Ghei Chhand

Book Review

We read “Ghei Chhand” by renowned Marathi actor Subodh Bhave. This is not an autobiography; it is a memoir of his experience on stage and movies over 20 years starting with his college days in the 1990s to 2015.

Subodh Bhave’s preferred mode of communication is talking to his audience, not writing for readers. The book reads as if he is telling you his memories over these 20 years, and the spoken word is transcribed to Devanagari script into a book format. The book fails, if measured on a literary scale, which could have been easily rectified if read and redrafted by a competent editor or the author. Most likely that has not happened, resulting in spelling mistakes, missing photo inscriptions, repetition of some narration and the difference between Balgandharva’s death in 1967 and Bhave’s birth in 1975 referred to as 12 years. In spite of the literary shortcoming of the book, it is an enjoyable easy read.

Through this book we get to know Subodh Bhave as a person and his passion for bringing characters to stage or movies. The cover of the book shows four pagris as worn by Maharashtrian Brahmins changing through centuries till the twentieth century.

The book mainly talks about the following experiences:

• Early experience with theater in college, early plays and serials

• Revival of the sangeet natak Katyar Kaljat Ghusli

• Production of biopic Balgandharva

• Production of biopic Lokmanya, Ek Yugpurush

• Production of Katyar Kaljat Ghusli - movie adaption of the original natak

There is not much to be said for the early experience or the sangeet natak revival since these are relatively short parts of the book so this review will focus on the story behind production of the three movies. Since these are his memories over 20 years, the book shows us what he considered important through this period. His passion for stage and movies as the medium to bring stories and ideas to the masses is clearly revealed in the book. The details surrounding movie production might be boring for people who already know the process but are engaging for those of us who do not know much about the efforts involved in producing a movie. He comes across as an honest person, ready to admit his weakness and mistakes, when many famous (and not so famous) people do not ever acknowledge making any mistakes. He also gives credit to others who helped him portray the characters we see in the movies – Parulekar master who taught him how to eat right and exercise specifically for each role, Vikram– his makeup man, Bhau who helped him overcome his panic attacks.The book has many details regarding each movie and I enjoyed watching the movies again after reading the book when I could understand the details within the context of the book.

It was intriguing to note that even though Subodh Bhave was not initially interested in classical music or natya sangeet, reading Gandharva Gatha, a book about Balgandharva, got him interested in researching this doyen of Marathi sangeet natak. He read more articles; some published in Kesari as well as books about Balgandharva and collected more information by meeting many people who had actually known Balgandharva personally. Though his official role in this project was as an actor, he was the driving force behind the movie production.

The book tells us his efforts to find the right director, right producer and the right singer (Anand Bhate) as well as his own deeply researched preparationto take on the role of Balgandharva where he showcased his acting talents as a woman and as a man in the same movie. He took great pains to understand how Balgandharva sang and tried to portray that in the movie. He tells us the efforts required to lip synch to classical music which is quite difficult compared to lip synching to light movie songs. The book reveals great attention to details where stage lighting changed through 50 years of Balgandharva’s stage career. Thanks to Subodh Bhave’s efforts and great direction by Ravi Jadhav, this movie was selectedfor the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Just like in the case of Balgandharva movie, Subodh Bhave got interested in producing a biopic about Lokmanya Tilak after he read the book about Lokmanya Tilak by Gangadhar Gadgil. Again, he took the initiative to bring this project to fruition. He was lucky to find a great director, Om Raut, who was very knowledgeable about Tilak and already had a clear understanding and vision of how to present Lokmanya Tilak in this movie. He is Lokmanya because he was able to convince masses to follow him, and he is Yugpurush because his thoughts are still relevant in today’s India. The book explains how this was portrayed in the movie. Subodh Bhave is honest about his weakness when two of his friends passed away suddenly at this time and he went through anxiety and panic attacks which affected his overall wellbeing and dependence on medication. After consulting with Bhau, he finally recovered from these panic attacks. Like Balgandharva, this movie portrays Tilak over 40 years and thanks to Subodh Bhave’s and Om Raut’s attention to details shows changes in his demeanor very effectively. Efforts required to achieve this are clearly articulated in the book. This movie was also selected for IFFI. Many have seen the popular movie “Katyar kaljat Ghusli”. The book tells us the story behind the production of this movie and Subodh Bhave’s vision of how it should be produced. Subodh Bhave had already produced revival of sangeet natak “Katyar Kaljat Ghusli” with his friends, Rahul Deshpande and Mahesh Kale. He started thinking about producing this natak as a movie to make it more interesting for masses. This required cutting many classical music songs from the original natak to introduce light music and a qawali. It also meant changing the story line to show a hero (Sadashiv), a love-interest heroine (Uma, his guru bhagini in natak) and a villain (Khansaheb, main character in natak, whose behavior is driven by the difference in music gharanas, not jealousy), as well assome dramatic incidents, all a staple of mainstream movies. This was a big project since it involved rewriting the entire natak as well as introducing new songs. Subodh Bhave decided to be the director himself and the book talks about all the aspects he had to learn to direct this production. His clear vision for the production and the story line is outlined in the book. He worked hard to find a screenwriter for the movie as well as a writer and composer for new songs. His original idea of casting Rahul Deshpande as Khansaheb (provided playback for character), Mahesh Kale as Sadashiv (provided playback for character) and Shaunak Abhisheki as Panditji (no role in the movie) were sidelined after decision to cast Sachin as Khansaheb and Shankar Mahadevan as Panditji who also became the composer and singer for the role. He himself played the role of Sadashiv. Subodh Bhave has acknowledged that he took his friends like Shaunak for granted and did not keep him in the loop as the decision on various roles changed. He had a vision for a grand production estimated to cost Rs 4 crores which many Marathi movie producers were not willing to put up. He was finally able to raise funds for this project by convincing Zee to invest in this effort. The movie was a great box office success, grossing Rs 30 crores and demonstratedhow well Subodh Bhave understands his audience. This was his third movie selected to be showcased at IFFI.

In conclusion, I enjoyed reading this book. I was not reading the book in my own room. I was sipping elaichi coffee (substitute beverage of your choice) in Subodh Bhave’s flat, listening to him reminiscence about his stage and movie experiences over 20 years.