The first film ever made in India was in 1913. The film, Raja Harishchandra, was made by Dadasaheb Phalke and had a Marathi speaking cast and crew. It was a silent film and hence it is hard to attribute it to any language. But Phalke was a Maharashtrian and the fact that he started what is now one of the biggest film industries in the world, is one of the largest feathers on the Marathi Manoos' cap.
Marathi film industry was a step behind Hindi cinema. Within a year of a Hindi talkie being released, V Shantaram made the first Marathi talkie Ayodhyecha Raja (1932). Over the next few decades, Marathi films went on to tell mythological tales from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Poorans, life stories of saints like Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram and more. Although the 50s & 60s saw quite a few films take heavily from folk art forms like Tamashaa and Laavani (who can forget the songs of Ranglyaa Ratri Asha?), the films also highlighted social issues through family dramas like Shikleli Baayko Havi (1959) where a man wants an educated girl for a wife but struggles with the marriage as he realises that his wife is superior to him and Molkarin (1963) a drama in which a doting mother chooses to stay on as a servant in her only son's plush city home because he has grown up to be a white collared gentleman who doesn't want to associate himself with his 'simple' parents. The films attempted to comment on various social issues whilst entertaining their audience with catchy dialogue, music and meaningful lyrics.
The 70s saw an emergence of comedy with Dada Kondke's films. With his self depreciating humour bordering on the naughty side, Kondke taught the Marathi audience how to laugh. When I was discussing Marathi cinema with a UK based NRI Bollywood fangirl and mentioned Kondke's brand of humour, her reaction was interesting.
"So he's like the Govinda of Marathi films!"
"Yes, only Kondke started it all decades before Govinda did." I replied.
The 80s is where I suppose the struggle for Marathi cinema began. Even though the decade saw emergence of stars like Ashok Saraf, Laxmikant Berde, Mahesh Kothare and the likes, Marathi cinema of the 80s struggled to compete with the Hindi film industry. The theatres had an option to only screen one film at a time and Hindi films were far more lucrative than their Marathi counterparts. Hindi films' popularity also reflected onto the 'popular' Marathi film genre which started to ape Hindi films and were either over the top comedies or family melodramas. So while the early 80s gave us classic comedies like Ashi Hi Banwa Banwi, Dhoomdhadaka etc. the late 80s ended up being repetitive mindless comedies and by the time 90s had dawned, Marathi Theatre was at a pinnacle but the films saw largely mediocre content. A few filmmakers like Dr Jabbar Patel (Jait Re Jait, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar), Amol Palekar (Bangarwadi, Kairee) and Sumitra Bhave (Devraee, Nital) made meaningful films about unconventional topics that made an impact but these were few and almost fell into the 'parallel' cinema category.
With the 2004 Sandeep Sawant film Shwaas being selected to be India's official entry to the Oscars, Marathi cinema got some attention from across the nation. The film had its faults, but it dealt with an unconventional topic - the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson who is about to lose eyesight. It lacked conventional elements like a love-angle or a villain (actually the grandchild's disease is a villain of sorts) and yet appealed to the masses and the classes alike due to its emotional nature. Shwaas bridged a wide gap between the rural and urban Marathi audiences and probably opened the door for filmmakers wanting to tell unconventional stories. While Nishikant Kamat's Dombivali Fast (2006) told an urban story of a middle-class man who turns into a vigilante because he is tortured by corruption, Mangesh Hadawale's Tingya (2008) explored a rural theme of a young boy's relationship with his soon to be butchered bull.
Mahesh Manjrekar produced Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy (2009) which touched upon the helplessness of the much discussed Marathi Manoos hit a chord with the Marathi audience and set the box office ringing. The film ran to a full-house in multiplexes and single-screens across Maharashtra bringing in a total of Rs26 crore. Riding the high of Shivajiraje Bhosale, Ravi Jadhav's Natarang (2010) opened on New Years Day and became a critical and a commercial success. Based on a 1978 novel by Anand Yadav by the same name, Natarang once again proved that critical and commercial success can go hand in hand for a film. Soon after Natarang, Manjrekar's Shikshanachya Aicha Gho came with its scathing (and a very melodramatic) comment on the education system, shortly followed by Paresh Mokashi's Harishchandrachi Factory, the story of the making of India's first ever movie which was also India's official entry to the 2010 Oscars. Making a total of Rs20 crores over the first quarter of 2010, Marathi films earned their audience despite Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots and SRK's My Name Is Khan.
2010 also saw Avadhoot Gupte's Zenda, a political drama based on the Thackeray family; Manjrekar's Lalbaug Paral based on the mill workers' issue; Abhijeet Satam's Haapus which was a comedy set in Konkan; Nitin Nandan's Jhink Chik Jhing which dealt with the issue of farmer suicides.
