Sunday November 8, 01:43 AM

Source: Indian Express Finance

Debut delights

By Suman Tarafdar
Paresh mokashi This is my interpretation of Phalke Beyond the fact that India s highest cinematic state honour is named after him, comparatively few Indians, especially outside Maharashtra, know anything about Dadasaheb Phalke. Almost a century after Phalke made India s first feature film, Raja Harishchandra, another Maharashtrian, Paresh Mokashi, has made a delightful feature not a biopic, he is quick to clarify demystifying at least part of Dhundiraj Govind Phalke s multi-faceted personality. The 95-minute film, Harishchandrachi Factory, captures the years 1911, when Phalke saw a film for the first time, to 1913, when his film was released. A biography by Bapu Vatave first interested me, and I followed it up with considerable research for this film, including going through archival material at FTII, other biographies. He also accessed the 20 minutes of footage that has survived from the original 45-minute film made by Phalke. Mokashi was sure he did not want for his film black & white, sepia, flashbacks, and what he did simple storytelling, natural performances, still frame treatment, as was the practice in Phalke s time. Phalke was a printer, a photographer, a draftsman, an assistant to Raja Ravi Varma, and just before cinema overtook him, a magician who operated under the name of Professor Kelpha a name arrived at by reversing the syllables of his name in Marathi. Mokashi says Phalke was witty, liberal, short tempered, and a rare person who could come up with ideas of tackling problems without becoming emotional or serious . The film is a humorous and delightful look bringing out the social mores of the period, the prevalent fears and superstitions when Dadar was described as an unlivable, jungle like area and photographs were rumoured to suck out souls from their subjects. The ridicule failed to move Phalke, and he embarked on a journey to London to learn filmmaking. He was supported by wife Saraswati, who backed him almost unquestioningly except for agreeing to appear in front of the camera, and his children Babarai, Mahadev and later Mandakini. The latter part of the film depicts challenges of shooting the film from being arrested on suspicion of being a gang in disguise to finding a woman cast member and even the struggle to find audiences. As a debut filmmaker making a film on another debut filmmaker, Mokashi has another interesting parallel with Phalke. Like his predecessor, he too mortgaged his house to raise funds to make the film, which was not a big deal, he says. Now Paprika Media and UTV are with us and will support us, says Mokashi, who had planned to start canvassing for the film, also India s entry for the Oscar s, in New York before he was denied visa. Undetered, the film, which has already been doing rounds of the festival circuit, will also be participating in a few US festivals ahead of the Oscars. The film is also headed for BAFTA and the Golden Globe awards. In India, the film is being dubbed in Hindi and will be released in January. Faiza ahmed khan They make filmmaking seem so easy Fantastical, mega-budget and huge publicity those are perhaps the key factors in any Superman film. Well, not if you count Shaikh Nasir s Malegaon ka Superman made at a budget of about a lakh and seen in the area around the town more known for its power looms and communal fissures. For debut director Faiza Ahmed Khan, Nasir s efforts he s been making films for the love of it for the last 15 years, were a subject worth capturing. Before this film, I had been working as an assistant in a film, and here were these people who made filmmaking seem so easy. Nasir, who has a shop still, started with Malegaon ke Sholay, a spoof of Sholay. Its success spurred him to make others, till he tired of Bollywood and turned his attention towards Hollywood. In his film, his scrawny hero is a victim of many troubles, but nevertheless has to battle for his rights. Nasir has sometimes shot his film in five days, and for this one he told me 3-4 weeks, says the director. Fortunately I did not believe him, and the final shoot took about four months. Nor was it a ride without disputes. This is my first film, but his tenth or fifteenth. He would try and direct the documentary as well, Khan says. We finally agreed to stay out of each other s way. Khan was fascinated by the way Nasir took up local issues in his films. In Malegaon ka Superman, the chief villain, Ding Dong Ding, is a gutkha king whose punch line is a gleeful I love gandagi! Gutkha is a major problem in this communally sensitive town that saw bomb blasts in 2006. Khan too wanted to highlight the issues affecting Malegaon. My focal point were the power loom users, who are about three quarters of the total Muslim population of the town. These people have no benefits, are largely uneducated and have no unions. She says that like the Superman in Nasir s film, a lot of the people in the films work in the looms. I wanted to make a film for an India that is unaware, or does not acknowledge their presence, Khan says. I had my mother in mind when imagining an audience. Humour as a tool disarms you, something Nasir also uses in his films, she says. While Khan is sure she wants to work in the documentary format, she is also conscious that not being the most popular format, it might just be difficult to persuade Indian audiences to see them. Documentaries excite me a lot. As a format, they are changing. You can innovate. The net is a great tool to propagate. With digital formats, filmmaking has become much easier, she says. Funding was easy too, she says, as the KBS (Korean Broadcasting System) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) pitched in. Khan s documentary, which is also doing rounds of the festival circuit, has made Nasir and his films famous outside Malegaon. And given a shot to documentary films as well.