Tag: ravi shet

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Film

Review: Dagadi Chawl

Excellent performances and slick camera work make this film stand out, though the story and plot follow a predictable graph.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

Dagadi Chawl directed by debutant director Chandrakant Kanse not only focuses on gangster-turned-politician Arun Gawli (known as ‘Daddy’) but also highlights the story of a common man caught in the deadly world of crime and the era of gang wars in late 90s.

The film, based in Mumbai in 1996, starts with Daddy (played by Makrand Deshpande) performing a puja at Dagadi Chawl, while his trusted henchman, Chandu Mama (Sanjay Khapre) attacks a local politician who is set to contest elections against Gawli.

Suryakant Sadashiv Shinde aka Surya (Ankush Chaudhari) who works for Daddy collects extortion money from a builder named Desai. On getting a complaint from Desai, encounter specialist Inspector Kale (Kamlesh Sawant) picks up Surya and plans to bump him off to complete a half century of encounters. However, DCP Ashfaq Khan interrupts Kale’s vehicle and demands that Surya be transferred to him.

On interrogation, Surya reveals the story of how he chanced upon a life of crime: when a group of goons harasses his girlfriend, he gets into an altercation that ends with him beating many of them up. This lands him squarely in Daddy’s crosshairs, because the goons are his boys.

This film will remind you of the gritty Satya and Vaastav, since the backdrop of the plot is quite similar. Here too, an innocent man falls prey to an unforeseen situation and ends up in the murky world of crime. Some of the scenes in the movie are predictable; however some slick camera work clubbed with a good background score and sharp editing are the positives of the film.

Ankush Chaudhari as Surya justifies his role perfectly; however Makrand Deshpande as Daddy impresses the audiences a lot more through his body language and dialogue delivery. Sanjay Khapre and Yatin Karyekar play good supporting roles. Many in the audience will also love the ‘Morya’ song played during the Ganesh Visarjan scene.

(Picture courtesy marathistars.com)

Categories
Film

Review: The Intern

A heart warming story about bridging the generational gap, this one’s a must-watch for its Academy Award winning lead performers.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 3 out of 5

A 70-year-old widower, Ben Whittaker (Robert De Niro), fights his boredom and looks for something to do. While buying groceries, he finds a flier mentioning a recruitment drive for senior citizen interns at an e-commerce startup that sells clothes. He decides to apply and go for the interview; in an age of Instagram and Facebook, he is confident that his experience will serve the company.

Aboutthefit.com is a small online clothing shop owned by Jules Ostin (Anne Hathaway), which has now turned into a successful business. Jules is a hands-on, informal boss who is strict about the brand and customer service. When informed about the senior citizen recruitments, she is initially skeptical about keeping an intern, then later finalises Ben.

 

Ben is punctual, warm and hard working. Meanwhile, Jules juggles a busy career with a daughter and stay-at-home husband, Matt. At work, Jules initially ignores Ben – after all, he is just an intern – but later they develop a good understanding become good friends. There are some interesting scenes, such as Jules helping Ben open his account on Facebook and their conversations that take place while doing so.

Robert De Niro and Anne Hathway portray their roles with ease and deliver sparklingly good performances. There are some genuinely warm and funny moments in the film which will make you laugh out loud. This one is a one-time watch, especially for fans of Robert De Niro and Anne Hathaway.

Categories
Hum log

An angel in white clothing for cancer patients in Mumbai

Harakhchand Sawla has been feeding poor cancer patients and their relatives near Tata Hospital for 32 years – for free.
by Ravi Shet

For most of us, our lives are a constant struggle to earn money and ‘get ahead’. Then there are others like Harakhchand Sawla (56), who find their own ways to make the world a better place. The Mulund resident left behind a flourishing business 32 years ago to start caring for cancer patients and their relatives with free food and medicines.

The sprightly man is always dressed in a white kurta and pajama, completing his look with white chappals or shoes. He can be seen in a lane behind Mumbai’s Tata Memorial Hospital either distributing food on a daily basis to the cancer patients and their relatives, or simply talking to them to soothe their nerves. The activity happens from his trust office situated here.

“I started by serving food to 15 people. Today, we serve food to around 700 people every day,” he says. “My parents taught me that we should look after disadvantaged human beings unselfishly, so this is my way of doing so.” His endeavour began 30 years ago when he noticed cancer patients and their relatives coming from different parts of India and staying on the roads with their luggage and pockets almost empty due to travel and treatment costs.

