Marathi films make a mark

PUNE: Marathi films continued their good run at the national level by bagging eight awards at the 58th National Film awards, announced in New Delhi on Thursday.
Children battling hunger, poverty and illiteracy, a father's reluctance to educate his son, a surrogate mother's bond with the child she has chosen to bear and an abandoned woman's triumph over life's travails -- Marathi films highlighting socially-relevant issues have yet again earned top honours at the awards.
Rajesh Pinjani-directed 'Baboo Band Baaja,' a riveting tale of a father reluctant to educate his son, won the Indira Gandhi award for best debut film. It also picked best actress award for Mitalee Jagtap Varadkar and best child artiste for Vivek Chabukswar. 'Champions,' a tale of two poor boys struggling to get an education, was adjudged the best film on social issues, along with best child artistes awards for Shantanu Ranganekar & Machindra Gadkar.
'Mee Sindhutai Sapkal,' a biopic directed by Anant Mahadevan on noted social worker Sindhutai Sapkal, won awards for best screenplay (adapted) and dialogues, a special jury award, and best male playback singer award for playback singer Suresh Wadkar. Samruddi Porey's directorial debut, 'Mala Aai Vhaychay,' a sensitive story on a surrogate mother's connection with another woman's child, picked up the best Marathi film award. These are the fresh crop of Marathi films joining a legion of National award winners of the previous years, like 'Natarang,' 'Harishchandrachi Factory, 'Jogwa, 'Tingya' and 'Nirop,' to name a few.
Aishwarya Narkar, producer of 'Champions,' has plans to showcase the films at different schools across the state. "We want to take the film to the grass-roots level in order to make people realise the importance of education and the evils of child labour. The film has a very positive and inspiring message on education, that even those deprived of the right to literacy, can create opportunities for themselves to be educated and therefore, succeed," said Narkar.
Samruddi Porey, a practising lawyer at the Bombay High Court, was inspired to make a film on a surrogacy-related case she was handling. She spent over two years researching on in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) governing surrogacy, and put in her own money into making the film. She contributed to the film's screenplay and dialogues and editing. "I'm overwhelmed by the National Award that my debut film has received. The film has won several awards, but so far, this is my biggest achievement yet," said Porey, who is now busy working on her next film on another socially-relevant topic.
The acute poverty of 'bandwallahs' in state's Vidarbha region, was an issue close to Puneite Pinjani's heart, as he hails from a village in Nagpur. With such a prestigious win for his debut feature film, Pinjani feels he has finally arrived on the film-making scene. "The film shows the struggles of a 'bandwallah' and his family. I love the Marathi language and I will continue making Marathi films. This win has made a big difference to my career, but I'm not going to rush into making another film, till I get a convincing project. I don't intend to shift to Mumbai, instead I will continue working from Pune," says Pinjani, who is currently busy producing two Marathi films.