Introducing new hero: the chawl

Nupura S

Three hundred-odd people brave the blazing sun to shoot the climax of Pran Jaye Par Chawl Na Jaye at Kamal Amrohi Studios in the Mumbai suburb of Jogeshwari.

The two-storeyed set of a typical chawl [tenement] is no shelter from the heat.

Braving the elements is Sanjay Jha, first-time director who looks every bit a determined man. He has completed shooting the film in just 30 days! No mean achievement, considering the cast has names like Raveena Tandon, Namrata Shirodkar, Rinke Khanna, Diya Mirza and director-actor Mahesh Manjrekar. Their scenes have already been canned.

On the sets today are mostly Marathi theatre artistes who form the majority of the 27-member cast. Today, the agenda is a standoff between two factions --- Hindu fundamentalists wearing saffron robes who approve of the practice of Sati, and a women's rights organisation. A crowd of junior artistes are shouting slogans and carrying placards with lathi-bearing policemen.

Jha thunders instructions into a mega phone while his team of assistant directors manage the crowd. All hell breaks loose when the 'journalists' change their shirts. "Doesn't anyone know what continuity is?" Jha screams.

"Arre mike zawal ne [Bring the mike closer]." Thoda wak [Bend a little]. " Gunde kuthe gele?" [Where are the thugs]?" Instructions in Marathi fly across the open ground on which the Rs 15 million set stands.

Boards in Marathi --- Yethe saadila fall lavun milel [Sari fall available here], Sangopan palana ghar [Sangopan creche] and Shree Samarth Vadhu Var Kendra [Shree Samarth Marriage Bureau], dot the balconies of the wooden-pillared building called Popatlal Chunnilal Garodia Chawl.

You would be forgiven if you thought a Marathi film was being shot here. Several members of the cast are seasoned Marathi stage and TV actors --- Usha Nadkarni, Arun Kadam, Uday Sabnis, Kishore Nandaskar, Jayant Savarkar, Liladhar Kambli, Uma Rane, Atisha Naik, Nupur, Madhuwanti, Atul Kale and Swati Chitnis.

This film follows conventions of the stage with Vijay Raaz, of Moonsoon Wedding playing the unusual role of sutradhar or narrator. Other actors faces include Shivaji Satam (Vastav), Sachin Khedekar (of Astitva fame) and Sayaji Shinde (Vaastav and Lal Salaam).

A new entrant is Shivaji Satam's son Abhijeet, opposite Diya Mirza. Interesttingly, the star heroines are paired with Marathi theatre artistes. Raveena is paired opposite Bharat Jadhav and Namrata Shirodkar opposite another Marathi actor.

"There is no hero. The chawl is the 'hero'. My film focuses on social issues concerning women so no big male star was needed," explains Jha. Sanjay Narvekar, who played Sanjay Dutt's cronie in Vaastav, is also part of the cast. He says, "I feel as if I am working with my family. There is a lot of openness on the sets and we have great fun interacting with each other."

Marathi stage writer Sanjay Pawar coscripted the film with Mahesh Manjrekar, one of the producers of the movie and also its villain.

With almost all the post-production work and dubbing over, PJPCNJ is expected to hit the theatres later this summer.

India News Feature Service