Just perfect...

Fresh and Exciting

In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

This movie was the official entry for the Oscars 2010 in the best foreign language film category from India. Though the movie is in Marathi,it actually transcends that minor barrier. It is a winner all the way , well written and directed by Paresh Mokashi.Even though Indian film industry is dominated by Bollywood (Personally I hate that word) such movies like Harishchandrachi Factory are entertaining as well as intelligent. Thanks to the multiplexes such movies no longer have a restricted regional release.Throughout the movie there is a feel good element and one does not feel like being taken for a fool.It depicts the journey of the pioneer Dada Saheb Phalke as he faces hardships while making his magnum opus and how he overcomes them. Without giving away much, I will say watch out for the way the director has recreated that era.The performances by the actors are refreshing and believable.Never give up on your dreams, work wholeheartedly and you will win.This message is underlined throughout with out playing up to the galleries.I gave it 9/10.

I watched 3 movies last weekend: Up in the Air, Invictus and Harishchandrachi Factory, in that order. And Harishchandrachi Factory really touched my heart. If you ask a South African, he might say Invictus. But I, for one, love Marathi movies for their humor.HF (I cannot type Harischandrachi Factory all the time) is about how Dadasaheb Phalke, i think he is called Father of Indian cinema, made the first movie in India, "Raja Harishchandra". He must've gone through a lot while making the movie. But the portrayal of the events is damn funny. My roommate, who does not understand Marathi was literally on the floor laughing! Excellent acting, direction, attention to detail and did I mention funny? And it does teach you to follow your heart and don't care about results. Loved the way his family supports him.Must watch for all movie fans and non movie fans too!

I was one of the lucky persons to catch this movie in sept 09, well in advance of its release, in International Film Festval Nagpur, and even more delighted when it was selected for the Academy awards. Once again Marathi cinema has one more feather on its cap for this extraordinary piece of art. Its more of a tribute to Late Dadasaheb Phalke and a token of appreciation for initiating a movement that went on to create the second largest movie industry in the world. The movie begins with a simple scenario of a unemployed man who gets inspired from a British motion picture theater( in a tent). The movie showcases very truly how people used to look up to cinema in earlier days, paying ticket to watch blurry b&w moving images without audio. Not only it was difficult to think of making something like a motion picture but rather impossible as there were no sources to explore the possibility of such a thing. The approach of Dadasaheb Phalke towards making a motion picture and that too beginning from less than a scratch has been beautifully shown to the finest detail. What the catchy part of the movie is that you are taken into a pleasant trance mood right from the initial scene, maybe because of the humor tinge given to the film in almost every scene. Every scene, even the emotional ones does have a funny element of character attached to it to keep you laughing all the way. It must be the first drama film to have a tinge of humor attached to go for Oscars. Or maybe its selected at the first place as the film is based on the life of Father of Indian Cinema. But it doesn't take away any credit by the makers of this film for creating a masterpiece. Hope its in the top five at the academy awards and hope it wins it too.

I love movies about the movies, and this one is a standout.Often I've thought about the dawn of cinema - that first heady round, the rush of making a picture that moved. Here's an appropriately joyful - and funny! - glimpse of that moment in India, home of the world's biggest movie business, the story of the making of India's first full-length film. It starts when the man known as Dadasaheb Phalke sees a film for the first time -- British, short, Jesus dying and rising from dead, in a no-frills sort of way -- and gets the idea of making a movie like this for Indians, about Indian culture. It ends with the completion and recognition of the full-length Rajah Harishchandra, an historical film of a virtuous long-ago king. (The present film's title means "Harishchandra's Factory": in India in about 1913, if you've got a job on a film, what do you tell your neighbors who've never seen one? Phalke's advice -- say you work at a "factory" -- the foreign word will impress them and keep them out of your hair.)The character of Phalke, as played with warmth and charm by Nandu Madhav, would be optimistic "to a fault," except that his persistence is so right, even when he goes to London alone and unannounced to get the advice and equipment he needs. He is in some ways the preoccupied technician/professor type, and in a pitch-perfect decision, director/writer Paresh Mokashi gives us a larger world that meets his somewhat blinkered but brilliant obsession with more or less unfailing appreciation and support. Local appreciation may be slower in coming, but of course we know that it did.The story, all very solidly researched, is carried more by our itch to see his film get made and shown than by any manufactured tension about too many bad things happening. And by our anticipation of the next comic moment - expect special delight once casting problems arise where no woman will go near the camera, and mustache-retention problems arise when compromise casting for ladies' roles is accomplished.The husband-wife partnership shines, Vishawai Deshpande's lovely and grounded Mrs P learns to develop film, and whatever is in her heart lets her survive furniture sales and big risks without resorting to nagging. Especially elegant, the matter-of-fact cooperation between Phalke and British film guys, who "get" him more or less right away, the way artists worldwide have pretty much always loved each other and their work in fellowship, irrespective of national tensions and problems.Finally - production values are high, this looks as beautiful as it should and - for any worried western viewer - this is not a musical!! it's a "regular movie."