Regional/ Tour de force

When director-actor Trupti Bhoir received an email from the management of the Academy Awards, she ignored it thinking somebody has played a prank on her. Though the mail was followed by another mail, she kept the news to herself. Then Bhoir, who is educated till the 10th standard in Marathi medium with little knowledge of English language, gathered courage to share the news with one of her friends and asked her to translate the mail in Marathi. “My mother always says that one should keep doing good work and not worry about results. I stick by her words,” says Bhoir, whose Marathi film Touring Talkies is one of the 289 films in contention for 2013 Best Picture Oscar.
Prior to the announcement of Oscar nominations in January, Bhoir left for Los Angeles on December 27 to show her film to the Oscar jury. Once there, she showcased her film in a unique way — in a tent — and had already taken all the required permissions. “It is to give the jury the real feel of Touring Talkies — as a film and a concept,” she says. Before screening the film, she even presented a 15-minute programme which featured traditional Maharastrian dance and other cultural activities. The tent was decorated with the posters of artistes who have contributed to Indian Cinema such as Dadasaheb Phalke, Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Raj Kapoor and Lata Mangeshkar. The jury, she says, were welcomed by women clad in navvari and the men in Puneri pagdi. The film, which sees Bhoir as the protagonist, was screened twice in LA, on January 6 and 7.
When Bhoir released the film in the US in October, it was a calculated move. “I wanted Touring Talkies to reach the Oscars somehow; whether it gets nominated or not, was immaterial for me. But I had a feeling that my film will not get noticed in the Best Foreign Film category. Hence, I released it in the US, where it ran for two weeks and was well-received by the audience,” she says. Shot across Maharashtra, the film is about the lives of the people associated with touring talkies, their hardships and their passion for cinema. “Touring Talkies marks 100 years of Indian Cinema. In India, the culture of films first started in a tamboo (tent), and this film revolves around that concept. So in a way, the film completes the circle,” says Bhoir. The cast and crew of the film includes actor Subodh Bhave, cinemato-grapher Amol Gole and child actor Chinmay Sant. The film has been screened at several international film festivals including Chicago Film Festival, Australia Film Festival, Los Angeles Film Festival, Japan Film Festival and Indonesia Film Festival.
Even as Bhoir is elated over her brush with the Oscar, she remains pragmatic. “The Best Picture category includes big names like The Great Gatsby, The Conjuring, Diana, Gravity and Captain Phillips. I don’t think I have any chance of bagging a nomination. What I know is that I have got a chance to showcase a Marathi film and Maharashtrian culture; I am going to make the best of the opportunity,” she says.

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Anjali Devi is no more

Veteran actress Anjali Devi passed away at a private hospital in Chennai on January 13 following a cardiac arrest. She was 85 and is survived by two sons. A veteran of about 500 films in Tamil, Telugu, Hindi and Kannada, she worked with stars like N. T. Rama Rao, Nageswara Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, Gemini Ganesan and M G Ramachandran. Married to renowned music composer Adhi Narayana Rao, Anjali Devi is remembered for films like Marmayogi, Sorgavasal and Aduthaveetu Penn.

Singer K.P. Udayabhanu no more

Malayalam playback singer K. P. Udayabhanu, who rendered scores of songs noted for their emotional depth, died in Thiruvananthapuram on January 5. He was 77 and was unwell for some time. An artiste with All India Radio for decades, Udayabhanu had sung several songs for Malayalam cinema, out of which many were all-time hits. He, however, never made films his full time career. He made his debut with the mid-1950s hit Nayaru Pidicha Pulivalu.