Mumbai is not only the financial heart of India, but also the city of dreams for many. While the Hindi film industry has become the de facto mascot for Indian cinema over the decades, the film capital of India got its start with films made by Marathi artistes, who kickstarted the motion picture movement in the early 1910s. An upcoming audio-visual show titled Prabhat Te Sairat on Sunday at the New Horizon Engineering College auditorium in Kadubeesanahalli aims to cherish the rich and oftenforgotten history of Marathi cinema and its contribution to Indian cinema, over the past century.
“Everyone is aware that Indian cinema was started by Dadasaheb Phalke with Raja Harischandra in 1913 and later on pioneered by the Prabhat studios. The film movement in India was started in Maharashtra, although they weren’t Marathi films since they were silent. But when talkie films started to gain traction, Hindi films became more popular, while Marathi films were obviously limited to Maharashtra,” says Milind Oak, director of the Prabhat Te Sairat. “But, like Hindi films, Marathi films have a rich history. A lot of artistes, lyricists, and singers who have garnered pan-India recognition like Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle were Maharashtrians.”
Featuring 80 different songs and dance performances, cherry-picked by different eras of Marathi cinema, from the early years of talkies to the new millennium, Prabhat Te Sairat aims to take audiences on an entertaining historical journey. “Every decade of Marathi cinema was influenced by the cultural and social factors that had promulgated society at that time. The ’50s were a time of optimism and truth since India had just gotten its independence. The films of the ’60s and ’70s expressed disillusionment while the ones in the ’80s and ’90s sought entertainment. These were turbulent decades in India’s history with a lot happening and to watch the films of that era, audiences would have to leave their brains at home. And when the new millennium comes around, technology starts to greatly affect films, the way they are produced and disseminated,” adds Oak.
The entire show is performed by less than a half-adozen artistes, including singers Jitendra Abhyankar, Chaitanya Kulkarni, Mrunmayee Tirodkar and dancer Kunal Phadke, who don different costumes and roles throughout the show. The highlight of the show is the narration by veteran actor Rahul Solapurkar.