Marathi films that connect with audiences - and such films seem to appear with increasing regularity these days - work because they are unabashedly home-grown. It is easy to unravel just why Marathi cinema manages to have the impact it does. The sustained quality of Marathi cinema is clearly driving audiences to the theatres in increasing numbers, building trust in every future film like never before. Before that, the top spot was held by the musical Katyar Kaljat Ghusali, which had released just a few months before Natsamrat. It happened to take the mantle over from Mahesh Manjrekar’s Nana Patekar-starrer Natsamrat, which arrived in early 2016. It isn’t surprising, then, that the list of highest-grossing Marathi films of all time usually has a new name at the top every few months or so, the latest being Sairat. So much so that this current phase is even being called the "new wave" of Marathi cinema. Since then, budgets have increased, technical excellence has begun to set in, box office returns have gotten significantly better and more importantly, the cinema of Maharashtra has found its place in the national spotlight. Post-2004’s Shwaas, which was India’s official entry to the Academy Awards back then, Marathi cinema got a shot in the arm. This, despite it being the ignored step-brother in a state where the first language may be Marathi, but the first love is largely the high-stakes glamour of Hindi cinema. Today, Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat - that charming, hurtful, stellar commentary on class, caste and young love - may be the talk of the urban village but go back down the years and you’ll see that Marathi cinema has consistently produced such gems. (Mahesh Manjrekar’s Marathi filmography in general so effortlessly outshines his work in Hindi cinema, it’s fascinating.) This was cinema doing what it must it hurt, and it left a piece of itself behind.
A gut-wrenching period tragedy about forbidden love set in a conservative Brahmin household, the film was understatedly bold, crafted with surprising sensitivity and invariably managed to gain an emotional stranglehold over the engaged viewer. Just about a year before this, in May 2012, Mahesh Manjrekar - he of some rather mediocre Hindi films - was out with a Marathi film named Kaksparsh. (And we all know how rare that is in India.) A film about the quaint tradition of the travelling cinema, apart from its rare insights into the balance of the art and commerce of films, it also happened to have a refreshingly audacious female protagonist. Directed by prolific Marathi filmmaker Gajendra Ahire (probably one of India’s most accomplished yet underrated directors), it was an ode to the movies like no other. It disappeared just as silently, completely slipping under the radar. In April 2013, a little Marathi film named Touring Talkies quietly arrived in theatres. We’re republishing it in light of the 2017 National Awards. This article, originally published on 4 June 2016, looked at the gems Marathi cinema had to offer, and argued that Sairat certainly wasn’t a fluke. But this shouldn’t be a surprise, considering the Marathi film industry also marked one of its first 100-crore blockbusters in 2016: Nagraj Manjule’s Sairat. This includes the Best Feature Film (won by Kaasav, Mohan Agashe’s cinematic ode to battling depression and loneliness), Best Director (Rajesh Mapuskar for Ventilator), Best Editing (again, for Ventilator, which incidentally marks Priyanka Chopra’s foray into Marathi films as a producer) and Best Supporting Actor (Mohan Joshi, for Dashakriya). While there are a smattering of films and actors from the South industry that are named, the top honours have a fair representation of Marathi films.
And while previous years have seen Bollywood - for better or worse - dominate the winners’ list, this year, the situation was a tad different. Editor’s note: The 64th National Film Awards were announced by the Directorate of Films on Friday, 7 April 2017.