Citygritty — Pune

Don't bet on itGuess it's time to sit up and take stock of this business of awards in Marathi films. Either this whole exercise of giving...

Don’t bet on it
Guess it’s time to sit up and take stock of this business of awards in Marathi films. Either this whole exercise of giving awards is being treated as a joke or these sitting on the panel have lost their perspective. If you don’t believe us, then watch the just released Marathi film Paij Lagnachi’. Produced by J.K. Patil and directed by (debut) Yashwant Bhalkar. This film proves that there need not be any parameters for winning awards. A film that has won 14 awards, cannot do justice to your senses even for 14 minutes and could safely be termed as one that subtly insults the intelligence of the audience’.

Paij Lagnachi’ has a story that could have well been made into an interesting and enjoyable film; but ends up looking like a hastily rustled up meal. It is the story of Pooja, a supposedly bubbly and care free college girl (Varsha Usgaonkar, hamming it to the hill) who takes on challenges at the drop of a hat. So, we have her indulging in juvenile acts like sticking chewing gum on the teacher’s chair (tell us something new) – all for a bet.

Pooja’s close friend Vaishali (Prateeksha Lonkar, whose voice sounds like one from a slow running spool) tries to dissuade her from taking on such bets, in vain. After many disjointed and unrelated scenes, Vaishali offers Pooja the ultimate bet. There is a mentally unstable boy Shambhu (Avinash Narkar) in Vaishali’s village, whom Pooja must cure in a month, or then marry him if she fails to do so. So off they go to the village and we witness Pooja’s attempts at taming Shambhu’. Clearly, Avinash Narkar seemed very uncomfortable playing Shambhu. No prizes for guessing that this whole thing was a charade to bring the errant Pooja to her senses. Inane songs, dream sequences and avoidable antaksharis don’t help make the film any better; at best a rough cut presentation! Characters walk in and out of scenes without any purpose and leave you gaping.

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What could have been the compulsions of the judges, that prompted them to award so many awards to this amateurish excuse for a film? We wonder.

Magic in the air
The magician known for his disappearing trick is back. Swami Anand Paramhans, also called Jadugar Anand is ensconced at the Osho Commune these days, preparing for a month-long magic programme, sometime later in the year.

The magician hails from the same town as the master himself, Jabalpur, and says “Osho was the only person who encouraged me, my family was naturally against it.” As a child, Jadugar Anand was compulsively drawn to madaris, who triggered his imagination by producing garam jalebis and silver coins. He pursued his passion, and requested the madaris to teach him a trick or two.

But he met with a cold responses and finally he resorted to books and films on the subject. When he was in his first year of college, he saw the film on the world’s greatest magician, Harry Houdini. He imitated his act of being locked in a box and thrown into the sea. In 1970, Jadugar Anand completed the feat in 40 seconds, setting a new world record after P.C.Sircar.

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The second world record he notched up was a successful 200-km ride on a motorcycle with a cloth tied round his eyes, taking 3.5 hours. Today’s he is a seasoned self-taught magician, who laments the lack of any club or academy which gives formal training in the art of magic. Among his bag of tricks, the crowd-pullers are a huge, live elephant which disappears after he intones, one, two, three!. Kids and adults can look forward to this witty magician’s show!