Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has now taken the initiative of organising the screening of Marathi film “Partu”, which had won awards at the South Asian Film Festival in Washington, at the auditorium.
During the previous NDA regime, the Mahadev Auditorium in the Capital buzzed with activity with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and deputy Prime Minister LK Advani often taking time off from their hectic schedules to watch films there.
Speaker Sumitra Mahajan has now taken the initiative of organising the screening of Marathi film “Partu”, which had won awards at the South Asian Film Festival in Washington, at the auditorium. The film, based on a true story in Maharashtra and Rajasthan, has not been screened in India yet. Mahajan has invited Maharashtra and Rajasthan MPs, cutting across party lines, for the two-hour show on Thursday evening.
“The film is about how people cross state, social and lingual barriers. It would send a good message to politicians on unity,” said Nitin Adsul, the film director, who is settled in Washington. He was apparently referring to the approach of members of the Shiv Sena and MNS to migrants and North Indians in Maharashtra.
Set in 1960s, the film revolves around the story of how a poor farmer in Maharashtra finds a seven-year-old boy who went missing and looks for his family. By the time he finds the boy’s family in Rajasthan, 17 years had already passed and the boy has to choose between his biological parents and the Maharashtrian farmer. While 70 per cent of it is in Marathi, the rest is in Rajasthani, with English subtitles in the film made by a US-based production company.
Kishore Kadam, who played the protagonist, got Best Actor Jury Award while the film also got the Audience’s Choice award in Washington. The film will be screened in theatres in Maharashtra from December four and special screenings will be done in Rajasthan.
At the Mahadev Auditorium, which is a stone’s throw away from Parliament, the sitting capacity is just 139. This is the first time that the Speaker is organising a film show in the auditorium. Mahajan was herself born in Maharashtra but got married into a family in Madhya Pradesh and has held eight consecutive terms as MP from Indore.
Around two months ago, South Indian director SS Rajmouli’s Telugu blockbuster “Bahubali” dubbed in Hindi was screened at the auditorium. Information and broadcasting minister Arun Jaitley attended the show, sources said.
They said in the UPA regime, though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not go for the screenings, which are generally of Bollywood films, his wife Gursharan Kaur often went for the shows.
While Vajpayee is ailing, Advani is understood to have watched some shows in the auditorium with his family in recent times.
Farmer story
Set in 1960s, the film revolves around the story of how a poor farmer in Maharashtra finds a seven-year old boy who went missing and looks for his family. By the time he finds the boy’s family in Rajasthan, 17 years had already passed and the boy has to choose between his biological parents and the Maharashtrian farmer. While 70 per cent of it is in Marathi, the rest is in Rajasthani, with English subtitles in the film made by a US-based production company.
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