With such variety and such bold topics being touched upon, Marathi films are sure to have an appeal to an audience beyond the Marathi speaking population. And with films scaling from comedies to social dramas to epic biographies slated to release in the coming year, we think, it is imperative to showcase and critique these films for the larger audience who wants to enjoy cinema beyond the realm of its language. What do you think? Would you like to see Marathi film reviews on the site? Let us know
Marathi film industry was a step behind Hindi cinema. Within a year of a Hindi talkie being released, V Shantaram made the first Marathi talkie Ayodhyecha Raja (1932). Over the next few decades, Marathi films went on to tell mythological tales from the Ramayana, Mahabharata and the Poorans, life stories of saints like Dnyaneshwar, Tukaram and more. Although the 50s & 60s saw quite a few films take heavily from folk art forms like Tamashaa and Laavani (who can forget the songs of Ranglyaa Ratri Asha?), the films also highlighted social issues through family dramas like Shikleli Baayko Havi (1959) where a man wants an educated girl for a wife but struggles with the marriage as he realises that his wife is superior to him and Molkarin (1963) a drama in which a doting mother chooses to stay on as a servant in her only son's plush city home because he has grown up to be a white collared gentleman who doesn't want to associate himself with his 'simple' parents. The films attempted to comment on various social issues whilst entertaining their audience with catchy dialogue, music and meaningful lyrics.
The 70s saw an emergence of comedy with Dada Kondke's films. With his self depreciating humour bordering on the naughty side, Kondke taught the Marathi audience how to laugh. When I was discussing Marathi cinema with a UK based NRI Bollywood fangirl and mentioned Kondke's brand of humour, her reaction was interesting.
"So he's like the Govinda of Marathi films!"
"Yes, only Kondke started it all decades before Govinda did." I replied.
The 80s is where I suppose the struggle for Marathi cinema began. Even though the decade saw emergence of stars like Ashok Saraf, Laxmikant Berde, Mahesh Kothare and the likes, Marathi cinema of the 80s struggled to compete with the Hindi film industry. The theatres had an option to only screen one film at a time and Hindi films were far more lucrative than their Marathi counterparts. Hindi films' popularity also reflected onto the 'popular' Marathi film genre which started to ape Hindi films and were either over the top comedies or family melodramas. So while the early 80s gave us classic comedies like Ashi Hi Banwa Banwi, Dhoomdhadaka etc. the late 80s ended up being repetitive mindless comedies and by the time 90s had dawned, Marathi Theatre was at a pinnacle but the films saw largely mediocre content. A few filmmakers like Dr Jabbar Patel (Jait Re Jait, Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar), Amol Palekar (Bangarwadi, Kairee) and Sumitra Bhave (Devraee, Nital) made meaningful films about unconventional topics that made an impact but these were few and almost fell into the 'parallel' cinema category.
With the 2004 Sandeep Sawant film Shwaas being selected to be India's official entry to the Oscars, Marathi cinema got some attention from across the nation. The film had its faults, but it dealt with an unconventional topic - the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson who is about to lose eyesight. It lacked conventional elements like a love-angle or a villain (actually the grandchild's disease is a villain of sorts) and yet appealed to the masses and the classes alike due to its emotional nature. Shwaas bridged a wide gap between the rural and urban Marathi audiences and probably opened the door for filmmakers wanting to tell unconventional stories. While Nishikant Kamat's Dombivali Fast (2006) told an urban story of a middle-class man who turns into a vigilante because he is tortured by corruption, Mangesh Hadawale's Tingya (2008) explored a rural theme of a young boy's relationship with his soon to be butchered bull.
Mahesh Manjrekar produced Me Shivaji Raje Bhosale Boltoy (2009) which touched upon the helplessness of the much discussed Marathi Manoos hit a chord with the Marathi audience and set the box office ringing. The film ran to a full-house in multiplexes and single-screens across Maharashtra bringing in a total of Rs26 crore. Riding the high of Shivajiraje Bhosale, Ravi Jadhav's Natarang (2010) opened on New Years Day and became a critical and a commercial success. Based on a 1978 novel by Anand Yadav by the same name, Natarang once again proved that critical and commercial success can go hand in hand for a film. Soon after Natarang, Manjrekar's Shikshanachya Aicha Gho came with its scathing (and a very melodramatic) comment on the education system, shortly followed by Paresh Mokashi's Harishchandrachi Factory, the story of the making of India's first ever movie which was also India's official entry to the 2010 Oscars. Making a total of Rs20 crores over the first quarter of 2010, Marathi films earned their audience despite Aamir Khan's 3 Idiots and SRK's My Name Is Khan.
2010 also saw Avadhoot Gupte's Zenda, a political drama based on the Thackeray family; Manjrekar's Lalbaug Paral based on the mill workers' issue; Abhijeet Satam's Haapus which was a comedy set in Konkan; Nitin Nandan's Jhink Chik Jhing which dealt with the issue of farmer suicides.
With such variety and such bold topics being touched upon, Marathi films are sure to have an appeal to an audience beyond the Marathi speaking population. And with films scaling from comedies to social dramas to epic biographies slated to release in the coming year, we think, it is imperative to showcase and critique these films for the larger audience who wants to enjoy cinema beyond the realm of its language. What do you think? Would you like to see Marathi film reviews on the site? Let us know
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