Mumbai, April 09: This was one screening at Bharatmata theatre that was extra special. Filmmaker Mahesh Manjrekar had a special showing of the film Lalbaug-Parel for textile mill workers earlier this week and they came in hoards to watch the story of their lives on screen. The mill workers were seen sporting special badges, forming orderly queues at the venue.
“This is our story, which has been presented exactly as we have lived our lives. It is to Manjrekar’s credit that he had the guts to portray the truth. We hope at least now the government will wake up and do something for us,” said Shalini Sawant, a former worker of Khatau Mills.
Sawant came with three of her co-workers who remained friends since their working days. All four got misty eyed talking about how politicians ruined the textile mills and their future job prospects.
“The film has correctly shown how politics killed all the textile mills. The way the moneyed have been supported and we have been left aside is something the film has shown. We only hope the people who go to these malls today realise the truth behind these towers,” said Lilawati Jadhav.
The owner of Bharatmata, Kapil Bhopatkar, reminisced about the days when the only source of entertainment for mill workers was the Marathi films at his theatre.
“There were no theatres for a very long time when textile mills first came up in the Lower Parel area. The workers needed a good form of entertainment along with their families and that is how Bharatmata, Hanuman theatre and the others came up,” said Bhopatkar. “Today the screening at Bharatmata has a historic and true meaning,” he added.
Even dabbawalas came to watch the film. “We liked the film. When we first came to Mumbai to deliver dabbas, it was mainly to mill areas. Now, the towers have replaced the mills, but we deliver fewer tiffins,” said Chintamani Bachche.
Some activists felt the film is violent. “I saw the original play Adhantar by Jayant Pawar. This is a commercial film based on it. It is very cold-blooded and I am not sure outsiders will be able to identify with it,” Hemant Karnik said.
—Agencies