Paddling his way into hearts

Director Paresh Mokashi on Elizabeth Ekadashi, the opening film of Indian Panorama at the ongoing IFFI

A still from the movie

It is rare, very rare that a film opens at the box office to a stupendous response and opens the Indian Panorama at the International Film Festival of India a week later. Marathi film Elizabeth Ekadashi has managed to do it and director Paresh Mokashi is in a happy state. “My first film Harishchandrachi Factory (a biopic on Dada Sahib Phalke) got critical acclaim and it represented India at the Oscars but it didn’t find much commercial success. So I was not sure but the public support has overwhelmed.” While talking to his wife about her childhood days, Paresh Mokashi stumbled upon the tale. “She comes from Pandharpur where there is an annual mela where around half million pilgrims turn up every year. As a kid when she lost her father she and her brother used to set up a stall during the period to make some money. It set me thinking. We city people see places like Pandharpur and Tirupati as centres of pilgrimage and seldom try to know what goes on with the people who live in these cities. Having got the basic material I decided to decorate it.”

In came Elizabeth, the special cycle that the father leaves for the kids and which they have to save from the local sharks at all cost. “It was a way to give the memories of the father a scientific and tangible shape,” says Mokashi, who comes from theatre background and has learnt the cinematic craft on his own and it reflects in the experiments he does with storytelling. Be it treating the biopic with a humorous touch or using still frames.

“My experience says cinema should have its own language. Often we find stories drawn from literature, raising a social issue failing to connect with he audience. Their intent is not in question but such films fail to stand on their feet cinematically. Unlike

Harishchandrachi Factory, here I have used hand-held camera to convey the vibrancy of the atmosphere in the mela and then the protagonists here are children who are always up to something.”

On the Hindu Janjagruti Samiti protests against the film’s screening at IFFI for hurting the sentiments of the community, Mokashi says he is not aware of what they are protesting against. “I have heard some phone calls have been made but there is no protest in Maharashtra where the film is in theatres. From my side I can say there is no intention to hurt anybody’s sentiments. People should watch the film and then make an opinion.”

Mokashi is one of the faces that have led the resurgence in Marathi cinema. This year alone out of 26 films there are seven Marathi films in the feature film section of Indian Panorama. “This has something to do with new producers showing interest in Marathi films. They are backing talent and a result you can see there are around 150 Marathi films releasing in the year. Some five years back this number had come down to seven-eight. There is a demand for Marathi films from the audience and all kinds of subjects are being tackled. If there is Killa or Fandry is being made there is a song and dance routine of Lal Bihari as well.”

However, the budgets are still limited to one or two crores. “If we need a subject that demands 10 crores then we might still have to look for Hindi as an option. I don’t mind it for language is only a technical detail for me.”