This turned out to be a lovely movie. Phalke stumbled into a movie-tent and watched a silent English movie about 100 years ago and decided to make India's first motion picture. And the journey that followed was an inspiring, sensitive, humorous and passionate pursuit of one eccentric but visionary man's single-minded resolve.What I liked about the movie:
1> It's made in Marathi. I wonder whether there was the temptation to go the more financially lucrative way of Hindi-cinema; but it wouldn't have been the same movie if it had.
2> For a story about success-against-all-odds, the movie is remarkably devoid of melodrama. And it doesn't lose its sense of humour.
3> Loved watching Mumbai in 1911. Although a lot of it is seen through pictures, people and dialogues (Dadar was a suburb on the outskirts back then!:)); but the movie hasn't done a bad job of portraying Mumbai through its sets [considering it would've had the budget of an indie Marathi movie].
4> The director has a gift of story-telling through his characters. Loved every single character in the movie - the eccentric protagonist; his immensely supportive wife; his mature little children; the nosy neighbouring kaku in Girgaum; the chai-walla turned movie-heroine Taramati; they all have their moments.
