They have totally lost it!

Shivkumar Parthasarthy chose to present a few glimpses from his married life on celluloid in his first directorial venture, Dokyala Shot.  Albeit in reversed way and with lots of quirkiness thrown in.

Parthasarthy, who has worked on films like Balak-Palak, Nude in the capacity of assistant director, says, “In Dokyala Shot, we have shown a Maharashtrian Abhi (Suvrat Joshi) in love with a Tamilian Subbulakshmi (Prajakat Mali) and their marriage is in the offing when one incident throws everything in a disarray. In real life, I am a Tamilian married to a Maharashtrian. There was a lot of fun in my wedding and I thought I would use some of it in the movie.”

The film, which unfolds over a period of three days, shows the innocence and interpersonal relations between four friends — Abhi, Bhajji, Chandu and Ganesh Pandit. 

This is a story of a man, who has lost it completely, or dokyavar padlela manoos, as the director says. “The four friends are innocent, clean-hearted, but with little quirks of their own. I was toying with the idea of making a film on this subject since 2013. I was working on other projects so couldn’t give it enough time to pursue it. Towards 2016-17, I was able to give more thought to the subject. I met Uttung Hitendra Thakur, who is the producer of the film, and discussed the subject with him. He liked it. At that time, I didn’t have a polished screenplay, so I roped in Varun Narvekar (of Muramba fame) and we wrote the screenplay and dialogues. With the polished version, I approached Thakur again and he gave me the go ahead,” says Shivkumar.
  
Except for Prajakta and Ganesh, the three guys have done serious work in theatre. When asked about their experience in working in a different medium, the director speaks first. “I was very sure of casting Ganesh Pandit because we have worked together on Balak-Palak. He wrote the Yellow film. Ganesh suited his character, incidentally also named Ganesh Pandit in the film — to the T. I could also see some shades of my character, Abhijit in Suvrat; he too agreed and then there is a character named Bhajji, for whom Suvrat recommended Rohit Haldikar. Omkar plays Chandu, I had watched him in a play. I chose Prajakta because I thought her features resemble that of a Tamilian. She is also a good Bharanatyam dancer.
 
“I always had this soft corner for theatre artists because they are thorough with their work and I will get something extra,” adds Shivkumar. 

Suvrat, who is a National School of Drama graduate, says, “Shiv sir’s sense of humour is unique. He can crack you up in two minutes. This has reflected in the film. It’s very different from the Marathi humour tradition. The characters are very serious, but respond to the crazy situations they find themselves in. So the audience ends up laughing a lot, like in Hera Pheri and Hangover. This quirky sense of humour is new to Marathi comedy. We have not been able to explore this in theatre, because that’s not the humour of theatre.”

Speaking about his theatre background, Suvrat, who played a role in the popular TV series Dil Dosti Duniyadari, says, “My experience was amazingly well, also what I really learnt from cinema, is that in theatre there is a scope to go a little overboard, or exaggerate. In cinema, you can’t do that. If you do, the camera catches you. Some actors do that, but we don’t enjoy their performances. I tend to overdo scenes, so I learnt not to do that in Dokyala Shot.”

Omkar, who has worked with Suvrat in a play Shahi Paharedar, adds, “I think it has to do with the mental make-up and technicalities. As the medium changes, so do the technicalities. That’s how I look at theatre and films. In comedy films, if you know what not to do, then you are half way there. Shiv sir knew all his characters well, so we just went with his vision. We read the scripts together, 80-90 per cent of the film was just the way it was in his vision, barring the spontaneity that we brought in. We have all acted in theatre, but even if we had not, it wouldn’t have mattered here.” 

Talking about his experience and his role, Rohit says, “There is always one fall guy, a showflopper in a group of friends. I am that guy in this film. I take on responsibilities and fail at it. I have a complementary relationship with Ganesh Pandit. We are constantly looking for opportunities to pull down each other.”

Dokyala Shot releases this Friday (March 1).