MUMBAI: Mahesh Manjrekar’s Marathi film ‘Kaaksparsh’ about a young widow’s fight by her dead husband’s elder brother for her individual space is all set for a Hindi remake.
The sad part of the transition is that Manjrekar’s favourite actor Sachin Khedkar who gives an overwhelming performance as the fiercely protective patriarch would not be part of the Hindi remake of ‘Kaaksparsh’.
However Amitabh Bachchan who loves the original, has agreed to step into the Hindi adaptation. ‘Kaaksparsh’ in Hindi would be shot in the same Konkan village where the original Marathi film was shot.
Says a source close to the project, “Amitji loves the Marathi film’s theme and execution. He thinks Mahesh Manjrekar should remake ‘Kaaksparsh’ in exactly the same way without losing the original flavour. And for that Amitji knows he would have to brave village life. There wouldn’t even be a decent guest house, let alone a hotel. But the project is worth it. Mahesh and Amitji have decided to shoot this film ahead of their other project ‘Naatsamrat’ which they will now do later.”
Interestingly, 4 decades ago, Big B had shot ‘Saudagar’ with Nutan in a village. Considering his age and health shooting in a village may not that easy for the Big B any more.
Says Mahesh, “It has to be shot in the Konkan village. I want to preserve the flavour and mood of the story. I’ll be using all the traditional Marathi songs just as I did in ‘Kaaksparsh’. Amitji is the only actor who can do justice to the role of the patriarch who fights for the young widow’s right.”
The casting of the widow played to perfection in different stages of the Marathi film by Ketaki Mategaonkar and Priya Bapat, would appear to be problematic. Says Mahesh, “Not really. Years ago Padmini Kolhapure had played a young widow being put through the trauma of widowhood including the shaving of the head. I’d like to take ahead the plight of the young widow as portrayed in our films. As for finding the right actresses in Hindi when we were casting for ‘Kaaksparsh’ in Marathi we thought we’d never be able to get the talent we need. But we did. Why do we presume all of Bollywood is about gymed bodies and westernized filmmaking?”
