Praveen Luekar
Je jaeel, te parat
yeil…gurutvakarshan hawa… (What goes, comes
back…if there’s gravity)
Paresh Mokashi’s Elizabeth Ekadashi is
where Newton meets Dnyaneshwar and Tukaram. It is a film through which, we can
probably discuss the whole stream of sensible cinema in Marathi – its beauty
and its fallacies. This is after all, our bid to stand on a global stage. But let’s not burden Elizabeth Ekadashi with
such pressures right away.
As a singular film, this is a delight to
watch. It tells a beautiful personal story in the larger context of devotion
and science. And all this, with excellent technical skills and some bold
statements along the way.
Dnyanesh (Shrirang Mahajan) is a
school-boy in love with Elizabeth – a bicycle his late father has made. His
mother (Nandita Dhuri) plans to sell Elizabeth as the financial condition of
the family is deteriorating and the bank has seized its only source to income –
a sewing machine. To save Elizabeth, Dnyanesh and his sister Zendu (Sayali
Bhandarkavathekar) open a shop in the wari, a pilgrimage in Pandharpur.
This becomes a fun little game as the mother does not know about the shop.
Things however take graver turn and get complicated.
The first credits go to the writing, a
beautiful story by Madhugandha Kulkarni and economical screenplay by Mokashi.
There are plot-points that keep the proceedings real and give it individuality.
Dnyanesh’s decision to open the shop, for example, is not because he is
responsible, but because Elizabeth is so dear to him. It has a personal motive.
This also raises characters in the process. Writing also scores in the
dialogues’ area where there was a tough task of combining devotion with modern
and scientific thought.
This concrete base-work is matched by
excellent camera work (Amol Gole) and editing (Abhijeet Deshpande). The whole
cinematic treatment has a freshness that can be felt from the word go. The
opening scene has top-angle long shot of the alley in which the family lives.
This follows a moving, energetic sequence where many activities happening
during the wari days are shown from the backend – the money from the
donation box being sorted, the prasad being prepared, the temple being
cleaned and so on.
The whole part has the power to take you
into the city and the atmosphere. Editing also plays a crucial role here as the
director is allowed to languish when required and snapped timely. It keeps the
pace intact. Background music (Narendra Bhide) does the same with apt and
limited use.
Where the film is found wanting is the
naturalness of its character. The actors are either over-prepared or
under-prepared. Mokashi gives his child-artists a lot of punch-lines which defy
their age. That Mahajan needs to summarise the philosophy of the film is
understood, but he delivers even simple dialogues in a ‘learnt by-heart’ manner.
Bhandarkavathekar is more natural in comparison. Nevertheless, the children,
including Dnyanesh’s friends, give their best.
Child protagonists and poverty as theme
are increasingly becoming traits of our sensible cinema. While these are
important issues, beautifully depicted by films and are integral part of the
narrative in Elizabeth Ekadashi also, we probably need to address a
larger spectrum of subjects concerning our society. There is also a problem of
making an all-round film; Elizabeth Ekadashi, for example, gets
artificial in patches. There are many scenes where the screenplay can be felt;
there is a ‘made up’ feeling which takes away its naturalness.
Elizabeth Ekadashi makes
bold statement about the prospering prostitution in the days of wari and
sees devotion in many lights. It has a social context of the anti-superstition
bill (though usd to little effect). And ss mentioned, its technical excellence
upholds the film. What lacks is a finish – that final stroke where the experience
would be more subtle, and hence complete.
m4m says: A Must Watch
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