Writer-director Arvind Jagtap has come up with a fictionalized version of Maharashtra's current murky politics in his web-series Mi Punha Yein (2022).
The series, which began streaming on Planet Marathi OTT from 29 July, tells a story of two rival political parties and horse-trading of politicians in the wake of an election in Maharashtra.
Although this story resembles the current ongoing murky politics of Maharashtra, this is a purely fictional tale. "We shot this series last year around this time, so even if you notice some resemblance to what's happening in Maharashtra, this is just a coincidence," creator Jagtap told Cinestaan.com.
The director further added that this horse-trading is not new to Indian politics and audiences will easily identify with the storyline. "This kind of horse-trading has been going on for decades and has become a common practice in Indian politics, so it's not new to our people."
Jagtap has been writing for films, TV shows for two decades but he is set to mark his directorial debut with this series. When asked what prompted hs turn to direction, Jagtap replied, "Honestly, I was not too keen on directing this series. I was content with writing the script, but when I narrated the script to Pushkar Shrotri and Akshay Bardapurkar, they insisted that I should direct it. They said this was such a delicate and risky topic that only I could pull it off. And I also thought why put some other filmmakers under unneccessary pressure, and finally agreed to direct the series. Now all is up to my audience. They will tell if I did a good job or not."
Because this was Jagtap's first directorial venture, he got a lot of support from the cast. "Every artist supported me during the shoot. Sayaji Shinde, Upendra Limaye, Bharat Ganeshpure are supremely talented actors and have worked under the direction of many prolific filmmakers but they still showed immense support and patience while working under the direction of a newcomer like me."
Jagtap couldn't stop heaping praises over the performance of his artists. "Honestly, if nothing else, watch this series for the brilliant performances of all the artists. I assure you that you will remember their performances for many months. They all have given their best," he added..
Jagtap felt that audiences should watch Mi Punha Yein to simply have a good time. "[They can] also learn how politicians use us for their benefits and then just throw us away," he shared. "I believe if you give an important social message to the audience in entertaining manner instead of resorting to very serous drama, chances are, audience will like your content more. Instead of using serious drama we have used comedy to give the same message."
Mi Punha Yein stars Sayaji Shinde, Upendra Limaye, Bharat Ganeshpure, Siddharth Jadhav, Ruchita Jadhav and Seema Kulkarni.