Film:	Harishchandrachi Factory
Directed By:	Paresh Mokashi
Screenplay:	Paresh Mokashi
Cinematography:	Amalendu Chaudhary
Editor:	Amit Pawar
Art Director	Nitin Chandrakant Desai
Sound:	Pramod Purandare
Music:	Anand Modak
Cast:	Nandu Madhav, Vibhawari Deshpande, Mohit Gokhale, Atharva Karve, Dilip Joglekar, Ketan Karande, Dhiresh Joshi, Sandip Pathak,Vaibhav Mangle, Ganesh Mayekar, Ambarish Deshpande, Pravin Tarde, Mayur Khandge

 

 

 

Harishchandrachi Factory is a slap in the face to all big budget star-studded disasters that eschew the path of simple storytelling. The film talks about the father of Indian cinema, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke’s – known popularly as Dadasaheb Phalke – discovery of cinema and his journey towards making India’s first feature film Raja Harishchandra. And what an exciting journey it is, to experience Phalke and his family’s wonder at their first sightings of the moving image, to feel the crazy obsessive excitement of making a film. This is not a biopic, Mokashi choosing to show us a slice of Phalke’s life instead – the journey from his brush with cinema to his completing his first feature film. The journey is captured with warmth, humour and a sense of wonder – making it so much fun to watch.  

In 1911, Phalke was once again out of work. He had earlier dabbled with running a photo studio and been a still photographer with the Archaeological Society of India, eventually settling into a successful printing job. But now he had fought with his partner, left the business, and also taken a vow not to become his former partner’s business rival. Phalke now spent his time hosting magic shows! It was now that he and one of his two sons strayed into a tent that was showing a film. It was a life-changing, life-defining moment as Phalke watched the moving image. He came back again with his wife Saraswati and other son, again and again, all of them captivated by the new discovery. The man who later went on to make some one hundred movies had found his calling. There’s a wonderful moment when, during one of the screenings, we see everyone else watching the film while Phalke has his back towards the screen and is watching the light that comes from the projector instead. He was trying to figure how the thing worked.  

It was not an easy journey but the support of his wife and children made it simpler in the tough times during which their furniture got sold and they lived on simple fare and of course the heady excitement. The obsessive desire to learn how films are made led him to London, leaving behind a pregnant wife, after having mortgaged his life insurance policy. Coming back with a camera, he and his family embark upon the venture of making Raja Harishchandra. It’s a crazy journey all right, during which his wife doubles as his assistant but also feeds the ever-growing numbers of the unit. There is a mad hunt for a heroine during a time when being an actress is considered less acceptable than being a prostitute. Eventually Phalke has to settle for a man to dress as a woman. The Phalke family enthusiasm infects the rest of the cast but they are still looked down upon by the society. Which is why Phalke comes up with the idea that they all tell their folks that they come to a factory to work – Harishchandra’s factory!  

The film gets made and – though the first screening only has a stray dog as viewer – goes on to become a huge hit. Phalke gets an offer to make movies in London, but he chooses home, preferring to nurture the nascent industry in his homeland. The rest is history and today we are the largest film producing nation in the world.    

What makes Harishchandrachi Factory an engaging viewing experience is its simple narrative. In an age of shameless manipulation when films try to make up for their mediocrity by going to desperate lengths to ‘entertain’ the viewer, it is heartening to see a good story, simply and effectively told. The period sets are effectively created without big budget hullabaloo. The actors deliver superlative performances, especially the lead pair -  Nandu Madhav and Vibhawari Deshpande. There’s a moment, when a buoyant Phalke scoops Saraswati in his arms, only to find his two sons staring at them from behind. That moment, like many others in the film, is treated so genially, and those together go on to make a wonderful movie viewing experience.             

          Rating:  ***  stars out of five

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