The Magic of Four

Some time in December 2012, four Marathi film directors met at an event in Thane and decided to do “something different”. “Believe it or not, that’s how it began,” says Girish Mohite, one of the four directors.

“We decided to pick our favourite poems and make them the basis for our short films. It’s for the first time that an anthology is being made that is inspired by poems,” said Gajendra Ahire, whose short film Dil-e-Nadaan is based on Mirza Ghalib’s well-known ghazal by the same name.

Ravi Jadhav’s short film Mitraa is based on Sandip Khare’s poem inspired by legendary writer Vijay Tendulkar’s story on homosexuality. Khare, who will be making his acting debut in this film, says Tendulkar’s famous play Mitrachi Goshta written in the ’60s, was way ahead ahead of its times. “But the film goes beyond a lesbian relationship. The story brings forth the insecurities of a girl, who discovers her sexuality and at the same time, has to deal with her childhood friend Vinay’s attraction to her,” he says.

Viju Mane’s Ek Hota Kau is composed by actor-poet Kishor Kadam and Mohite’s film Bail is based on Loknath Yashwant’s poem by the same name. Bail deals with farmers’ suicides but with a twist. “The story is told through the eyes of an ox. It shows the frustration of cotton-growing farmers in the state,” says Mohite, who has dealt with the subject of farmer suicides in the past as well, and says the situation hasn’t changed a bit.
While all four films deal with four different subjects, there is still a common thread that weaves it together. “All four films have pain at their core; the pain of a bleeding heart,” says Khare.

The film will travel to other film festivals across the country and looks to a theatre release in April this year.