Director Abhijit Panse’s Thackeray, a biopic on Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, is a bilingual in Hindi and Marathi, where Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays the central character. The title song of the Marathi version ‘Aaple Saheb Thackeray’ pays tribute to the late leader and at the same time narrates his journey in the form of a musical summary of his life.
Thackeray started his political party in 1966 at a small scale in Mumbai. He slowly became a messiah of the local Marathi population whose jobs were allegedly snatched away by migrants from other states, especially south India. The song recalls how Thackeray climbed bigger heights and ultimately became a leader.
‘Aaple Saheb Thackeray’ also touches the formation of the famous Shiv Sena Bhavan in Dadar. The place is less than a stone throw away from Shivaji Park, where Thackeray gave some historical speeches, which is also shown in the song.
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS), the party formed by Shiv Sena supremo’s nephew, Raj Thackeray, is known for forcing cinema halls to screen Marathi films. The song in question here shows that even Shiv Sena did that back in the 1970s when a theatre is forced to take down the Hindi film, Tere Mere Sapne (1971) and replace it with Dada Kondke’s Marathi movie Songadya (1971). Interestingly, Kondke later joined Shiv Sena.
Composers Rohan Rohan have come up with a foot-tapping musical score with traditional instruments. The music suits more for Ganpati Visarjan but that isn’t a problem. But it is Avadhoot Gupte’s powerful voice that helps the song create such an impact. Gupte has spoken on numerous occasions about his closeness to the Shiv Sena supremo.
Manndar Cholkar's lyrics are simple and do justice to the powerful image of Thackeray.
As we had earlier reported, the makers have replaced Sachin Khedekar’s voiceover for Thackeray’s character, as is evident from the dialogues included in the song. The new voice suits the character well.
Both versions of Thackeray will be released on 25 January.
Watch the song: