Jio Studios is Presenter of the film, with Jyoti Deshpande as Producer, along with Sunil Phadtare of Shree Ganesh Marketing and Films
Illustration/Uday Mohite
Sangeet Manapmaan, the Marathi musical film based on the sangeet natak (musical play) of the same name, is to be released on January 10, 2025. This will be a milestone, as the original play, starring the marvellous Bal Gandharva, was first performed in 1911, marking 114 years of the living legacy of a Marathi theatre tradition--a thrilling achievement in itself. The film, directed by Subodh Bhave and produced by Jio Studios, has music by Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy. When I got an invite for the music launch of the film Sangeet Manapmaan (pronounced Maan-Apmaan) last Thursday, I had to take Amma, Indu Shedde, now 97.
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Amma is a huge fan of Bal Gandharva (1888-1967), born Narayan Shripad Rajhans, famous as a cross-dressing, singing, theatre icon, playing women’s roles in more than 25 original plays and 5,000 stage shows over 40 years. Amma remembers watching the original sangeet natak Sangeet Manapmaan, directed by KP Khadilkar, as a schoolgirl, in Mallikarjun Theatre, Hubli. She used to watch out for Bal Gandharva’s saris, sari blouse patterns and jewellery like a hawk. I also have a deep connection to Bal Gandharva, having done the English sub-titling for Ravi Jadhav’s brilliant Marathi film Bal Gandharva (Amazon Prime; they replaced my subtitles with Google translate-level mash, though, uff!).
The music launch was at the BMC’s swank 761-seater Lokshahir Annabhau Sathe auditorium, near Rani Baug, Byculla. The invite said Dress: Indian traditional, so I arranged for both of us to wear a traditional Maharashtrian nav-vari sari, a nine-yard sari. We wore a “readymade sari” version, as I was not taking any chances with Amma— or myself. It took a village to organise this, and gratitude to everyone involved, primarily Bhushan Korgaonkar. It also meant I travelled about 180 km over two days, to put a smile on Amma’s face, but it was so worth it. As Amma is 97, I avoid making plans for the future: instead, I follow a do-it-now approach, and each day is a bonus.
Amma also became a mini-celebrity of sorts: when people heard that she is 97, had seen the original play starring Bal Gandharva, and had specially come in a navvari sari, they were also gracious enough to meet her. These included celebrities like director-actor Subodh Bhave, music composer-singer Shankar Mahadevan, Jyoti Deshpande, President, Media and Content Business, Reliance Industries Ltd and head of its Jio Studios; actress Neena Kulkarni, screenwriter Niranjan Iyengar, and Rohini Khadilkar, chess champion, newspaper editor and granddaughter of KP Khadilkar, director, writer and lyricist of the original play.
In Sangeet Manapmaan, Lieutenant Dhairyadhar, a man of modest means, is set to marry Bhamini, a wealthy heiress. She dumps him before the wedding, on discovering that he is of relatively lower status, and as the drama unfolds, comes to value love over wealth. The film stars Subodh Bhave, Vaidehi Parshurami, Sumeet Raghavan, Upendra Limaye, and others. It has 14 songs sung by 18 singers, some of whom sang last week, including Shankar Mahadevan and Rahul Deshpande. Saregama is releasing the music. Jio Studios is Presenter of the film, with Jyoti Deshpande as Producer, along with Sunil Phadtare of Shree Ganesh Marketing and Films.
Amma grew up in Dharwar and Hubli in Karnataka. “One of our neighbours was Prof Dixit Patwardhan, a Professor of Chemistry in Karnataka College, but active with the Marathi Mandal, that put up annual plays in Marathi,” Amma recalls. “I was the official Prompter for the group, so I knew many plays and songs by heart, including Sanshay Kallol, Gharabaher, etc. Prof Patwardhan had a large house, cook and car, and Marathi people from theatre and literature visiting Dharwar usually stayed with him. That’s how I met Bal Gandharva at his place—he even gave me his autograph.”
Amazingly, Amma remembers two cross-dressers of that era: Bal Gandharva, cross dressing as a woman in saris, and Fearless Nadia, cross-dressing as a man, in shorts or pants, and with a whip, in many films, such as Hunterwali. “For two annas, our gang of kids would get tickets to watch Hunterwali in the theatre,” Amma tells me. “I was a big fan of Fearless Nadia— she wore men’s clothes, rode horseback phodok-phodok-phodok, and whipped anyone who did wrong.”
I suspect Amma has had a strong Fearless Nadia streak in her lifelong, even if she didn’t ride horseback with fab audio effects.
Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at [email protected]
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