Ani … Kashinath Ghanekar

This movie is Subodh Bhave’s third attempt at a Bio-Pic after his immensely successful Bal Gandharva n Lokmanya Ek Yugpurush. His presence in the earlier filmed version of a popular staged play “Katyar Kaljat Ghusali” and now Ani…Kashinath Ghanekar, is slowly but surely pulling him towards a period era and just as gradually he may have done so many that on a very light note when it is the turn of Subodh’s own bio-pic to be made, wonder who would star in it, was a question curiously asked by a middle aged lady sitting a row behind me in the cinema hall.

Dr. Kashinath Ghanekar, a light eyed, immensely flamboyant, hedonistic dentist turned actor crash landed on the staid Marathi stage ethos that was practically going nowhere during the 1950’s. The 8^th born of an extremely critical father, he remained a man forever seeking his father’s approval that was just as spitefully and viciously denied to him. These are the shades of the man very well captured as they not only became his main driving motivation to seek that compensative approval and adulation from his audience.  Once that was achieved got him so severely addicted to it that he could not survive without it.

A very understanding fellow doctor wife who was a gynaecologist supported his fanciful longing for stage and fame while dealing with his eccentric and self-centred persona. The man worked very hard for his success as is known that he despite having a successful practice in Mumbai worked the nights doing odd jobs on the stage circuit, one of them being that of a voice prompter. From his first big break of getting Vasant Kanetkars play…”Raigadala Jaag Yete” where he played Sambhaji with such élan and finesse that the forgotten son of the famous father came alive in him onstage. It helped that he was a handsome man and the audience that had long since given up on Marathi stage thronged back to it in hordes. A new sun had risen and started blazing on the turnstiles.

Just as proportionately the success went to his head, where his extreme arrogance brought a promising career to a full stop many a time, during the first lull Sulochana his wives patient and mentor pushed him towards cinema under the tutelage of the veteran master Bhalji Pendharkar. Cinema never attracts an actor who starts from the stage, one who is used to the phenomenon of a live interactive audience and its instantaneous feedback. Prabhakar Panshikar another Giant of the stage was staging the author Kanetkar’s new play “Ashrunchi Jhali Fule” and here in a barely 20 minute part Ghanekar with his character Lalya became such a rage, he from the opening night owned the play. It was here in these intermittent visits to Sulochana’s house he ran into her school going daughter Kanchan and the young girls falls for him, hook line and sinker. Her calm and cool demeanour also drew him to her and tilted him away from his wife in this journey ahead. The forever craving soul gets a perpetual fan and his wife of many years who had refused that role categorically, moves on. Arrogance and an extremist starry behaviour rarely keep friends, associates or colleagues and there always are those stepped upon toes waiting to hit back. Three shows per day, excessive alcohol, tobacco use and the obsessive compulsive need for the applause addled the first ever superstar of Marathi stage to such an extent that he collapsed on stage in an alcoholic stupor.

Heady fan approval instantly switches sides and turns into hate…in this painful gap stepped in another powerful actor Dr.Shriram Lagoo and all of Ghanekar’s parts leaked out to Lagoo triggering off a cold war of mammoth proportions. Lagoo’s method acting v/s Ghanekars spontaneous flamboyance was another tipping point that was the harbinger of another change coming over Marathi stage… this battle saw Ghanekar meeting an extremely tragic end. Fickle is the bitch goddess of success and her loyalty often taken for an entitlement and for granted can be disastrous. 

This was Ghanekars’s story in a nutshell, captured for a much later generation by Subodh Bhave and writer Abhijit Deshpande by researching and partly through the book, Nath ha Maaza,  by Dr.Ghanekars second wife Kanchan. 

It is a brave attempt and the cameos are the ones that have stolen the show, because some of them are very well etched out. Prasad Oak as Prabhakar Panshikar, Anand Ingle as Vasant Kanetkar and Sumit Raghavan as Dr.Shreeram Lagoo are excellent. Nandita Dhuri as Dr.Iravati has again delivered a superbly grounded low key performance after her sterling Elizabeth Ekadashi previously. Prajakta Mali the bouncy telestar shines briefly as Gomu in a song “ GomuSangti Na” from one of his biggest hits towards the end of Ghanekars filmy career ; “Ha Khel Sawalyancha”. Sonali Kulkarni as Sulochana is clearly a misfit but Vaidehi Parshurami as her daughter is very good and a sight for sore eyes. And like the title ani…Subodh Bhave as Dr.Kashinath Ganekar is very sincere. Subodh loves a challenge, takes it up and fulfils it with his inbuilt restraint. There are explosive moments written in the script befitting the character. These are the very moments where one wishes that had Subodh let himself completely go, totally unrestrained, it could have added a different dimension and depth to the character. Alas, I missed that. Yes, he can be excused for never having met the star and studying him through his cinema but one must remember that was a medium and platform never favoured by Dr.Ghanekar. The actor lived for the stage, lived to walk through the crowds cutting his way out, listening to the hosannas falling on his ears and like all such artistes who get made by the maker with a self–destruct button.

Whether Dr.Kashinath Ghanekar was really such an important a pillar of Marathi stage that we needed a bio-pic of him is by itself a debatable question, one that never arose in the making of Bal Gandharva. Ghanekar was a very popular star who kept the till ringing at a time when the Marathi Maanus had lost interest in that medium. It is a good movie that stops several yards from being a great one. Is it watchable, yes it is, only if you do want to know who Dr.Kashinath Ghanekar cursorily was?