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Review written by Vinoo
Language : Marathi
Director : Paresh Mokashi
‘Harishchandrachi Factory’(Harishchandra’s Factory) is the story of the making of India’s first full-length feature film. Dadasaheb Phalke gets to see an English film on the resurrection of Christ. He decides that very day to make a film for Indians, and the obvious decision is to make something about India and its culture. Beginning with his brief experimentation on the germination of a Pea plant he will go on to make a trip to England and will not rest until he makes that first film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ way back in 1913. His occasional trips to the red light area scouting for an actor to play his heroine is hilarious, particularly so his wife saying “Yes! I know he has gone there. So?”. Brilliant performances by the entire cast, particularly Phalke (Nandu Madhav), his wife (Vibhawari Deshpande) and the kids. A Biopic told in a way that is very interesting and funny at the same time. This film is definitely a very well-made tribute to Dadasaheb Phalke. The Director’s (Paresh Mokashi) theatre background is very evident and he has adapted very well the style onto film. This film stood out as one of the better films at the IFFK 2009, Trivandrum. The ‘Factory’ in the title comes from Phalke’s suggestion to his actors to use the foreign word to make it sound respectable at a time when cinema was unheard of and looked down upon. Releases on 29 January 2010. Don’t miss this one.
I must say Marathi films (‘Valu’, ‘Shwaas’ and ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ being the recent ones I have watched. ‘Tingya’ next.) have been a pleasant revelation for me. Give me Marathi any day over current Hindi. I sure hope to explore more Marathi in the days to come with Malayalam and Bengali disappointing of late. And in-spite of Sharmila Tagore’s talk of regional films and representation the National Film Awards, as always, has been a sham recognizing pedestrian Bollywood stuff. Hindi actors seem to win National Awards pretty easy. Either change voice or just don’t wear make up. Okay okay I am biased.
Recently watched ‘Abhiyum Naanum’ – good, ‘Pasanga’ – brilliant, ‘Eeram’ – average, ‘Veyil’ – average. I must say ‘Paruthiveeran’ and ‘Subramaniapuram’ has set off an entirely new genre of experimental films. Tamil films might churn out a lot of terrible stuff but right now it is where some of the best films are happening.
Also watched ‘3 Idiots’. Terrible. Raju Hirani lifting internet jokes and international ads 1. Russians using a pencil while Americans spent billions on research 2. The ‘racist’ visual of five women in Burkhas posing in front of a tourist spot while a man clicks them 3. New Zealand ad – the answer paper scene. Also, too much of a ‘Munnabhai’ hangover. But then if you are used to Bollywood benchmarks where stuff like ‘Welcome’, ‘Wanted’, ‘No entry’, ‘ etc are churned out, ‘3 Idiots’ is fabulous.
Useless trivia : Paresh Mokashi started as an actor with Theatre Academy, Pune. He has been into theatre for over twenty years and ‘Harishchandrachi Factory’ is his debut film.
Dadasahed Phalke (JJ School of Arts Graduate) was quite prolific making 95 full length and 26 short films in his career of 19 years. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award instituted in his honour has been awarded to veteran Cinematographer V K Murthy Saab this year. I sure hope to do a tribute watching his films starting with ‘Jaal’ before going onto the famous Guru Dutt films.
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