Comment

You can’t separate the language from economic, social, and political situations. From the beginning the South Indian states resisted Hindi. Their film industry resisted it, their people resisted it. This resistance was political, but it is a fact. We need to understand this context.

Secondly, except for the Dravidian languages, the rest are written in Devanagari script. Marathi is a close cousin of Hindi. So it is no surprise to see words from Farsi and Urdu in Marathi and Hindi. For that matter, the Hindi Bambaiyas speak is a mix of Hindi and Marathi.

Hindi films and music thrived in Mumbai as there was no political resistance to the use of the language in Maharashtra. There have been pro-Marathi campaigns off and on, but these were never against any language.

Maharashtra is very strong in its culture and theatre. These cater to the basic need of the common, educated person. South India or, for that matter, West Bengal does not have full-fledged commercial theatre companies of the sort that Maharashtra has always had.
But it is not the responsibility of artistes and the film industry to protect and develop a language. Society needs to think of the economic, social, and political aspects and promote a language. The present situation of Marathi-medium schools closing down, the population of Marathi-speaking people in Mumbai dwindling, all this needs to be seen in context.

Maharashtrians know English will bring status and jobs. It is because parents seek a brighter future for their children that they opt to send their children to better schools. That is why they are pro-English. This cannot be seen as rejecting Marathi.

Dnyaneshwar wrote Dnyaneshwari to simplify the Gita, which was in Sanskrit. Today how many can read that Dnyayneshwari written in old Marathi? This, too, needs to be adapted to the modern context. A language is never static. It needs to get conversational. Language is first spoken before it is written. Today the language of theatre and cinema has changed. It has to, to appeal to the masses.

(Atul Kulkarni, a leading Marathi and Hindi film actor, spoke to Neeta Kolhatkar)