Sunday, February 07, 2016

स्मरणरंजनाची मराठी गुऱ्हाळं ...The Nostalgia Factories



Nicholas Carr:

"Nostalgia is nothing new. It has been a refrain of art and literature at least since Homer set Odysseus on Calypso's island and had him yearn to turn back time."

Sathnam Sanghera :

“…this relentless nostalgia is unhealthy because it saps our age of character. Think of the Sixties and a host of strong images spring to mind: flower power, the Beatles, civil rights marches. Similarly vibrant images come to mind in relation to the Seventies — flares, unemptied bins, strikes — and the Eighties — braces, Filofaxes, Wham. But is there anything that can pinpoint the flavour of the Nineties and Noughties apart from the popularity of laminate flooring? The past is so massively a part of our present that it’s hard to define what the present is about.”


Which are reportedly most successful Marathi entertainers over the past year or so?

A feature film called  "Katyar Kaljat Ghusali" (कट्यार काळजात घुसली) based on the popular play of the same name, first staged in 1967 and another feature "Natasamrat: Asa Nat Hone Nahi" (नटसम्राट: असा नट होणे नाही) based on another popular play of the same name (नटसम्राट) first staged in 1970. 

Both the films don't reinterpret the almost 50-year old original plays but just re-present them.

I strongly believe  both the movies are towering examples of the zest of middle-class, urban, young and old  Marathi speaking people for nostalgia (स्मरणरंजन).

Loksatta (लोकसत्ता) dated January 24 2016 reported the books that had most demand during the Akhil Bhartiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan (अखिल भारतीय मराठी साहित्य संमेलन) held in the same month

Four of the top five books were first published at least forty years ago.



 courtesy: the late Vilas Sarang (विलास सारंग), 'Sarjanshodh aani lihita lekhak' (सर्जनशोध आणि लिहिता लेखक), 2007



Artist:  Liana Finck, The New Yorker, November 2015