The most prestigious awards for Marathi Theatre and Cinema presented by Zee Gaurav were telecast on Zee Marathi TV on Sunday evening. Different forms of entertainment right from mimicry to dances were presented during the show to offer variety. One failed to understand as to why there was only one male host to compare the show. Mr. Sachin Khedekar playing the host of this show did his job well, but he certainly needed a female partner to make it more interesting. It was a fine gesture by Zee authorities to felicitate two big names in Marathi entertainment –Shahir Sable & Sha. Na. Navare, who were bestowed with Lifetime achievement awards. Though Mr. Navare attributed the credit of the award to his readers and viewers of his plays and films, Mr. Sable, who could not make it due to ill health, thanked the people of Maharashtra through a pre- recorded video film for making him feel big at that moment.

Every year in this programme, we find well known comedians presenting a mock show of Maharashtra Politics and this year it was slightly different by playing a mock TV debate with a popular channel host taking the views of all party representatives. The skit on Marathicha class was also presented well. Both the skits were well received by the sporting audience. However, this year there were too many dances and the main focus was on Lavani performed by popular female artistes from Marathi TV & Cinema . Perhaps, the popularity of ‘Natarang’ prompted the hosts to present these dances. No wonder music director Ajay-Atul also made their own presentation separately in honour of Marathi Mati.

As far as the presentation of awards in different categories were concerned, most of them were almost predicted, except for the best actor’s award in film category, which went to Mr. Sachin Khedekar. He had a tough competition coming from other nominee Atul Kulkarni( Natarang) in this section , but the former walked away with the award. Pallavi Joshi was adjudged as the best actress for her role in film ‘Rita’. Surprisingly, for the first time we did not notice politicians there at the show. Most of the awards were presented by veteran directors Mr. Jabber Patel and Mr. Rajdutt.

Note: (To check the telecast timings of this serial, please click here.)

by Ulhas Shirke © MMW