Ventilator is a 2016 Indian Marathi-language comedy drama film written and directed by Rajesh Mapuskar and produced by Priyanka Chopra. The film features an ensemble cast of more than 100 actors, including Ashutosh Gowariker, Jitendra Joshi, Sulbha Arya, and Sukanya Kulkarni. It tells the story of the Kamerkar family, whose oldest and most beloved member enters a coma and is put on a medical ventilator a few days before the Ganesh Chaturthi festival celebrations.
Mapuskar conceived the film after one of his family members was hospitalised and put on a ventilator; he started writing the script after noting the reaction of his family members, trying to treat the difficult situation with humour. On its completion, he approached several producers, who were sceptical and tried to discourage him from making it in Marathi. Later, Chopra accepted it to produce under her production company Purple Pebble Pictures.
The film was released on 4 November 2016 in Maharashtra and several other cities in India. Ventilator received widespread critical acclaim, garnering praise for its direction, screenplay, cast performances, music and its treatment of humour and emotion. Made on a small budget of 35 million (US$550,000), the film was a commercial success, earning 250 million (US$4 million) at the box office. , Ventilator is the 10th highest-grossing Marathi film of all time.
Ventilator won three awards at the 64th National Film Awards; Best Director for Mapuskar, Best Editing and Best Sound Mixing. The film was nominated in 16 categories at the 2017 Filmfare Marathi Awards; including Best Film, Best Director for Mapuskar, Best Actor for Joshi, Best Supporting Actor for Gowariker and Best Supporting Actress for Kulkarni. It won five categories, including Best Screenplay. The film was remade in Gujarati in 2018 under the same title.
Plot Every year, the Kamerkar family assembles in their ancestral village to celebrate the Ganesh Chaturthi festival. Three days before the festival, a doyen of the family — the much-loved and respected Gajanan Karmerkar, who is fondly known as Gajju Kaka — passes into a state of coma. He is placed on life support — a medical ventilator — in a hospital in Mumbai. Gajanan's nephew, Raja Kamerkar, a popular Bollywood film director, receives this news from his father during a screening of his film starring Priyanka Chopra, who suggests Raja leave for the hospital. Gajju Kaka has been extremely kind to Raja, who is having some issues with his own father. On his way to the hospital, Raja informs everyone, including the family in the village, about the situation. Although his relatives are worried about Gajju Kaka, they are also worried about the upcoming festivities. Gajju Kaka's death during the festival would mean a period of mourning, spoiling their festive plans.
All of the family members and their neighbours visit Gajju Kaka in the hospital, praying to Lord Ganesha for his speedy recovery. Gajanan's wife, Manda, and their son, Prasanna, are happy to see Raja at the hospital, while others are excited about Raja's upcoming film and his popularity. Raja meets everyone in the hospital, most of whom are occupied with concerns other than Gajju Kaka's health. Raja is amused by the chaos around the family members and their different attitudes to the situation. Even in this difficult time, Prasanna is busy with political endeavours and his plans to win a competition to prove himself to his boss. Meanwhile, Pritam, Prassana's and Raja's cousin from the village, is on his way with his uncle (Gajju Kaka's older, unmarried brother), his mother, father, wife, and other relatives.
Prasanna has a dysfunctional relationship with his father, Gajju Kaka, of which all the family members are aware. On the contrary, Prasanna's sister, Sarika, shares a deep relationship with their father. Manda reminds Prasanna that Gajju Kaka had always loved him and that Prasanna should have been there for him. Prasanna's employer dismisses him and gives his job to his assistant. The family from the village arrives, only to be shocked to learn about the ventilator and that Gajju Kaka will always depend on it. Prasanna decides to keep Gajju Kaka on the ventilator until the following afternoon and the family understands. Raja, who had problems with his own father, requests Prasanna to visit Gajju Kaka's and see him for the last time. Prasanna reveals his anger towards his father and how he could not be like "his favourite Raja", and that Gajju Kaka never understood him and overlooked him in favour of his sister Sarika.
The next day, Raja and Prasanna's cousin, Lata, arrives from the United States with her husband and their young son. The boy has drawn a family tree, which he presents to the whole family. He enquires Prasanna about his father, and Prasanna informs the child his father never loved him. After overhearing this, Raja's father and Gajju Kaka's brother remind Prasanna about all the difficulties Gajju Kaka faced after Prasanna was born with a thin nostril, and contrary to Prasanna's belief, how much Gajju Kaka loved him. This changes Prassana's opinion, and he rushes to the ward to order the doctors to let his father remain on the ventilator as he makes peace with Gajanan. He rejoins his mother and sister, and they all embrace each other. This gives confidence to Raja, who tries to bury his misunderstanding with his own father. While still on the ventilator, Gajju Kaka is seen smiling.
