City of Gold (2010 film)
| City of Gold - Mumbai 1982: Ek Ankahee Kahani | |
|---|---|
_poster.jpg) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Mahesh Manjrekar |
| Screenplay by | Mahesh Manjrekar Jayant Pawar |
| Story by | Jayant Pawar |
| Produced by | Arun Rangachari Om Raut (Executive Producer) |
| Starring | Ankush Choudhary Siddharth Jadhav Sachin Khedekar Sameer Dharmadhikari Karan Patel |
| Cinematography | Ajit Reddy V. Ajith Reddy |
| Edited by | Sarvesh Parab |
| Music by | Ajit Parab |
Production company | |
Release date |
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| Country | India |
| Languages | Hindi, Marathi (as Lalbaug Parel) |
City of Gold is a 2010 Bollywood film released in both Hindi and Marathi languages. The film was directed by Mahesh Manjrekar, who has directed critically acclaimed films in the past like Astitva and Viruddh... Family Comes First. The film is adapted from the play Adhantar by Jayant Pawar, who also co-wrote the screenplay, and explores the life of Mumbai's mill workers after they were rendered jobless in the early 1980s, when the Mumbai mills shut down in the post Great Bombay Textile Strike period, and soon made way for skyscrapers and shopping malls.[1][2] The film opened to mixed reviews, though it was commended for its theme, and acting.[3][4] The name of the Marathi version of this film is Lalbaug Parel, while the Hindi version was released as City of Gold.[5]
Plot
The plot of the movie is based on the original script of Jayant Pawar, which highlights the consequences of the atrocities towards the mill workers, totally ignored by the Government. The film is a story of a family of mill workers in Mumbai. It traces the birth of the politics of greed in Mumbai and exposes the collusion between the triumvirate of big business, the political establishment and the trade union leaders who ostensibly were charged with protecting the rights of the mill workers. In the two decades that followed, the entire landscape of Central Bombay was changed forever. Land became the currency of growth, and this began the systematic extinction of mills in Bombay. In a matter of just a few years, hundreds of thousands of workers lost their means of livelihood. Having worked in these mills from generation to generation, this was the only vocation that they knew.
Production
The director of the film Mahesh Manjrekar writes in the director notes: "When I took a sabbatical from Hindi cinema close to four years ago, I promised myself that if and only if an exceptional subject came my way would I venture back to do a Hindi film. Lalbaug Parel is that subject." After completing the script in 2007, Manjrekar decided to wait until he could find a producer who would be willing to do a film without musical numbers.[6] Eventually, DAR Motion Pictures produced the film.
Legal troubles
After the film's release the family of Dutta Samant served Mahesh Manjrekar with legal notice, claiming that the film wrongly placed the blame for the mills' closure on Samant. They also objected to Manjrekar's portrayal of the mill workers' children, saying they were shown as "goons".[7]
Cast
- Shashank Shinde as Anna
- Seema Biswas as Aai
- Ankush Choudhary as Baba
- Anusha Dandekar as Manasi
- Vineet Kumar Singh as Mohan
- Veena Jamkar as Manju
- Karan Patel as Naru
- Siddharth Jadhav as Speedbreaker
- Satish Kaushik as Mama
- Kashmira Shah as Mami
- Sameer Dharmadhikari as Mahendra
- Ganesh Yadav as Parshya Bhai
- Sachin Khedekar as Rane
- Vinay Apte as Govind
- Kishore Pradhan as Khetan Sheth
- Vaibhav Mangle as DoctorSaheb
- Sai Tamhankar as Shalu / Naru's girlfriend
- Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Minister
Track listing
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Tuzya girnicha vajude bhonga – Laavani Dance" | 3:07 |
References
- ^ Masand, Rajeev (24 April 2010). "Masand: Lalbaug Parel is hard-hitting". CNN-IBN. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
- ^ "Subhash K. Jha speaks about Lalbaug Parel". Bollywood Hungama. 24 April 2010.
- ^ "Film Review: Lalbaug Parel". Live Mint. 24 April 2010.
- ^ "Anupama Chopra's review: Lalbaug Parel". NDTV. 23 April 2010.
- ^ Parande, Shweta (8 April 2010). "I don't fear failure: Mahesh Manjrekar". IBN. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ Kumar, Anuj (28 April 2011). "What lies beneath?". The Hindu. Retrieved 18 September 2011.
- ^ "Filmmaker Manjrekar Gets Notice on 'Lalbaug-Parel'". Outlook India. 20 April 2010. Retrieved 18 September 2011.