Sant Tukaram comes to life

Now years later,Chandrakant Kulkarni is all set,with a film on the philosopher which,the popular Marathi film director promises,will showcase the saint in a different light. In his endeavour,Kulkarni is accompanied by dear friend and writer Prashant Dalvi and producer Sanjay Chhabria of Everest Entertainment. Jeetendra Joshi essays the title-role in the film titled Tukaram,that traces the four phases of the saint’s eventful life,right from his birth in the year 1608 to 1650.

The others in the cast are Radhika Apte,Veena Jaamkar,Sharad Ponkshe,Prateeksha Lonkar and Yatin Karyekar. Music is the combination of old and new-age with Ashok Patki and Avdhoot Gupte joining hands to give some heart-rendering songs that have been rendered by Aniruddha Joshi,who is the winner of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa,Dynaneshwar Meshram,Jhannavee Prabhu Arora and Avdhoot Gupte. Padmanabh Gaikwad,the winner of Sa Re Ga Ma Pa l’il Champs,has also lent his voice and so impressed was Kulkarni with his work that he assigned him to play the role of little Tukaram in the film. “And he was brilliant,” says the director. The film has story,screenplay and dialogues by Ajit Dalvi and Prashant Dalvi,cinematography by Rajen Kothari,editing by Ballu Saluja and costumes by Poornima Oak.

Asked why he was making a biopic,Kulkarni states that the interesting factor in making a biopic is the challenge of bringing to life a real person from the pages of history. “What is not known about Tukaram is that he was a buddhimaan but in a different way. His way of looking at life was different. He was like any normal human being and it was only later that he became a saint,through his preachings and abhangs. It is like Gandhiji was just Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi till he was adorned with the title of Mahatma. Hence we know him as Mahatma Gandhi,” explains the director as Chhabria adds that the film is about “his metamorphosis,his progression towards becoming a saint.” Writer Prashant Dalvi,when asked,accepts that the film may create a controversy like every biopic. “That fear is there but we have left no chance for that. We have worked really hard on project before taking it on floors.” Agreeing,the director ,whose last outing was Meerabai Not Out,points out that today’s generation,which is not aware of the preachings of Tukaram,will not only learn about him as a person but will also enjoy the film.

Kulkarni states that it took them five to seven months of research followed by workshops wherein Jeetendra had to change his lifestyle,body language,mannerisms and even diet to suit the character. “He surrendered himself totally to my vision,” says the director,for whom Jeetendra was the first choice when it came to casting the character.

The director began shooting from December 15 and completed it on February 1. During the 50 days,a unit of 150 members shot in about 10-15 villages around Satara in Maharashtra. The climax scene had a crew of 700 members. Since it is a period film based 400 years ago,Kulkarni was very particular to shoot at places that did not have any electricity poles,cables or meters around. Working on the costumes and hair also took a lot of time. The houses,rivers,animals and such relevant things also had to be minutely scrutinised,he revealed.

After its release in May in Maharashtra,Chhabria is all set to take the film,which he says is a simple story of a simple man,to various film festivals,Venice and Cannes being the major ones. The director adds that they are working on the sub-titled prints as well. “We want to recreate the magic of Tukaram,” Kulkarni signs off. l

namita.nivas@expressindia.com