Mahesh Manjrekar is the new rapper in town

Mahesh Manjrekar, whose film on the great Mumbai mill strike, has been made simultaneously in Marathi and Hindi recently recorded a rap song for the Marathi version of the film. This is the first time that someone has attempted to rap in Marathi on the big screen. The song called City of Gold is a promotional video and has been written by Mahesh and Vidyadhar Bhave.

Though Mahesh is not really into hip hop or rap music he was excited about the concept of doing it in Marathi. “Earlier, I did sing for Kaante and a couple of other films but I had never done rap before. Marathi rap is something new and I enjoyed it. I like to sing but I am nothing great. Definitely not an Aurangzeb of singing!” says Mahesh. The film on the mill issue speaks about how the middle class disappeared after the mills shut down and Mumbai turned into a city of gold or a city for the rich. The lyrics of the song carry this theme.

He did feel for the whole story when he sang says Mahesh. “I had some friends whose fathers were mill workers. But I was quite young when the whole mill issue happened and I couldn’t understand it completely. But then I started wondering where the three lakh people go? It’s been 12 years and technically the strike is still on. They never got their basic rights!” says Mahesh.

He points out that no Hindi film on the city has ever tackled the subject. “I remember the last film that had a mill worker background was my own film Vaastav. It’s strange that there has been no Hindi film on the subject. This film was obviously for a Marathi audience but I made it Hindi because I wanted the subject to be brought up nationally,” says Mahesh, whose last film Mi Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy also created a buzz because of the issues it tackled and the message it gave out.