Mumbai: A Marathi film is stepping well past the state's borders. Gondhal, India's Oscar entry this year, arrives in cinemas on Friday in seven languages at once — Marathi among them, with Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
Directed by Santosh Davakhar, the psychological thriller is built on a village ritual, and it opens with a 25-minute unbroken take, a formal gamble Marathi cinema rarely attempts. Ishita Deshmukh, Kishor Kadam, Yogesh Sohoni and Nishad Bhoir play the leads.
Davakhar won the Silver Peacock for best director at the 56th International Film Festival of India. The film was released in Maharashtra in November last year, and its selection as India's Oscar entry has since carried it to a wider run.
On Friday it opens the INDICA Dallas Film Utsav in Texas, with a red carpet at 5pm and a screening at 6.30pm at Galaxy Theatres Grandscape in The Colony, followed by a Q&A with Davakhar.
In Maharashtra it has a second life. The Chitrapataka festival, four days of 33 films and around 20 discussion sessions, closes with Gondhal on 18 November; cultural affairs minister Ashish Shelar is to inaugurate it.
"A platform like the Oscars lets filmmakers carry a culture tied to their roots and an authentic Indianness to the world," Davakhar said.
Industry watchers say the Oscar tag gives Gondhal an advantage in overseas markets that most Marathi releases do not have.
The first shows on Friday will say whether that tag pulls in the art-house crowd or keeps it away. And with five Marathi films arriving on 20 November, the fight for screens will be just as real.
Next: whether week one turns a seven-language release into a model for Marathi cinema abroad.