Based upon Vijay Tendulkar’s play ‘Mitrachi Goshta.’
By Prabhav Hiremath
MUMBAI: ‘Bioscope’, an upcoming Marathi feature film, which incorporates four short films directed by four different directors – all based on four poems by well-known poets, is bound to raise controversy as it broaches the subject of homosexuality in the India of 1940s.
One of the short films is ‘Mitraa’, by renowned director Ravi Jadhav of ‘Balak Palak’ and ‘Time Pass’ fame. The film is a complex tale of lesbians, set in the 1947 era. ‘Mitraa’ is an adaptation of well-known poet and lyricist Sandeep Khare’s poem ‘Atasha Nakose Vatate Male He’ and Vijay Tendulkar’s story and three-act play ‘Mitrachi Goshta.’
The play is focused on same-sex relationship between two women, Mitra and Nama, which is the central story line of ‘Mitraa.’ The role of two women will be reprised by Marathi popular faces, Mrunmayee Deshpande and Veena Jamkar as the lead pair. Sandeep Khare makes his acting debut on the silver screen with this film.
Veena Jamkar said, “I was neither scared nor skeptical when this film was offered to me. I thought it was a challenge that I should take up. I respect lesbians and gays and I also feel that these relationships are not looked at as sensitively as they should be.”
There are no intimate scenes between Veena and Mrunmayee in the film, which is shot in black and white.
According to Jamkar, the film is about how the two characters felt in the film and not about what they did. Veena’s character, Sumitra, accepts the fact that she is different from other girls and showcases how she fights with such a difficult situation.
The other three short films in ‘Bioscope’ are Gajendra Ahire’s ‘Chaudvin Ka Chand’ based on Mirza Ghalib’s ghazal Dil-E-Nadaan starring Neena Kulkarni and Suhas Palshikar; Girish Mohite’s ‘Baiil’, based on poet Loknath Yashwant’s poem by same name and have Mangesh Desai and Smita Tambe in the lead. The last film is Viju Mane’s ‘Ek Hota Kau’, based on poet Kishor Kadam’s poem by same name, having Spurna Joshi and Kushal Badrike as lead pair.
Bioscope is scheduled for a theatrical release on April 12th.