Not simply native: How the Marathi movie Dashavatar grew to become a pan-India hit

“I’m not a Marathi speaker. I’ve travelled all the way in which from Juhu to Dadar to observe this movie. I got here to observe it just for Dilip Prabhavalkar, and I salute you, sir.”

A reel of an impromptu speech by a teen in entrance of among the actors within the film on the Plaza cinema corridor has gone viral. And, the movie he had watched earlier than his salute is doing all of the rounds.

The distance between Juhu – an upmarket suburb proper subsequent to the Sea Face – and Dadar – a predominantly middle-class suburb – could also be solely 13km by highway, however by way of way of life, it’s poles aside. When the courses have been drawn in the direction of the plenty, one can think about that the murals will need to have had an impression throughout society, past language boundaries and the monetary standing of a person.

No marvel then that Dashavatar, the Marathi movie launched on September 12, has emerged as a large blockbuster. More importantly, it has managed to draw an viewers, not solely from the usually cynical Marathi-speaking viewers that normally prefers to observe industrial Hindi cinema as a substitute of the local-language cinema in theatres, but in addition from the non-Marathi-speaking group.

“A very good story at all times attracts an viewers past the language barrier. If the story is common, the language doesn’t actually matter,” Subodh Khanolkar, the author, director, and co-producer of the movie, tells The Hindu.

“We have been very assured {that a} father-son bond has a common attraction, so does a social subject, and extra importantly, folks artwork. Once we might weave in all these aspects into the story, I used to be positive it will break the language barrier.”

In the twenty first century, Marathi cinema has undergone a outstanding transformation. Once thought-about a regional medium catering largely to Maharashtrian audiences, a number of movies have efficiently lower throughout linguistic and cultural boundaries. From Sairat (2016), which resonated with viewers throughout India and abroad, to Court (2014), which drew acclaim on the worldwide pageant circuit, Marathi movies have more and more demonstrated their potential to inform tales of common attraction whereas retaining a powerful cultural core. Still, regardless of the important acclaim, barring Sairat, no different Marathi movie has been capable of breach the Rs. 100-crore assortment barrier.

In this panorama, Dashavatar, although deeply rooted within the traditions of Konkan, stands out as a piece that has related with audiences past the boundaries of Maharashtra.

What units Dashavatar aside is its mix of a really native folks artwork with themes that ring a bell universally. Comparisons have typically been drawn between this Marathi movie and Kantara (2022), the Kannada blockbuster. Both movies draw closely on folks traditions — Dashavatar from the coastal Konkan’s ritual theatre kind that enacts the ten incarnations of Vishnu, and Kantara from the Bhoota Kola traditions of Tulu Nadu. Both works depend on the rhythm of native festivals, rituals, and the assumption techniques embedded within the soil of their respective areas.

Yet, to name Dashavatar a direct inspiration for Kantara could be an overstatement. Their similarities lie of their shared respect for custom and their potential to weave ritualistic practices into cinematic storytelling. But the variations are simply as putting. While Kantara employs spectacle, motion, and a powerful undercurrent of land politics, Dashavatar leans into nostalgia, cultural reminiscence, and the generational transmission of religion and efficiency. The movies might share a non secular depth, however their thematic approaches diverge.

“The southern coastal peninsula is designed in such a manner that there are a lot of cultural similarities throughout the area. They have native deities and folks artwork which have lots of parallels,” says Khanolkar. “In Konkan, we’ve got Dashavatar, in coastal Karnataka, it’s Yakshagana, and in Kerala, we’ve got Mohiniyattam. So even after Kantara was launched, we knew that we needed to inform our story in our personal manner.”

For Khanolkar, the movie’s journey is intimately private. He remembers narrating the story to his spouse, Anvita, in 2021. They have been coming back from Kelus, his maternal ancestral village in Sindhudurg district, after celebrating its centenary. “It was on the way in which again, after the village festivities, that I informed Anvita about this story that had been forming in my thoughts,” Khanolkar says.

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Weeks earlier, he and his companions in Ocean Film Company — Sujay Hande and Omkar Kate — have been additionally capturing a documentary on the identical home. The discussions round that undertaking slowly planted the seeds of Dashavatar.

Khanolkar remembers vividly the courtyard performances of Dashavatar in Kelus and the fervent Hanuman Jayanti celebrations when he would spend his summer season holidays at his aajol (maternal grandparents’ residence). Both these visible and emotional reminiscences discovered their manner into the movie’s scenes.

“When you see a ritual with the identical depth in childhood after which once more as an grownup, it stays with you. That sense of awe, of being a part of one thing bigger, is what I needed to carry on display,” he displays.

Casting, on this sense, grew to become central to the movie’s authenticity. The choice to solid veteran actor Dilip Prabhavalkar within the lead position was not solely a cinematic selection but in addition a generational bridge. For the viewers past Maharashtra, Prabhavalkar – now an octogenarian – is thought largely for his National Award-winning portrayal of Mahatma Gandhi in Lage Raho Munna Bhai (2006).

But for many who grew up in Maharashtra in the course of the Nineteen Eighties and Nineties, Prabhavalkar was a well-known face and voice. His work as a satirical cricket author, because the writer of a preferred kids’s collection, his newspaper columns, and flexibility as an actor on stage, tv, and movies had made him a family title.

But in Dashavatar, the importance of Prabhavalkar’s casting went past recognition. It was about continuity. The movie has ensured that Prabhavalkar’s legacy will likely be simpler to go on to the era that grew up following him on numerous platforms, to Gen Z or Gen Now.

Khanolkar clarifies that he by no means developed the story with Prabhavalkar in thoughts. But as soon as the story was prepared, everybody within the Ocean household was positive of 1 factor. “We had determined, very clearly, that if he stated no, we’d not do it in Marathi,” says Khanolkar. “The cultural rootedness required solely him. Without him, it will not have been the identical movie.”

However, Khanolkar, who had predominantly been a tv serial author, didn’t know Prabhavalkar, a candid and approachable particular person. “He took some convincing,” Khanolkar admits. “Once he was on board, the screenplay was tweaked to go well with his posture, physicality, and ease of efficiency. His familiarity with the Konkan area and fluency with the Malvani accent added layers of authenticity we couldn’t have imagined with anybody else.”

The result’s a piece that mixes the intimacy of reminiscence with the sweep of custom. Dashavatar isn’t just about reviving a ritual or presenting folklore on display. It is about reimagining cultural reminiscence for an viewers that will not witness these performances first-hand. In doing so, it aligns with a broader pattern in Indian cinema, the place movies grounded in regional traditions are discovering resonance past their residence states.

Marathi cinema, via movies like Dashavatar, reminds us that cultural specificity doesn’t restrict attraction—it enhances it. The folks efficiency of Konkan could appear distant to somebody in Delhi or Bengaluru, but the feelings it evokes — of religion, group, belonging — are common. Much like Kantara did for Kannada cinema, Dashavatar for Marathi cinema underscores the timeless energy of rooted storytelling.

The reality stays that the social subject of land mining, leading to Konkan’s ecological and environmental degeneration, might have been dealt with in a way more delicate method than oversimplifying it within the climax. But, Khanolkar says he didn’t thoughts it, slightly “it was intentional in a quest to succeed in out to a far wider viewers”.

Dashavatar stands as proof {that a} deeply native story can turn out to be a deeply human one. For Khanolkar and his collaborators, it was a manner of giving it again to their roots. As they are saying, the extra private the story, the extra common it will get!