First V R Kothari Journalism Award Goes to Kumar Ketkar

First V R Kothari Journalism Award Goes to Kumar Ketkar

The first ever V R Kothari Journalism Award is announced. Noted Journalist and editor of the famous Marathi daily Loksatta will be the first recipient of this award.

V R Kothari was a prominent journalist and social reformer of 20th century. He started Prabhaat, a Marathi daily from Pune in 19xx. He started a crusade against all the wrong things happening in the name of religion, caste and traditions, through his newspaper and speeches.

V R Kothari wrote many books, including a book on French Revolution.

He suffered all the odds from the community, especially from the orthodox people.

Kumar Ketkar is also a journalist and social reformer of present day. He also has suffered from today’s orthodox people, but still he is fighting against all the wrong things taking place in the society.

To inform about this award, a delegation from Pune met Kumar Ketkar on 5th November and congratulated him. The delegation included Mr. Milind Phade (General Secretary of Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha), Mr. Arun Khore (Editor of Daily Prabhat), Dr. Ravsaheb Patil (Noted Marathi writer, speaker and journalist), Mahavir Sanglikar (Social reformer and writer) and Mr. Abhay Kothari.

Kumar Ketkar will receive this award on 22nd November of 2009, in a convention of Dakshin Bharat Jain Sabha at Mumbai.

Mahadevan sings in Marathi

MALLIKA MULHERKAR

Marathi cinema is getting bigger, thereby attracting talents from the Hindi film industry

The latest is that Shankar Mahadevan is singing for Most Wanted, a Rajan Prabhu film in which the latter is the director, script writer and music composer. The film is being released by the end of the year, and Shankar’s participation will heighten the curiosity manifold for sure.

The film is a comedy of errors based on seven criminals, who come together in search of work when others refuse to let them lead a normal life. The track sung by Shankar brings back memories of their past. Called Tya pahate chi me vaat pahin (I will wait for a new dawn), the track set to bhangra beats turned out to be an awesome experience for those working on it. “When actor Milind Gawli heard the song, he said that if someone could do justice to the song and the music it would be Shankar Mahadevan. That is how we approached him. He liked it a lot, and found it very different,” recalls Prabhu.

Ask Shankar about this, and he sounds really happy. “I am a great fan of Marathi music as it is very melody based. The tunes and the taals are so catchy. My guruji hails from this music background, and it was a beautiful experience to be a part of a Marathi movie and sing a meaningful song. Last year, I also received an award for Mann uddhan varyache, a song I did for a Marathi film,” says he.

We asked Rajan about his experience of working with Shankar. “He is such a huge personality, and yet so humble. When I recited the song, he heard me without stopping me for a bit even though he knows much more about music than I do. Even though he had his hands full, he worked on our project and the song sounds superb!” says Rajan. With Shankar doing the singing, one can understand why.

Adesh Bandekar Joins Shivsena

Mumbai Popular Marathi TV star Adesh Bandekar joined the Shiv Sena on Friday. Welcoming Bandekar into the party fold, Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray said the alliance between the Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party for the Assembly polls would be finalised soon after discussions to clear the air on a couple of seats.

Bandekar’s entry into the Sena comes close on the heels of the first Indian Idol, singer Abhijeet Sawant, joining the party.

Bandekar joined the Sena in presence of Uddhav and wife Rashmi at a function organised at the Thackeray residence, Matoshree, in Bandra on Friday morning. Bandekar’s TV show ‘Home Minister’ on a Marathi channel (in which he visits homes and interviews women, who have to play games to win a Paithani, an expensive traditional handwoven silk saree, in each episode) is quite popular among housewives.

Bandekar, along with Sawant, is expected to add glamour to the poll campaign.

Uddhav, speaking about finalising the seat-sharing arrangements for the October 13 polls with the BJP, said, “We are finalising seatsharing between the two parties. It will be done soon.”
“There are no differences between the alliance partners on seatsharing. There are a couple of seats which both parties are staking claim to. But things would be sorted out in a few days,” he said.

In the 2004 polls, the Sena had contested 171 seats and the BJP 117 of the total 288 seats and the formula is likely to be repeated this time. Sources said that post-delimitation, the Sena has claimed Guhagar seat in Konkan currently with the BJP. Leader of the Opposition Ramdas Kadam of the Sena is keen on contesting Guhagar as his Khed constituency has been wiped out in the delimitation exercise.

On the crisis within the BJP at the national level, Uddhav said it would have no effect on the elections in Maharashtra.

No Marathi PM for now

NEW DELHI: Congress and Sharad Pawar’s Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) announced a 26:22 seat-sharing agreement for Maharashtra on Monday. The announcement, which came after days of suspense, saw NCP getting one seat more than it did in 2004.

Congress leader AK Antony said that the “two parties will fight unitedly as alliance partners.” Reiterating that the two parties would contest together, NCP’s Praful Patel said, “We are in alliance and we will support each other. There will be no friendly fights and Congress and NCP will have a joint campaign.” Leaders of both parties were evasive on whether the alliance would also extend to other states like Goa and Gujarat. “We have right now finalised seat-sharing in Maharashtra,” Mr Antony said

Even though the seats have been finalised, there is still a possibility of an exchange, “based on mutual request”. Sidestepping queries about the third front, Mr Patel said: “We have been a part of the UPA for the last five years, and we have chosen to be with Congress in these elections. We are in an alliance with Congress. We shall stand by the alliance and support fully all the candidates. There is not to have any other understanding.” Mr Patel also dismissed the issue of Mr Pawar’s projection as the prime minister. The Union minister said that his party chief has already clarified that NCP was a small party and “there is no need of words-splitting.”

Mr Patel as well as Mr Antony said that the request for exchanging seats was being taken under consideration and the process will be complete in the next one or two days. Among the seats that are being considered for exchange is Osmanabad in Marathwada. The seat, which is a bone of contention, is currently in NCP kitty. Both parties said they will hold discussions on exchange of few seats in the next two days. Former Maharashtra chief minister Vilasrao Deshmukh is keen on contesting Osmanabad. Congress therefore has asked NCP to give the seat and take Jalna instead. NCP is keen on fielding controversial ex-minister Padamsinh Patil, who is related to party chief Sharad Pawar, from Osmanabad.

As for seat allocation for the Republican Party of India (RPI), Mr Patel said: “We couldn’t have held talks with others till things between Congress and NCP were sorted out”. It is believed that both Congress and NCP will give up one seat each to accommodate RPI. Both leaders said that they will “take a decision very shortly and we want to take our friends with us.” On the issue of accommodating SP in Maharashtra, both leaders were once again evasive.