PANAJI: Legendary music maestro late Vasantrao Deshpande’s life and times, is the intriguing classic subject of Nipun Dharmadhikari’s Marathi film ‘Me Vasantrao’.
‘Me Vasantrao’ biopic on the Hindustani Classical maverick, is also a part of the International Competition section at at the ongoing 52nd International Film Festival of India here in Goa. The musical received overwhelming response on its India premiere here on Tuesday night.
Addressing the media here on Wednesday, the young, multi-talented and national award-winning filmmaker Nipun Dharmadhikari began by saying that being an artiste is not easy, not even in Vasantrao’s times and he was no exception to that.
Describing the premise of his film, Dharmadhikari revealed: “Vasantrao Deshpande is a very well-known name from Indian classical music, and his career lasted for 13 years. He became known during his late 40s and 50s before he passed away in his early 60s; and nobody knows what happened before that! This film explores the untold story of his life. On one hand it is extremely personal to him, while on the other hand, it is universal to every other person who is trying to be an artiste.”
Dharmadhikari also disclosed that the scripting of the film took two years as late Vasantrao Deshpande was a hard man to grasp. “So to understand his choices, why he made those in that point in time, it was pretty difficult! Because right now we live in time where the avenues are so open that if you want to do something, you go ahead and success follows…It was a fact that he was a very good singer even in his early 20s and 30s. Yet why didn’t he follow his passion? It was a question I was dealing with,” he divulged.
Dharmadhikari saluted the effort of notable contemporary Hindustani classical singer Rahul, grandson of late Vasantrao Deshpande, for doing a brilliant job of playing his grandfather’s role. It happens to be Rahul’s first film as an actor. “We have been doing plays together, revived ‘sangeet nataks’ over the past 10 years and in a way, this film is a culmination of our process in theatre,” he added.
