LOKAYAT
REGIONAL FILMS
DEOOL BAGS AWARD AT SOUTH ASIAN INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL he Nana Patekar Sonali Kulkarni-Naseeruddin Shah strarrer Deool directed by Umesh Kulkarni who had earlier directed Vihir has received a lot of acclaim at the recently concluded South Aisan International Film Festival held in New York. What is interesting to note is the fact that besides the jury of the festival, the film has also been lapped by the audiences all over USA in whichever cinema house it was shown. The film was also shown recently in MAMI International Film festival in Mumbai and sets out to drive home the message that superstition thrive in our country in the form of blind faith in god and temples and there are people who exploit the gullible masses because of this trait.
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TANTYA BHEEL IS A FILM ON A LITTLE KNOWN INDIAN FREEDOM FIGHTER
film has been made on the life and times of the little known freedom fighter Tantya Bheel by Mukesh R.K. Chauksey, who had assisted filmmaker N. Chandra. Mukesh has not only played the title role in the film titled Tantya Bheel but also directed the film, produced by Sharad Yadav. Says Mukesh R.K. Chauksey, Bhagat Singh and others figure in history because Indians had written about them but Tantya Bheel was a freedom fighter who has not been given his credit by the British when history was written. Ironically though five books have been written on Tantya, all of them have projected him as a dacoit because they were written from the point of view of the British by Indians who sought to curry favours from the British. With encouragement from Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh, I shot my film free of charge in the jail premises in Barrack No 5, where Tantya was incarcerated. Kailash Vijay Vargiya, the Minister for Industry and Lakshmikant Sharma, the Minister for Culture also helped me a in completing my film, which also has Kader Khan, Surendra Pal, Pramod Moutho Preeti Chowksey, Manish Yadav and Amrit Pal. Though the producer wanted to cast Ajay Devgn as Tantya Bheel, Mukesh, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Tantya , felt that since Ajay did not suit the role, he would enact the role himself.
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DECEMBER, 2011