Mill workers will relive 1982 strike on silver screen

Twenty eight years after they lost their livelihood, the city’s mill workers, once the backbone of Mumbai, have been represented on celluloid like never before. Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar’s new film — Lalbaug Parel in Marathi and City of Gold - Mumbai 1982: Ek Ankahi Kahani in Hindi — will chronicle lives of 8 lakh mill workers’ families after the mill strike of 1982.

Releasing next week, the film produced by Dar Productions is based on senior journalist Jayant Pawar’s Marathi play Adhantar. The play depicted the desolation of a mill worker’s family after the strike. 

“I was impressed by Adhantar, but it was too early to make it for the silver screen. The audience today is much more informed. They don’t want to see only song and dance, but are also willing to see social issues highlighted in cinema,” Manjrekar told DNA. He added that a bilingual was the best way to reach out to audiences across the country.

Everyone needs to know the real story of these mill workers, who faced socio-economic problems that still haven’t been addressed, Manjrekar said. “I understand that if one wants progress, we have to let go of our past. But what about these lakhs of workers who one fine morning lost everything they had. We identify with the residents of Bhopal after the gas tragedy; I want every Indian to identify with these workers’ tragedy as well,” the filmmaker added.

To honour these men and their families, Manjrekar has organised a special screening of the film only for mill workers on April 7 at Bharat Mata. He has also invited the owner of Hanuman Cinema, the place where lavni performances were held for the mill workers before they were hit by the crisis. The filmmaker has even sent the film’s Hindi version as an entry to the prestigious Cannes film festival.

Mill workers leader Datta Iswalkar said he was happy that finally their unending problems are being shown in commercial cinema. “Although it is late, at least someone has bothered to highlight the subject. All of us, mill workers, will go on April 7 to see the film,” Iswalkar said.

The film stars some big names from Marathi theatre and even a few Hindi actors. Leading the cast are Seema Biswas, Vinay Apte, Satish Kaushik, Kashmira Shah, Sachin Khedekar, Siddharth Jadhav and Ankush Chaudhary.