Cast
Ashutosh Gowariker as Raja Kamerkar Jitendra Joshi as Prasanna Kamerkar Sulbha Arya as Manda (Prasanna's mother) Sukanya Kulkarni as Sarika (Prasanna's sister) Viju Khote as Shirish Appa Sanjiv Shah as Ashwin Nilesh Divekar as Sai Kirti Adarkar as Lata Tanvi Abhyankar as Rucha Rahul Solapurkar as Nandan Shashank Shende as Politician Zantey Achyut Potdar as Bhau's younger brother Usha Nadkarni as Akka Nikhil Ratnaparkhi as Pritam Swati Chitnis as Indu Satish Alekar as Bhau (Raja's father) Deepak Shirke as Aatma Dhadke Sumedh Mudgalkar as Karan Abhijeet Chavan as Ajit Roop as Jai Narayan Jadhav as Anna Vinay's Father Raja Bapat as Gajju Kaka, main patient in hospital Gautam Berde as Doctor Vijay Nikam as Subhash Kaka Purnima Ahire as Raja's Maid Boman Irani as Dr. Shroff Rohan Mapuskar as Jr. Doctor Nitin Jadhav Sonamoni Gadkari as Ms. Iyer (Nurse) Namrata Sambherao as Rashmi Prabhakar More as Village Priest Jayant Gadekar as Gurav Rucha Inamdar as Girl on the phone Mukund Bhatt as Decorator Priyanka Chopra as herself
Production Ventilator was directed by Rajesh Mapuskar and produced by Priyanka Chopra under her production company Purple Pebble Pictures. Chopra's mother Madhu Chopra also served as producer on the film and looked after its production. It was distributed by Zee Studios.
Mapuskar had the idea for the film when a family member was hospitalised and put on a medical ventilator. According to the director, the word "ventilator" became a part of his daily life and he began to follow the stories of the people undergoing medical treatment. In an interview with Scroll.in, Mapuskar recalled how relatives of people who were under medical treatment made efforts "to treat life with humour in the face of death. That is how the story was born in my mind, and I began to write it". After completing the script, he approached several filmmakers, who thought it was "a great script" but were skeptical of producing it. He revealed that these people tried to discourage him from making it in Marathi, since his debut film Ferrari Ki Sawaari (2013) was in Hindi. They thought going from Hindi to Marathi would be a downgrade. However, he was confident the film would be a Marathi production. He said "It makes economic sense to make the film in Marathi, where better scripts are accepted and projects are wrapped up in record time".
At the same time, Priyanka Chopra set up Purple Pebble Pictures and was looking for content-driven, regional cinema scripts. After reading the script, Chopra was impressed and immediately agreed to produce the film under her production company. She said, "It's one single moment that defines the best of the film. It is funny, ironical and a deeply moving tale that will leave you laughing and crying. I am very lucky to have such a talented collection of actors coming together for my debut Marathi production." Rajesh Mapuskar believed that having Chopra as producer helped to create a larger market for the film. When Mapuskar approached Ashutosh Gowariker with the script, he assumed Mapuskar wanted him to produce the film. However, despite liking the script, he declined after learning that he wanted Gowariker to act. Gowariker, who had last acted in a film 18 years earlier, was shocked at the idea of returning to acting. He was also busy with his own directorial venture. After six months, Mapuskar approached him again; Gowariker insisted on an audition so he could be rejected. He finally agreed after getting a phone call from Chopra, who insisted he do the film; they had previously worked together on What's Your Raashee? (2009).
Filming Principal photography began on 10 February 2016 in Mumbai. Sonal Kharade designed the costumes for the entire cast, Savita Singh handled the cinematography and Nikhil S. Kovale was in charge of the art direction. Filming of the hospital scenes began in May 2016; most of the film was shot in the Kurla's Kohinoor Hospital, where a daycare unit was converted into an ICU. Chopra filmed her cameo appearance and the music video for "Baba" in a three-day schedule which was completed on 2 July 2016. The filming was completed in 34 days. Rameshwar S. Bhagat edited the film while Alok De did the sound mixing.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack album consists of four original songs composed by the duo Rohan Gokhale and Rohan Pradhan. The lyrics were written by Manoj Yadav, and Shantaram Mapuskar co-wrote one of song's lyrics with Yadav. The music was digitally released on 7 October 2016 by Zee Music Company. It was released on physical media on 21 October 2016 at an event in Mumbai.
Priyanka Chopra also recorded a song titled "Baba" for the film, making her Marathi singing debut, which was released on 3 November 2016. The music directors wanted her to record a female version but she was apprehensive about singing in Marathi. However, she later decided to record the song as she found the composition "powerful and moving". This song was not used in the film but as a promotional song with a music video that featured Chopra recording the song in a studio and several scenes from the film.
Release
The first poster of the film was unveiled by Priyanka Chopra on 31 August 2016 on her Instagram account. Between 7 October 2016 to 11 October 2016, two teaser trailers—which were deemed "promising" and "interesting" by the media—were released. Following the teasers, a three-minute-long trailer was released on 18 October 2016; this was well-received by the media and audiences, with NDTV noting the trailer "promises both laugh-out-loud moments and also instances that move you". The music video of "Baba" was used to promote the film.
Ventilator premiered at the 18th Mumbai Film Festival on 24 October 2016. Made on a small budget of 35 million (US$550,000), Ventilator was released on 4 November 2016 in Maharashtra, and accompanied by English subtitles in several other cities including Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. It opened to a positive response at the box office, did good business in its first weekend and continues to perform well in its first week. The film continued to do well in its second weekend; revenues held up well despite the Indian government's surprise currency demonetisation and other big-budget Bollywood and regional films. The film was a commercial success, earning 250 million (US$4 million) at the box office. , Ventilator is the 10th highest-grossing Marathi film of all time.