“…सुरुवातीच्या
काळात प्रसिद्ध लेखकांचं
गाजलेलं साहित्य हाच मालिकांचा
आधार होता. आज
केवळ मालिकेसाठी म्हणूनच
वेगळी कथा आणि
त्या कथेचा विस्तार
हा प्रकार रुजला
आहे…
चित्रपटांबाबत जसा एक मसालापटाचा फॉम्र्युला असतो तोच प्रकार हल्ली मालिकांमध्येदेखील दिसून येतो. त्याचबरोबर आणखीन एक महत्त्वाचा मुद्दा म्हणजे चित्रपटांचे जसे सर्वागाने सर्वच प्रकारच्या प्रसार माध्यमातून र्सवकष परिक्षण केले जाते, तसे मालिकांबाबत फारसे होताना दिसत नाही. जे काही दिसते ते केवळ चकचकीत वर्णनात्मकच…”
[An observation- Ms. Joshi says above that "अमेरिका अथवा युरोपच्या मालिकांचा प्रभाव वगैरे म्हणण्यात काहीच अर्थ नाही."..."There is no point in blaming American or European TV serials for their influence"....I wish it happened!
In USA and even in UK, a golden age of TV arrived some time ago and they have produced some of the best TV ever in that period.]
Apparently 5.7m viewers saw Andrew Davies' (BBC) adaptation of Leo Tolstoy's 'War and Peace'.
John Sutherland has written about it and proposed a few more candidates for TV adaptation.
"...TV is the perfect lubricant and abbreviator. You could even
argue it enriches; giving a visual dimension (and in Davies’s case an erotic
dimension) to those small black marks on a white surface. Of course the TV
adaptation “gives the plot away” – but most of the high-hanging stuff isn’t
the-butler-did-it kind of thing, and no spoiler alert is needed. We know
Napoleon isn’t going to win.
The higher up the tree you go, the sweeter grows the berry,
says the folk song. What fruit is hanging up there, in the top branches,
awaiting the adaptor’s subtle hand?..."
And I felt how badly Marathi speaking people were missing such quality TV. (Are they?)
Once some very good books in Marathi were serialized for TV. But I don't remember when the last such effort ended.
Recently I read Karthika Nair talking about Shivaji Sawant’s (शिवाजी सावंत) 'Mrityunjay' (मृत्युंजय ), the book that surely inspired a part of her book 'Until The Lions'. Nair's book, in turn, has been adapted for the stage and being performed around the world.
I don't remember seeing Mrityunjay on Marathi TV. I learn it was adapted for Hindi TV but ended abruptly.
(by the way- I don't like the book at all but hundreds of thousands do.)
I personally would like to see Godse Bhatji's (गोडसे भटजी) 'Maza Pravas: 1857 cya Bandaci Hakikat' (माझा प्रवास: १८५७ च्या बंडाची हकीकत) on TV. It probably is the only book in any language that lets you feel what it was living in those tumultuous times.
Below I have reproduced two pages from the book that capture a part of the drama in the book.
The page on the left describes how the terror of the 1857 action sucked him dry of any sexual desire even when he is in an embrace of a young woman and the page on the right describes the plight of Rani Laxmibai and her defiant spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
I have yet to come across a better book in Marathi that describes the real life drama and action.
Below I have reproduced two pages from the book that capture a part of the drama in the book.
The page on the left describes how the terror of the 1857 action sucked him dry of any sexual desire even when he is in an embrace of a young woman and the page on the right describes the plight of Rani Laxmibai and her defiant spirit in the face of overwhelming odds.
I have yet to come across a better book in Marathi that describes the real life drama and action.
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'War and Peace' Credit
PHOTOGRAPH BY LAURIE SPARHAM / BBC