The Mumbai Film Festival 2012 played host to the Symposium on Marathi Films

Girish Kulkarni

The Mumbai Film Festival 2012 played host to the “Symposium on Marathi Films,” an awareness-cum-debate forum for the Marathi Film Industry and its audiences. Conducted jointly by Akhil Bhartiya Chitrapat Mahamandal and MAMI FILM MART, the “Symposium on Marathi Films” discussed the ways in which Marathi cinema can start tapping its audiences more and emerge from the shadow of Bollywood. We present the points of view of three of its stalwarts.

Leading Marathi Film actor of Valu and Deool fame, Girish Kulkarni, spoke to Pandolin about how Marathi cinema industry can move from strength to strength. Here are the highlights of what this maverick actor had to offer:

[box_light]“For the Marathi Film Industry to gain in strength, it needs to produce both niche and popular work. It also needs to discover and invent new, path-breaking narratives. It needs to target and include non-Marathi speaking people both within the process of film-production and at the consumer end. Marathi filmmakers need to use the language of cinema to cleave through division of identities. Good cinema transcends. Don’t a host of World Cinema and Korean cinema have an appeal for us? Audiences and consumers of cinema should know that Marathi cinema is being shown in the World Cinema bracket on satellite channels abroad. All that it needs to reach complete fruition is sustained intensity.”[/box_light]

Ravi Jadhav

Marathi cinema’s leading director and the man behind masterpieces such as Balgandharv and Natrang, Ravi Jadhav, believes that Marathi cinema has started reclaiming its lost space and has become a champion of meaningful cinema in India and the world. Pandolin presents a few acute observations on the contemporary Marathi film scene by this master of pathos:

[box_light]“Marathi cinema has been representing Indian cinema in international film festivals quite consistently for the last few years. Two very significant and sensitive Marathi films, Baromas and Balak Palak, are going to be screened at the South Asian Film Festival 2012 in New York. Among the other Marathi films that have stood out critically-cum-commercially in 2012 are Kaksparsh, Masala, and Jan Gan Man.”[/box_light]

Sushma Shiromani

Producer, director, and distributor, Sushma Shiromani, feels that Marathi cinema needs to innovate while being rooted. She tells Pandolin about the pressing needs of the hour which if attended to could change its course:

[box_light]“Marathi cinema needs to mix representation of Marathi cultural realities and the appealing entertainment element if it wants to reach audiences. While newness in Marathi cinema cannot not come in at the cost of cultural alienation of its native audiences, cultural representation in Marathi cinema also needs to keep pace with our changing times and depict the impacts of these changes on Marathi society, language, and mores of life. Only then can we produce cinema that’s both commercially successful and artistically enriching.”[/box_light]

> Filmmakers and other Film Production Professionals panelists.

Satish Rajwade, Ravi Jadhav, and Girish Kulkarni