Mumbai : Folk songs have always inspired music lovers and cine goers unequivocally. Bollywood fans and fanatics have been mesmerized by folk songs in Hindi Cinema and some 
of them are memorable to the day. They are melodious, captivates your heart are meaningfull and often end up having repeat value. While regional folk songs have won the hearts of the masses , it is the original folk singer who somewhere down the line faded in to oblivion. Rarely has Bollywood biggies rallied around any folk artists to give them wide coverage and mass publicity. Publicity or not, folk has managed to remain alive mainly due to the sincere efforts of the singers who have stayed true and honest to their art form. And one such singer happens to be Santosh Sawant aka Pawa (Marathi for flute) who faced many a struggle while aspiring to be accepted in mainstream Bollywood.
Santosh Sawant, who had earlier released his folk fusion album called Voice Of Hearts, to reach the hearts of millions and millions of sheer Music Lovers worldwide has now forayed into filmmaking to make it big not just in Bollywood but in Global Film’s parlance.
Titled “JHAMELA” , his debut film revolves around the life of a folk musician. The movie also has autobiographical shades to it as the actor-director has weaved in his own experiences. He has even composed the film’s songs and being an ardent admirer of Konkani music, he has incorporated the folk music in the soundtrack. In fact, with the film, Santosh aspires to take the folk music of Konkan region to a global platform and hence, has sent it to various film festivals around the world including London Film Festival, Berlin International Film Festival and Sundance Film Festival
“The movie has been inspired from a part of my life, my struggles as a folk singer and other things. JHAMELA is an out come of sincere effort produced by an artist with his heart at the right place.It won’t be a surprise if it strikes the right chord with the audience.I am pretty sure that it would be an immensely pleasurable experience for the audience to watch this music journey called “ JHAMELA”, I hope to make folk music more popular through this music. And I shall first show it at renowned international film festivals before showcasing it in India,” reveals Santosh.
“JHAMELA” is a priceless endeavour for Santosh as he is the Master mind .The movie JHAMELA is conceptualized by Santosh Sawant who is the Lead actor and also Music Composer for the film.
The prodigy artist has not only written the Story, Screenplay and Dialogues but also the film has been Produced & Directed by Santosh Sawant himself, Such immense is his talent pool.
However santosh has done an extremely commendable job in keeping the storyline and the script equally riveting for the audience.His technical movie making skills have been polished by Mr Patrick Tucker and Eliot Grove at london.
The concept and orginal idea has been fined tune to perfection Shashi Salunkhe.
The pillars of support for technical aspects of production were Sanjay Barai (Guddu ) and Amrendra Kumar who have around a decades experience in the industry each.The female leads are Preetika Chauhan and Dimple Panwar both of them exude the raw talent at energetic of newcomers.
Preetika does complete justice to her role of a modern girl from glamour industry with an angel heart while Dimple with her innocent look portrays the role of an innocent village girl to perfection.
Hailing from Ratnagiri, Santosh who is an engineer by qualification, gained name and fame for being the foremost exponent of JHAMELA – a folk song that throws light on the complexities and tragedies of life. Starting out with his own band, Santosh who is also the lead vocalist soon took Jhamela abroad and staged plays all over India and abroad. Says Santosh, “We use the traditional instruments like Harmonium and Dholki while staging our folk song and play. People love the simplicity associated with our songs which we use to denote the great complexities that human life deals with regularly.”
Born in a small cozy hamlet called Kolisare near Ratnagiri, Santosh lived life of total disconnection from the modern , ruthlessly competitive world all through his childhood and adolescence.
Kolisare is blessed with the bountiful of natures beauty.Its surrounded by lush green hills on one side and pristine near virgin beaches on the other side.No wonder the people living in these beautiful lazy hills are blessed with naturally creative talent.Disconnected from the modern world, folk music, folk dances and folk plays displayed during local JALSA, were the only modes of entertainment before the advent of satellite cable era. Jalsa is a kind of local fairs prevalent in the konkan region where these naturally gifted artists display their inborn talents of dance, music and acting. No wonder an extremely gifted person like Santosh got connected to the love of his life which is music through this Jalsa.The people of Kolisare still fondly rememeber by his village pet name PAWA during this Jalsa.We will find the shades of this early life experienced by Santosh in the movie JHAMELA.
While folk singing took Santosh far and wide, he soon discovered his passion for acting on one of his trips to London. Reveals Santosh, “The human mind seeks new challenges to evolve and mine demanded acting. I enrolled myself Hampstead acting academy to learn the finer nuances of acting.”
With a degree of acting under his belt, Santosh returned back to India with renewed vigour. He tried his hand at Bollywood but unfortunately producers were not quite open to giving folk singers a chance. “Let’s see is what everyone used to say whenever I approached them,” says Santosh. Irked by Bollywood’s shoddy treatment, folk singer to show his debut film abroad and not give Bollywood a chance to get his film first.
For the moment, Santosh’s grouse against Bollywood is evident as he feels it’s about time folk singers and their art form start getting their due. “Bollywood has reaped a lot of benefits from folk music but the artist who lents his voice remains marginalised. I think Bollywood should stop neglecting folk singers.”
Now Let’s keep our fingers crossed and pray that our beloved Santosh Sawant’s aka Pawa’s debut as an actor in his maiden film becomes a Super-Duper Hit!
Source : Sachin Murdeshwar