PUNE, MARCH 27: Special screenings, they hope, will do the trick. As Gaabhara, the latest to come out of the gasping Marathi film industry, was showcased at the National Film Archives of India (NFAI) amidst a high-profile audience, industry watchers hope that this will finally do the trick. Get the depleting audience back and make them stay there.What's more, this time it is the much maligned National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) that has returned to the Marathi scenario to lend a helping hand. The screening was attended by practically the who's who of Marathi cinema (such as Shreeram Lagoo and Nilu Phule) and State Cultural Affairs Minister Ramkrishna More in tow.Usually associated with the parallel film movement, the NFDC funded the Rs 27 lakh budget for the film. For debutante director Rajeev Khandagale, this is a bold step. Simply because he is standing amidst the ruins of a film industry that is struggling to get distributors to show their films.``Getting distributors is a major problem,'' says Khandagale speaking to The Indian Express as he distributes colour brochures of the film. Shot extensively in Pune, the film travels through the by-lanes of Budhwar Peth. The woman are gaudily dressed and make suggestive advances - they are prostitutes and they play themselves. But the film is not about them, but of their children. Shunned by society, they live with the fact that they have to be shunted from place to place.Khandagale, who plays the role of Ratan, the protagonist, is a student at the University of Pune researching for his project while he does his masters in social work. His topic is the rehabilitation of children of commercial sex workers (CSWs).Interestingly, the film has been taken from real life. It tries to reflect certain events that actually happened here, in Pune, almost 20 years ago. Reflecting the life of Vijayatai Lavate, the film makes numerous references to her efforts in rehabilitating children of CSWs.Although the film is at times confusing, it attempts to inject a realism that is becoming increasingly defunct in Marathi films.
