Rita….. The movie.

Rita….. The movie.

(Language: Marathi)

That marathi cinema has come of age is by now an established fact. Rita, the movie is fresh evidence to the premise. The movie is based on a Marathi novel by Shanta Gokhale, Rita Welinkar. With the central character played by Pallavi Joshi the film is directed by Renuka Shahane. Renuka Shahane debuts as a director with this powerful movie. Jackie Shroff also plays a crucial role as Rita’s (Joshi) love interest.

The story of young Rita as she grows to become a supportive daughter to emotionless eccentric parents touches the heart. The movie traces the life of Rita from there to being the ‘other woman’ in Salvi’s (Jackie Shroff) life finally ending into a nervous breakdown. The movie explores her life through a letter to her best friend Saraswati Iyyer played by Renuka Shahne. Rita’s character unfolds as being a little girl running around on the beaches and babysitting her younger sister to being helpless in front of her family’s selfishness. Rita’s journey continues through her make believe love to a married man that makes her emotionally vulnerable and dependent stripped off her self-respect. It is the end that she discovers the latent self respect and speaks up for herself. The movie moves beyond feminism, rather it explores the aspect of individual identity.

The movie is a mostly dark with glimpses of light and liveliness in it. It starts with a gloomy feeling in a psychiatric ward of a hospital. The quick flashbacks are extremely powerful as they create a shock effect. The glimpses of her past thrown in between create more curiosity. The short dream sequence is heart wrenching. The sudden dissolve to a little Rita playing on the beach and a peek into her troubled childhood gives a strong base for the movie to make an impact on the audiences mind. From there on the constant juggling between the past and the present until a full flash back through the letter to Saraswati Iyyer opens up. The sound of the movie creates a lasting impression of the scences. In one particular example where Rita goes though a emotional turmoil the ‘ Mantra pushpanjali’ during Ganesh utsava which contradicts with Rita’s emotions make a strong impact. The immediate silence that follows this scene is completely jarring. The movie ends on a happier note with The three women Rita , her friend Saraswati and her sister Sangita walking by the beach melting into the sunset.th elast scene in a way indicates Rita’s life coming to a full circle.

The movie is clearly a performer’s movie and Pallavi Joshi as the protagonist is astounding. Jackies Shroff fits the bill as married man unable to decide between his family and the person he loves. Sai Tamhankar as the understanding sister proves her mettle. Renuka Shahane performs the dual role as a director and actor with much aplomb.

Rita… is truly a bench mark for more Marathi movies.

- Prachi Mujumdar.

(freelance journalist , Pune)

Slumdog Millionaire :its a question.

Slumdog Millionaire: It’s a question.
A movie that has been written about a million times in the papers. The movie made it to the prestigious Golden Globe awards and won it too. A movie that got the local political parties pondering over the term ‘Slumdog’. Indeed Slumdog millionaire is a history.
But the question is what kind of history is it that we want to etch.

It sure is a rag to riches story with the picture of ‘real Mumbai’. It is a story of a slum dweller turning into a millionaire with answering all the questions. What is interesting and different is the amalgamation f the past with the present, the personal experience as a representation of thousands of slum dwellers which reside in Mumbai.
So the story unfolds giving away the horrors that the city has been through with every experience in Jamal Malik’s life be the riots, the rag picking at dump yards or the fake orphanage.

In Slumdog every question that is asked to Jamal has a scarred history. It shows the different world of Jamal Malik and the host of the show. While they are just questions and steps towards the money for the host and the audience, for Jamal the questions are something that he would never forget. And of course the significance of those mundane questions is something that a non slum dweller would never understand. It is reality of life that has made Jamal stronger than anyone else at the show. His answers are from the tribulations that life posed before him. Unlike most who think that academics and extra bright shiny performances matter in life, Jamal proves they don’t. In fact the real lessons come from faltering, losing and being an underdog who rises up like a phoenix only to win money, fame and most importantly love.
Jamal won because he survived. More than anything in this world he learned surviving; at a very tender age. It was his fighting with hunger, the goons, his gangster brother, the system that made him survive.

So it’s the question again which history do we want to etch in our hearts,
A movie that made it to the awards or a lone man who won over all odds in life?
Prachi Mujumdar