Hey hote Vidooshak

"Who's your Favorite Actor?"
Ashok Saraf.
"Who Ashok Saraf?".

Well, that wasn't a hypothetical conversation between my friend and me. Glad that friend proved inspiration to throw some light on forgotten souls of Marathi cinema. Not as ubiquitously known among regional movie houses like the South Indian ones, it found itself always overshadowed by the Big Brother Bollywood.

Marathi cinema has interestingly quite a long history. One might seem to be playing with facts to consider the silent movie "Raja Harishchandra" as the first Marathi movie. The director of the movie was DadaSaheb Phalke, now considered the Grand Old Man of Indian cinema. It was not too late after first talkie movie Alam Ara (1931) when first Marathi talkie "Ayodhyache Raja"(1932) was also released featuring Durga Khote who went on to have a successful career spanning almost 4 decades. Independent India saw new trends. The Shivaji template worked out for directors and despite such movies being stereotypes, I quite feel they symbolized an era that gave a new identity to Marathi cinema. At the same time V Shanataram arrived on scene who won fame in regional as well as popular Hindi cinema ( remember Dr. Amar Kotnis ki Amar Kahani! ). A decade later was to see emergence of Dada Kondke whose witty puns were signed immortal the day they came into existence .Nilu Phule on the other hand gave a serious look to Marathi cinema as never before and one would quite agree that Phule could have competed well with Pran had he been more visible to the Hindi audience.

Though it would be unfair, if not a crime, to circumvent a period of history that saw Dada Kondke and Nilu Phule, I honestly feel that if there was any time in Marathi cinema that catapulted the regional movie machine on a national stage, it was the vibrant 80s. Here is a time which I find myself more familiar with and can talk at length about. Marathi movies became synonymous to the comedy genre with the super hit pair of Ashok Saraf and Laxmikant Berde, most of them flowing from the creative mind of Sachin who also acted in some of them. Another young actor Mahesh Kothare who would appear as Inspector Mahesh in most of the movies went on to become a successful director. His exploits in direction included shooting first Marathi movie in anamorphic format and introducing Digital Dolby sound effects in Marathi movies. The expression-perfect Dilip Prabhavalkar stands out even to this day with his roles ranging from comic to the very serious indicating the viscosity of Marathi talent that existed in the 80s.

Marathi actresses have been beautiful as ever. The Golden 80s were no short of such eves. Often called "Wondergirl", Varsha Usgaonkar and her almost twin Archana Joglekar would have set enough tongues wagging while Nishigandha Wad with a smile-that-would-flank-a-mile would impress with her innocent homemaker looks. Ashivini Bhave and Mrinal Kulkarni, though almost acting in characteristically different movies completed the women brigade that shaped the 80s and the 90s. Not that it has been downhill since then. For those who doubt it, catch a glimpse of Amruta Khanwelkar from Golmaal.

Present Marathi cinema enjoys popular regional support and its heartening to see standards being maintained by actors like Bharat Jadhav,Shreyas Talpade, Atul Kulkarni and contemporaries. Recently movies such as Shwaas, Dombivilli Fast and Valu won accolades even outside the regional perimeter. Screenplay is still largely original and lifestyle of young and urban is well amalgamated with classic theatrics and regional culture. However, with the death of veteran actor Laxmikant Berde, a chapter in Marathi cinema seems to have come to an end that significantly distinguished Marathi art of comedy from the rest of the India. Old fans carry sweet reminiscence of the gone era, sharing their memories, others busy archiving Sachin directed movies and then there are some like me looking around to see where the Joglekars and Usgaonkars have disappeared...