“I felt bad for their condition. Cancer treatment is very costly and most people cannot afford it. That’s when I decided that I would help these people,” he remembers. To do so, he decided to give up his business – which astonished his relatives. “They thought I was crazy. But my wife was my inspiration and support during this time. I started distributing free food for these people and paid for it out of my own pocked for 12 years. After that, people started helping with money, old clothes, toys, or sponsoring lunch or sweets,” he explains.

Meals being served near Tata Memorial Cancer Hospital, Mumbai.

Harakhchand starts his day with yoga and a walk, after which he reaches his trust office in Parel at noon, working till 8 pm. The lunches he distributes comprise chapatis, rice, dal, sabzi, fruit and milk, with sweets being served occasionally. Lunch starts at 12.30 pm and dinner at 6.30 pm. He says, “Donors serve sweets or sometimes we do, when it is my birthday or some festival. We also serve turmeric-infused milk to those suffering from throat cancer or who have undergone chemotherapy and find it difficult to digest food.” He adds, “I am pained to see small children suffering from cancer. We arrange a lot of activities for them, so that they are occupied and can distance themselves from their pain for at least a short while.”

Apart from providing free food, medicines, walkers and wheel chairs, Harakhchand has performed the last rites of the deceased that have been abandoned by their families, or those who had no money to perform the funeral. He now says he wants to build a hospital for end stage cancer patients who are not able to afford the treatment costs or who are abandoned by their families. “I also want to build an old age home where proper care is given at zero cost to those people with physical disability or paralysis,” he signs off.

Harakhchand Sawla can be contacted at Jeevan Jyot Cancer Relief and Care Trust, 3/9 Kondaji Chawl, Jerbai Wadia Road, Parel, Mumbai – 400 012. Call 022-2415 3453.

(Pictures courtesy Ravi Shet)

Categories
Hum log

This man is God for many Borivali senior citizens

Mark D’Souza has been delivering free lunches to senior citizens in IC colony since 2012; numbers of lunches are steadily increasing.
by Ravi Shet

At the core of our struggle to make money and acquire status in life is the basic human need for daily food. Most of us are lucky to receive two square meals a day, but while we have enough to eat, we take our meals for granted. Not so the countless senior citizens who are either too poor or too ill to feed themselves. What happens to these people, who do not receive daily meals?

In the lives of some of these senior citizens comes an angel in the form of Mark D’Souza (57), a real estate agent based in IC colony, Borivali. With his silver moustache and warm smile, Mark gives off a welcoming aura at first sight. But when you realise that this affable gentleman has been providing free lunches to senior citizens in the IC colony-Kandarpada belt from the year 2012, your respect for him increases manifold!

“I started delivering free lunches to senior citizens from November 14, 2012. I have always been a good planner and I have a lot of energy, so I have never missed delivering a single lunch for even one day since I started,” he beams.

There are free lunches in the world

Mark was born in Mulki, Karnataka and lost his mother at an early age. Staying with relatives and then moving to Mumbai for further studies all came with their own challenges. “I worked in Libya for six years, then I shifted back to Mumbai and set up an estate agent firm,” he explains.

It was in 2012 that Mark pondered over the question of senior citizens who are incapable of cooking their own food. “That’s when I decided that I would start a free lunch service for elderly people in the area. I took Rs 5,000 from my wife Yvonne (a social activist) and she also helped me find suitable elderly people in the area,” he says.

Everything fell into place at the right time, and from an initial five lunches, Mark delivers free lunches to 30 people in the area. Hearing of his work, many friends and well wishers also came forward to donate money, or even steel lunch boxes to encourage his efforts.

What’s cooking?

Mark’s four-compartment dabba comprises five to six chapatis, rice, sabzi and dal. On Wednesdays, there’s egg curry, while he includes chicken or fish curry on Sundays. “We cook the food in less oil, less salt and less spices. But we pack in loads of love and the food is prepared in a hygienic environment,” he explains.

The vegetables are bought daily by the husband and wife, and his cook handles the meal preparation. “I tell my cook, ‘God is watching our actions and we should not compromise on the quality of our work. When it is noon, I start my delivery schedule that goes on till 2.30 pm. It has become a part of my daily routine.” He adds that several security guards of the buildings he delivers in now know him personally and they take the dabbas off his hands and deliver them. “What do I get out of this? The smiles and blessings of the people who eat our food. And the blessings from my friends. These are priceless for me,” he smiles.

You can contact Mark D’Souza at Crrystal Care Service, K 3, Vershi Villa, Opposite IC Bakery, Near IC Post Office, IC Colony, Borivali West. His mobile number is +91 98338 53523.

