Before Everything, There Was Harishchandrachi Factory
By Ananya Sherlekar
Whenever someone mentions films, and talks a whole lot about it, a tiny part of my dreams feels real, all because there was somebody insane enough to dream about it first. Someone who was declared mad because sleeping in a tent meant for screening moving photographs and thus, destroying your vision, was truly revolutionary for the time, but has history ever been made by somebody not reckless enough?
A tale directed by Paresh Mokashi follows a brilliantly crafty man who laid the foundation for Indian cinema. Harishchandrachi Factory shows, or rather plays out the journey of Dadasaheb Phalke as played by Nandu Madhav, when he accidentally discovers a tent screening moving pictures or, as he loved to call it, ‘pardyavarcha natak’. He is awestruck by this concept and decides to produce a feature film. In doing so, he builds a team that is as eccentric as him.
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Throughout the film, you can’t help but root for Dadasaheb Phalke. Whether it be him eating the simplest Batatyachi Bhaji (Indian Potato dish) in London, or him venturing into a red light area just to find his Queen Taramati. I loved the fact that he was so absolutely and irrevocably in love with his craft that he transcended the boundaries of time and space to make it all work. A time where a meal, a shelter, and a family were enough to support a dream. And to add to all of it the hilarious twists and turns in the film made the narration so much richer. The film does not have to say a lot of things to make a person laugh; it’s just so simply raw that you can’t help but smile whenever someone is onscreen. I would like to believe that Dadasaheb Phalke’s nature was so enigmatic that Raja Harishchandra must have himself blessed him to create a world so stunningly ‘moving’.
Would you remove your moustache if you had to play a woman? Or better yet, would you play the role of a woman as a man? From enacting poses just like the ones in the painting to climbing hills to shoot a silent frame, the men in Dadasaheb Phalke’s team did every possible thing to make the film a success, but it was his wife Saraswati Phalke, played by Vibhavari Deshpande, who truly stood strong. Every scene with her was nothing less than a wonder, scenes where she is recording her kids with the camera or where she is extremely shy when Dadasaheb Phalke picks her up and all her other witty moments, where you are completely smitten by her. To a point where you completely agree when Dadasaheb Phalke says, “hai sagla tujhya mule hota aahe”. (All of this is possible because of you.)
I love how the film uses the harmonium in the background, not just as comic relief but to make us aware of the time period. An era where they knew nothing but the sound of the harmonium because of the theatre plays, no loud music, but just a man with an instrument. The whole movie feels like a frame-to-frame natak (play), it’s just that the only difference is that we are seeing it on the screen, in the form of moving pictures.
I guess if it wasn’t for him, then I would not have been writing a blog about a film, no one would be reading it, because there would probably be no film. So if only he were here today to see that a silly little miracle enclosed in the four corners of his house is now in every crevice and corner of the world.
