Maphicha Sakshidar

Sunday Afternoon Indian Regional Film Special!

In the tradition of Doordarshan era of Regional film with subtitles telecast on Sunday afternoons on 1980s and 1990s today I watched the Marathi popular violent saga Maaficha Sakshidar-1986 starring Nana Patekar and based on the horrific Joshi Abhyankar brutal killings in Pune wayback in 1970s.

The film is set in Pune and shows the story of violent and aimless gang of rowdy students of Arts college. The gang is led by maniac Raghvendra (Nana Patekar) with Sunil (Mohan Gokhale) and others. They plunder,drink, loot and live a dangerous life. For the lure of money and power they get into kidnapping and then starts a web of violent murders which sends shivers down the spine of Punekars. The murders reach such a level that police and ministry take it as matter of pride and finally nab the criminals who get the death penalty after a court case.

In Modern India 2 non political violent murder case rocked the era of 1970s-1980s- 1st was Joshi Abhyankar killings of Pune and other was murders of children by Ranga Billa in Delhi. While no full length big film has been made on Rang Billa(tv shows and Black warrant series did show), Joshi Abhyankar killings were well adapted in this gritty film. The film captures the horrific nature of crime,the brutality,the madness and the scared amongst the city of Pune. Infact Pune is also presented as a chatacter. Nana Patekar is at his maniacal best as the sinister murderer and head of gang. Later on Nana did play maniac villain in many memorable film,here in his early stardom years he shows streak of it.1986 was landmark year for him where in Marathi cinema he established self as a baddie while in Hindi films he gave a knockout hit as a hero in Ankush. Besides him it is Mohan Gokhale who succeeds in capturing the bad yet with a heart Sunil. Its a coincidence that innocent looking Mohan later played one of the devilish Ranga Billa as well in tv shows Bhanwar(Gajraj Rao played other half)in late 1990s. Apart from them other veteran Marathi artists do full justice to the plot.

Maaficha Sakshidar holds true to most of incidents and takes few cinematic liberties -like the dramatic Mother India-inspired(I found that too loud in this film though) climax.

The film is more raw in nature than slick in its execution. The original Marathi version available on YouTube carries more punch but the automatic subtitles are poorly placed and break the momentum. There is a Hindi dubbed version Phansi Ka Phanda also available for understanding, however the voice of Nana Patekar has been dubbed by some other voice which reduces the impact. The film is a reminder to one of the ugliest killing spree decades ago which inspired later Anurag Kashyaps unreleased PAANCH and crime shows like Crime Tak, Crime Patrol etc!!! Overall a hard hitting disturbing film made on one of most horrific chapters of Pune!

This is one of the classic Marathi movies that got lost in the crowd. Marathi movies and movie makers have a long history and tradition. The father of Indian Cinema Dadasaheb Phalke came from this rich tradition of Marathi movies and plays. He is considered as a pioneer of Indian cinema and a prestigious Indian film industry award is named after him.

Many Hindi movies were made (remake) based on the story from a Marathi films. The movie Maphicha Sakshidar got release during that period of time when Marathi film industry was churning out good movies and got lost in the crowd of other good movies. However, this is one of the classic movies with excellent acting from all the actors. Rajdutt, one of genuinely talented directors, ably directs a strong storyline that grips your imagination from the start. A must watch film if at all you get hold of it on now almost non-existent VHS tapes. My vote 9/10.