When Rita’s Story First Whispered Its Name
In Marathi cinema, Rita arrived like a gentle storm—although not the kind that topples buildings, more the kind that alters the climate of the air. Released in 2009 and directed by Renuka Shahane, the film was adapted from the Marathi novel Rita Welingkar, written by her own mother, Shanta Gokhale. This connection alone gave the film a personal depth even before it screened. It wasn’t a story that was simply being told. It was a story being remembered, retold, and emotionally relived by its makers.
Before the release, cinephiles and literature lovers were already curious. A well-known television and film actress stepping behind the camera to adapt her mother’s novel was also a huge personal and intellectual risk. The expectations were not about glamour or big sets, but about emotional truth. Audiences simply hoped that Rita would be the kind of film that spoke softly and lingered long after the credits rolled. And it did.
Who Rita Is — And What She’s Really Fighting
Rita Welingkar, played by Pallavi Joshi, is the protagonist of the film, and the Welingkar family’s history slowly unravels as Rita moves through the various layers of being a daughter, a sister, and a working professional as well as a caretaker and a survivor. Rita is not a cinematic heroine. She is an ordinary woman, and what is remarkable about her is all that she bears and carries in silence. The emotions and experiences that the storyline evokes are like memory itself, filled with love and betrayal, guilt, the ache that silence and dreams bring, and unfulfilled promises as the film shifts back and forth between Rita’s past and her present.
Her transitions capture a young woman filled with promise and the ideal of a developing society while also depicting a mature woman forced by society to balance work and relationships built around in the double duty of an all encompassing family. Rita’s world, in all of its richness, is an account of the, often invisible, burdens that the one who keeps the family afloat is also expected to bear, a motif that resonates with the lives of many women in India.
In playing Mr. Salvi, Jackie Shroff shows another form of energy that Rita’s more reserved world does not often come into contact with. He embodies what could have been for her — what other choices she could have taken, and what other life she might have had if she had not been ensnared into her current obligations. Mohan Agashe, Tushar Dalvi, and Sai Tamhankar also deliver commendable supporting performances in a story that is more about the smaller, often neglected, emotional earthquakes that shape a life, rather than the larger, more defining moments.
For Rita, her arc is rediscovery. She’s not attempting to make a societal change or a rebellion of any kind; she simply attempts to rediscover that inner self, the unfulfilled woman buried beneath countless years of compromise.
Reflections of the Personal Lives Behind the Parts
Capturing Rita’s essence, and what also makes it remarkable, is that it was more than simply a story onscreen — it was her life. Renuka Shahane’s adaptation of her mother’s novel is a case in point. More than a creative undertaking, adapting her mother’s novel was emotional inheritance and a deep-rooted personal journey. Renuka has intimate details of her mother writing throughout her childhood, and the balance, strength, and multifaceted nature of her mother as a woman in art, independence, and motherhood. For Renuka, directing Rita was almost a conversation with her mother — a dialogue decades in the making.
Shahane cited objectivity as the greatest personal challenge to her work on the film. She needed to remove herself fully from the personal source material to make sure the material still resonated universally. The tension in the story is what manifests in all the frames of the movie in her portrayal — tension between love and discipline; tension between personal connection and artistic restraint.
By the time Joshi got to playing Rita she was already recognized for her emotionally grounded performances, but she found something much more personal. In interviews, she describes her connection to Rita as taking on that “exhausted” role of being stoically strong for others while internally falling apart. It was this lived experience that she drew from to speak honestly and powerfully through the film.
Marathi cinema was the source of Jackie’s emotional gratification while the big budget Hindi films were the source of his big on screen personas. Even while in Rita, he imbued the role with an emotional softness that was a contrast to his Hindi cinema personas. Off screen, he was the emotionally centered anchor of the cast. He would lighten the mood and offer support, especially during the emotionally heavier scenes.
Building a World Out of Memory
Visually, Rita is a painting of middle-class Maharashtra. It captures the image of quiet apartments with patterned curtains, wooden furniture that has aged with love, and office corridors that smell faintly of tea and typewriter ink. Everything is lived-in. The cinematography and set design evokes the workings of memory — imperfect and faded, but precious. The film doesn’t rush. It stops when life stops, as when Rita gazes at old photographs or wanders through spaces that once felt like home but are now estranged. The music, too, is devoid of drama. It has a score that recedes to silence, allowing the performances to breathe, and the audience to absorb the experience. You do not merely watch Rita; you have the sense of eavesdropping on a soul. The film deeply resonated with Marathi audiences, especially those with a strong literary and theatrical tradition. It was, quite simply, about recognition. It was not about spectacle. Everyone had known a “Rita” — a sister, a mother, a friend, a colleague — someone who carried everyone’s world, all the while quietly setting aside her own.
Challenges Behind the Camera
Creating Ritha was challenging. A small regional budget dictated that each scene be shot efficiently — which meant using actual homes and public buildings instead of elaborate sets. For Renuka Shahane, the balance of being both a debut director and a successful actress presented the challenge of gaining the trust of her cast while simultaneously managing the creative aspects of the film.
Inescapably, the film also took an emotional toll on the crew. Certain scenes — particularly those surrounding loss and regret — had a deep impact on everyone present. After a take, Pallavi Joshi would often need some time alone in order to repress what she had just acted. There were also crew members who spoke about the profound effect of a scene being so heavy that the set was devoid of sound after the director called “cut.”
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