I was one of the lucky persons to catch this movie in sept 09, well in advance of its release, in International Film Festval Nagpur, and even more delighted when it was selected for the Academy awards. Once again Marathi cinema has one more feather on its cap for this extraordinary piece of art. Its more of a tribute to Late Dadasaheb Phalke and a token of appreciation for initiating a movement that went on to create the second largest movie industry in the world. The movie begins with a simple scenario of a unemployed man who gets inspired from a British motion picture theater( in a tent). The movie showcases very truly how people used to look up to cinema in earlier days, paying ticket to watch blurry b&w moving images without audio. Not only it was difficult to think of making something like a motion picture but rather impossible as there were no sources to explore the possibility of such a thing. The approach of Dadasaheb Phalke towards making a motion picture and that too beginning from less than a scratch has been beautifully shown to the finest detail. What the catchy part of the movie is that you are taken into a pleasant trance mood right from the initial scene, maybe because of the humor tinge given to the film in almost every scene. Every scene, even the emotional ones does have a funny element of character attached to it to keep you laughing all the way. It must be the first drama film to have a tinge of humor attached to go for Oscars. Or maybe its selected at the first place as the film is based on the life of Father of Indian Cinema. But it doesn't take away any credit by the makers of this film for creating a masterpiece. Hope its in the top five at the academy awards and hope it wins it too.