(Picture courtesy Ravi Shet)

Categories
Film

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema

A story that tries to highlight the sleazy side of the film world, the film fails spectacularly at every level.
by Ravi Shet

Rating: 2 out of 5

As stories go, this one had the potential to be both a laugh fest and a thought-provoking critique on the ills of the movie world. However, this film does neither and is merely an excruciating watch for the audience.

Vaajlaach Paahije – Game Ki Shinema (directed by R Viraj) starts with struggling director Makarand Thokare aka Yash (Rajesh Bhosale) auditioning actors for an upcoming film. Sitting in on the auditions is Raj (Chinmay Udgirkar), a struggling actor himself. Yash and Raj are desperately looking for a producer who can finance their film. During their hunt for a producer, they meet moneybags producer Bhau Damdar (Bhalchandra Kadam), who is in the business only to get intimate with pretty girls.

Bhau agrees to finance the duo’s film on the condition that they get a beautiful heroine for it. He also hands over an advance payment to the duo so that the heroine can be brought in quickly.

 

Raj goes out to look for ‘suitable’ faces and finalises Supriya (Girija Joshi) – but Supriya has an ulterior motive up her sleeve. Pretending that she needs the role because she is poor, she also accepts that Raj is infatuated with her. Meanwhile, Yash is at his wits’ end because Bhau rejects each script he brings, before saying that he wants the film to be made on a truly terrible script, ‘Nal Damayanti – The Intimate Love Story’.

Bhau is excited about meeting the girl for the film, but there is a shock in store when Yash and Supriya turn out to be siblings. By this time, Yash has decided to make a film on the sly without their producer knowing about it, and also to save his sister from Bhau’s clutches.

R Viraj has tried hard to bring Dada Kondke’s style of cinema back with this film, however he fails miserably at the attempt. Bhalchandra Kadam delivers a good performance as a filthy producer. Apart from some funny moments, the film falls flat in every possible way. Also, the innuendo in the dialogues is forced and completely unfunny.

(Picture courtesy starblockbuster.com)

Categories
Deal with it

Worship, immerse and protect the seas

City based environmentalist Anand Pendharkar’s Ganesh idols stuffed with vegetable fish food are finding many takers in the State and country, too.
by Ravi Shet

Ganesh Chaturthi is one of the largest festivals celebrated in our city. But the festival creates havoc in our seas – the post visarjan (immersion) of Ganesh idols made of Plaster of Paris (POP) pollute the water significantly and also impact the marine environment badly. Nothing changes year after year – huge Ganesh POP idols are immersed in the seas, jeopardising the marine life at an alarming rate.

The answer, then, is to make eco-friendly idols. Thus, the Sprouts Environmental Trust and the good folks at Ogilvy and Mather (O&M) came together to create Ganesh idols made from corn and vegetable powder. These can be consumed by fish and other marine organisms. Anand Pendharkar, founder of Sprouts, has completed his M. Sc in Wildlife Science from Dehradun, and tells us that he has been cleaning the beaches in Mumbai post-Ganesh visarjan for the past 12 years. “Girgaon chowpatty has been on our radar, since huge idols mostly come there. People also flock to Juhu beach because celebrities come there,” he says.

The corn and vegetable Ganesh idol

For the past 6 years, Sprouts has been preparing Ganesh idols from clay and papier mache as a healthy alternative to the usual POP idols. However, when O&M’s team (comprising Elizabeth Dias, Srreram Athray, Calvin Austin, Kunal Dangarwala and Farid Bawa) joined hands with Anand, the concept of stuffing vegetarian fish food along with clay for preparation of Ganesh idols was discussed. “The idols dissolve in water within 4 to 5 hours. The journey was full of learning and we went through a lot of research and testing,” Anand says.

The team created a standard size of 9-inch Ganesh idols priced at Rs 900, which are coloured using natural materials such as Fuller’s Earth, geru, kumkum and turmeric. It takes around 3 days to complete an idol and their target is to prepare 200 idols for this year. As of now, 8 artisans on a part-time basis are working in Mumbai with Anand, while some more are working in Nagpur.

Anand recently conducted a workshop for Margam (a programme of NGO Vidya), a self-help group for women in Powai, and taught them how to make this unique Ganesh idol. He says, “People who normally get Ganesh home or in pandals every years have purchased our 9-inch idol this year.” He further adds that his family has been a huge support for his journey.

(Pics by Anand Pendharkar and Ravi Shet)

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