Bhaai: Vyakti Kee Valli – Purvardha, the biopic on Purushottam Laxman Deshpande aka Pu La Deshpande, has ruffled some feathers among the kin of classical artistes portrayed in the film. However, director Mahesh Manjrekar told us that they are firm on what is shown in the film.
Shrinivas Joshi, son of the legendary classical singer Bhimsen Joshi, expressed his unhappiness over the portrayal of some musical legends in Manjrekar’s latest offering.
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His objection is to the scene where characters of Bhimsen Joshi, Pu La and Vasantrao Deshpande land up at the house of classical music singer Hirabai Barodekar’s house in search for liquor one night. While the scene doesn’t show Bhimsen Joshi consuming liquor, his son Shrinivas is upset with the portrayal of senior artiste Barodekar.
Speaking to Cinestaan.com, Shrinivas said, “She was a very senior artiste and there never used to be liquor at her place. She was a motherly figure for my father. Such an incident never happened. This hampers the image of Hirabai Barodekar.”
He added that he also had other artistic issues with the film, but is now fine with it. “There has to be artistic freedom,” he said. “But in the name of artistic freedom, how can you show things that didn’t happen?”
Shrinivas hasn’t spoken with the makers of the film. “Nothing can happen as the film has already been released two weeks ago. Lakhs of people have seen it,” he said.
When we contacted Manjrekar for his stand, he said, “Aamhi aamchya kalakrutivar thaam aahot.” [We are firm on what we have shown in the film].
Bhaai sees Sagar Deshmukh and Iravati Harshe in the roles of Pu La and his wife Sunita Deshpande. The first part of the film was released on 4 January and has been received positively by the audience and critics. The second part Bhaai: Vyakti Kee Valli – Uttarardha will be out in theatres on 8 February.