Maratha Battalion
Brisk advance
Pranjali Films’ Maratha Battalion, which is said to have the backdrop of the Kargil battle, is making brisk progress. According to its producer, Jajiraj Vaswani, who has also written the story, 50 per cent filming of this drama with the war backdrop, has been completed. It is being directed by Nagesh Darak and cinematographed by Sameer Athalye in Cinemascope. The filming has so far been done in and around Kolhapur and Nashik. Three songs as well as several dramatic and battle scenes have been picturised so far. The screenplay and dialogues have been written by veteran Ram Kelkar, while the songs penned by Jagdish Khebudkar have been set to music by Nandu Honap. All the songs have already been taped using the most modern Dolby SR technique.

Maratha Battalion stars Laxmikant Berde, Vijay Chavan, Milind Gawali, Bharat Jadhav, Mahesh Kokate, Rahul Solapurkar and Mac Mohan. Art by Manjrekar, fights by Andalip Pathan and choreography by Jai Borade and Chinni Prakash are the other credits. Raja N Bhaskare and Vinod Drugkar are the co-producers of the film, which is a Shraddha Films presentation.

Sawai Havaldar
Released in Mumbai
Prerana Chitra’s Sawai Havaldar, which has already been released elsewhere in Maharashtra, has now been released in Mumbai at the Bharatmata cinema from December 15. The film which was previewed by the Press, has been cinematographed and directed by Prabhakar D Niklankar, who is also the joint producer alongwith Shrikant Thackeray and Jaikrishna Shetty. It stars Ashok Saraf, Sulabha Deshpande, Usha Naik, newcomer Annapoorna, Sunil Tavde, Master Amulya Kamerkar and Kuldip Pawar. Based on a story, script and dialogues penned by the late journalist and playwright Vidyadhar Gokhale, the film deals with the emotional traumas of a railway police havaldar (Ashok Saraf), his mother (Sulabha Deshpande), a male child abandoned in its infancy in a railway wagon and brought up by the havaldar as his own child (Amulya Kamerkar), and a dancing girl (Annapoorna), who entertains dreams of marrying the cop. The villain (Kuldip Pawar) is a scheming legislator who is a womaniser and is also the real father of the abandoned child. These and the rest of the characters have been effectively woven into the story. Ashok Saraf and Kuldip Pawar excel in their respective roles. The lyrics by Vandana Vitankar, Ramesh Anawkar and Vinayak Rahatekar are meaningful and the melody-based music scored by Shrikant Thackeray is a highlight. The laavani number rendered by Uttara Kelkar is the pick of the lot. Other singers Anuradha Paudwal, Suresh Wadkar and Kavita Krishnamurthy are also impressive.

Editing by Vinayak Niklankar (who has also enacted a cameo role), art by Satish Bidkar, audiography by Prakash Nikam, choreography by Narendra Pandit and Subal Sarkar and fights by Masud Patel are the other major technical credits.

Raju
Due in Mumbai on January 5
SJ Films’ Raju, produced by Prof Suhas Jog and directed by Kanchan Nayak is due to open at the Plaza cinema in Mumbai (in daily matinee shows) from January 5. (The film has had highly successful runs at several cities in Maharashtra including Pune, where it celebrated silver jubilee). Based on a story by producer Suhas Jog and with screenplay and dialogues penned by Shrinivas Bhanage, the film stars Tushar Dalvi, Rajeshwari, Bharati Patil, Mohan Agashe, Virendra Pradhan, Mitali Jagtap, Vikram Gokale and Master Pushkar in the title role of Raju. Lyrics penned by Sudhir Moghe have been set to music by Anand Modak. It has been cinematographed by Harish Joshi and edited by Vijay Khochikar. The song-cum-dances are said to be a highlight of the film. The dances have been choreographed by Umesh Jadhav, Charushila Sable, Raju Pardeshi, Siddharth Haldipur and Tejaswini Raj.

Pandit Shimpi