A marathi drama staged was based on George Bernard Shaw’s Pygmalion(1913)..a stage play.. by famous marathi writer P.L.Deshpande.The girl selling flowers on the streets was played by Bhakti Barve that remains an icon in the industry. Satish Dubhashi played the role of the professor who teaches her. Till her death she was the ‘Phulrani’,her solo act …Shikwin changlach dhada…is enacted even today in competitions.
Priya Tendulkar,Sukanya Kulkarni & Amruta Subhash later tried their hand.They acted in the same way that PL Deshpande had written,but a few years back the director Rajesh Deshpande made a few changes in which Hemangi Kavi played the role.The clips of the same are available on Youtube,but getting the original is difficult.
My Fair Lady was based on this theme in 1956 Broadway musical & was very successful.An American musical comedy- drama film My Fair Lady was made in 1964.Rex Harrison & Audrey Hepburn were in the lead.A snobbish Phonetics professor agrees to take a lowly flower girl under his care & makes her presentable to the society.This main plot has been used & reused,but manages to enthrall us all.
Manpasand..a Hindi film made in 1980 had the same story with Dev Anand & Tina Munim playing the lead.Kamali here is selling Datun..that cleaning stick for teeth,’Dus dus paise le lo'( Today it feels funny,because that ten paise is no longer there!) The story was same,audience knew how it will unfold & yet we went & saw it in theatres! The songs were good.’Logon ka dil agar ha jitna tum ko hai to bas meetha meetha bolo’ or the melodious, “suman sudha rajnigandha…’ by Lata Mangeshkar.
Returning back to our ‘Phulrani’…she was unique. As I said her presence on stage was phenomenal.I had the good fortune to see her enact,but that spoiled me forever.I just can’t see anybody else in that role.Her presence on screen when she shared screen with the likes of Nasser,Satish Shah & others in ‘Jaane Bhi do yaaro’ was natural.why didn’t she work more in films? Apart from dramas she has very rarely worked elsewhere.Films have the advantage of recording.We can run & rerun the same tape.Once the performance is done it’s over.We cannot recapture it.”Natsamrat” was a play where Dr.Shriram Lagoo excelled himself.But it drained him & his health did not allow him to work.We don’t have his performance or Datta Bhat’s.It is forever branded in our memories.But wishing that good work is recorded & made available to all the aspirants.Today, happy recording…we need to do it!
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