and more curious and you never realize when you get emotionally attached to the characters and their story. The film is narrated with a lot of tenderness, which you feel every now and then.

Another major positive here is the dialogue. The conversations are straight out of real life but deep and impactful enough to add to the overall effect. Music plays an important role but the film doesn’t present songs in a conventional manner. What you get is live, unplugged and intimate performances taking place inside homes when friends meet.

During all this, the movie also presents Pune in a very different and pleasant manner. It does what Tu Hai Mera Sunday did for Mumbai.

But the biggest triumph of Amaltash is the handling of the pre-climax and climax with, again, such tenderness, that it moves you no ends but at the same (without giving away much) is full of life.

As far as the technical aspects are concerned, the camerawork, background score and editing gel well with the nature of the film and stick to being simple.

The same is the case with the performances as well. Rahul Deshpande was tremendous in Mee Vasantrao (although he shot this film after Amaltash). With Amaltash, he proves that he is as good an actor as a singer. A major effect one feels in the movie is because to his act. Pallavi Paranjpe is thoroughly believable as a Canadian return. She never overdoes with her language and succeeds in speaking without speaking much at times.

Also read: Kennedy review: Anurag Kashyap’s political cum crime drama is impressive

Deepti Mate, Trisha Kunte and the rest of the supporting cast is flawless too. It is interesting to note that all the actors had faced the camera for the first time and they belong to some diverse fields of work.

It is difficult to point out any major flaw or negative point in Amaltash. Perhaps, the pace could have been quickened a bit in a few portions before the climax.

Overall: Amaltash is a thoroughly moving piece of cinema on love, life and music.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5

Director: Suhas Desale

Producers: Darshan Productions and Medium Strong Productions

Writers: Suhas Desale, Mayuresh Wagh and Pallavi Paranjpe

Cast: Rahul Deshpande, Pallavi Paranjpe, Deepti Mate, Trisha Kunte, Pratibha Padhye

In an era of govt pleasers, Bhakshak comes as a beacon of hope

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Filmmaker Pulkit’s recent saga Bhakshak, starring Bhumi Pednekar in the lead, tells a fictitious tale inspired from horrific case of a girls’ shelter home in Muzaffarpur, Bihar. In 2018, it came to light that a number of orphan girls in a shelter home in the town run by an NGO (Non-Governmental Organization) were subject to rape and sexual abuse. The perpetrators roamed free because of their political connections.

But the truth finally came out and after a long period of trial and the people alleged in the crime were punished. The Supreme Court reportedly criticized the then government of Bihar over the delay in filing the correct FIR (First Information Report) in the case.

Bhakshak, which is streaming on Netflix, is about an honest and upright journalist Vaishali Singh (Pednekar) who runs a small news channel called Koshish News, with the help from her only staff member Bhaskar Sinha (Sanjay Mishra) in Patna. She gets to know about the gruesome case of rape, molestation and murder of a number of orphaned girls in a shelter home in Munawwarpur (name changed) after a source hands over a copy of an audit report.

The report states that such heinous crimes are taking place in a shelter home for girls in Munawwarpur. The report is ignored by the authorities since the shelter home is run by Bansi Sahu (Aditya Srivastav), who has major connections among the political bigwigs in the state. How Vaishali and Bhaskar make efforts for the victims to be freed and given justice by facing various obstacles, including Vaishali’s own family, forms the rest of the story.

Bhakshak is a fine example of narrating a chilling tale in an honest manner. The narrative doesn’t give too much footage to the gruesome crimes but still establishes the wrongdoings and its perpetrators in a heart-wrenching manner. This and various other moments are an indication of mature filmmaking, barring few creative liberties here and there. Bhumi Pednekar, Sanjay Mishra and Aditya Srivastav’s brilliant performances also play a large role in creating an impact. You can’t help but feel for Bhumi’s character and you can’t stop hating Srivastav and his associates.

But Bhakshak is more special because it comes at a time when government propaganda films or movies where the government or the ruling party is pleased are seen regularly. It’s quite cringeworthy how artistes bow down to the political class either to be in their good books or because they share the same ideology or some other reason. The number of such films have increased in recent times, obviously because of the general elections nearing.

During such an era, Bhakshak comes across as a breath of fresh air or a beacon of hope when it comes to the conscience of the film industry. The movie takes a hard-hitting route and provides a no-holds-barred approach when it comes to portraying the criminals and those with criminal mindsets within the political class. The film’s bravery can be seen also from the fact that the makers have named the state of Bihar instead of creating a fictitious state in India, like quite a lot of films.

On the other hand, we have films that take the easiest way out where they pretend to tackle something of national or social importance but eventually and indirectly end up pleasing the government or its ideology. In some cases, however, they have even stopped pretending to be neutral.

Interestingly, this is the second film by Shah Rukh Khan’s Red Chillies Entertainment that has dared to show the mirror to the perpetrators of heinous crimes by the powerful. Just a few months ago, the banner did the same with Jawan, which presented not just one but several humongous loopholes and injustice in our system.

Also read: Fighter Review: Regular cross-border action drama