Marathi cinema wins hearts, and awards too

It was a proud moment for the Marathi film industry as well as the city as Marathi films ruled at the 59th National Film Awards.

While Deool and Byari, both dealing with man’s engagement with religion, shared the best feature film award, Deool’s lead star, Girish Kulkarni, bagged the award for best actor.

Directed by Umesh Kulkarni, Deool is a wonderfully authentic depiction of village life and a penetrating account of commercialisation of religion.

The award for best Marathi film went to Shala directed by Sujay Dahake.

Byari, the first feature film in the Byari language directed by KP Suveeran, conveys the trauma of a woman who has to deal with unjust religious strictures.

Apart from bagging the best actor award, Girish Kulkarni also won the award for best dialogues for Deool. Also making Marathi cinema proud were Avinash Deshpande, who won the award for best screenplay (adapted) for Shala, and singer, Anand Bhate, who was given away the best male playback singer award for the film Balgandharva. Noted make-up designer Vikram Gaikwad received the award for best make-up for the same film.

Reacting to the announcement made in New Delhi, Umesh Kulkarni said, “It’s a moment of pride for us. I am very happy that Girish Kulkarni got national award both for acting and directing. The credit goes to the whole team and everybody who trusted us.”

“Although I never work to get awards, getting a national award is the kind of encouragement for film-makers like us who doesn’t want to compromise on the quality of content,” he added.

Girish Kulkarni said, “National award is a very important award. Since the 4-5 years, I and Umesh and other film-makers such as Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukthankar, Satish Manwar and Sachin Kundalkar are trying to give quality work in terms of subject and content. The award is a national appreciation of our efforts. It is a boon for Marathi film industry and it will encourage us to make better films.”

Sujay Dahake, director of Shala, said, “Since my debut film got a national award, I am all the more pumped up to do good work in the future. The credit of the award goes to my parents and those who trained me in film-making which helped me immensely.”

Noted singer, Anand Bhate, said, “Today is the happiest day of my career. Whatever efforts we had put in the making of the film paid off. I really enjoyed singing for the film. I want to give the credit to my parents and my gurus — Pandit Bhimsen Joshi and Chandrasekhar Deshpande.”