Ventilator
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Rajesh Mapuskar
Screenplay by	Rajesh Mapuskar
Produced by	Priyanka Chopra Madhu Chopra
Starring	Ashutosh Gowariker Jitendra Joshi Sulbha Arya Sukanya Kulkarni
Cinematography	Savita Singh
Edited by	Rameshwar S. Bhagat
Music by	Rohan-Rohan
Production company	Purple Pebble Pictures
Distributed by	Zee Studios
Release date	4 November 2016 (2016-11-04)
Running time	130 minutes
Country	India
Language	Marathi
Budget	₹35 million (US$550,000)[1]
Box office	est.₹250 million (US$4 million)[2]

Ventilator is a 2016 IndianMarathi-languagecomedy drama film written and directed byRajesh Mapuskar and produced byPriyanka Chopra. The film features anensemble cast of more than 100 actors, includingAshutosh Gowariker,Jitendra Joshi,Sulbha Arya, andSukanya Kulkarni. It tells the story of the Kamerkar family, whose oldest and most beloved member enters acoma and is put on amedical ventilator a few days before theGanesh 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 companyPurple Pebble Pictures.

The film was released on 4 November 2016 inMaharashtra 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. As of October 2017^[update],Ventilator is the10th highest-grossing Marathi film of all time.

Ventilator won three awards at the64th National Film Awards;Best Director for Mapuskar,Best Editing andBest Sound Mixing. The film was nominated in 16 categories at the 2017Filmfare 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 inGujarati in 2018 underthe same title.

Every year, the Kamerkar family assembles in their ancestral village to celebrate theGanesh 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 ofcoma. He is placed on life support — amedical ventilator — in a hospital inMumbai. Gajanan's nephew, Raja Kamerkar, a popularBollywood film director, receives this news from his father during a screening of his film starringPriyanka 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 toLord 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 theUnited States with her husband and their young son. The boy has drawn afamily 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 thinnostril, 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.

Ventilator was directed byRajesh Mapuskar and produced byPriyanka Chopra under her production companyPurple Pebble Pictures.^[3] Chopra's mother Madhu Chopra also served as producer on the film and looked after its production. It was distributed byZee Studios.^[4]

Mapuskar had the idea for the film when a family member was hospitalised and put on amedical 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.^[3] 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".^[3] 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 inMarathi, since his debut filmFerrari Ki Sawaari (2013) was in Hindi.^[3] 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".^[3]

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.^[3] 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."^[4] Rajesh Mapuskar believed that having Chopra as producer helped to create a larger market for the film.^[3] When the director approachedAshutosh 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.^[5] He was also busy with his own directorial venture. After six months, Rajesh 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.^[5]

Principal photography began on 10 February 2016 in Mumbai.^[6][7] Sonal Kharade designed the costumes for the entire cast, Savita Singh handled the cinematography and Nikhil S. Kovale was in charge of theart direction. Filming of the hospital scenes began in May 2016; most of the film was shot in theKurla's Kohinoor Hospital, where a daycare unit was converted into anICU.^[8] Chopra filmed hercameo appearance and the music video for "Baba" in a three-day schedule which was completed on 2 July 2016.^[9] The filming was completed in 34 days.^[1] Rameshwar S. Bhagat edited the film while Alok De did the sound mixing.^[10]

The soundtrack album consists of four original songs composed by the duo Rohan Gokhale and Rohan Pradhan.^[11] The lyrics were written by Manoj Yadav, and Shantaram Mapuskar co-wrote one of song's lyrics with Yadav.^[3] The music was digitally released on 7 October 2016 byZee Music Company.^[12] It was released on physical media on 21 October 2016 at an event in Mumbai.^[13]

Priyanka Chopra also recorded a song titled "Baba" for the film, making her Marathi singing debut, which was released on 3 November 2016.^[14] 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".^[14] 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.^[15][16]

The first poster of the film was unveiled by Priyanka Chopra on 31 August 2016 on herInstagram account.^[17] Between 7 October 2016 to 11 October 2016, two teaser trailers—which were deemed "promising" and "interesting" by the media—were released.^[18][19] Following the teasers, a three-minute-long trailer was released on 18 October 2016; this was well-received by the media and audiences, withNDTV noting the trailer "promises both laugh-out-loud moments and also instances that move you".^[20][4][21] The music video of "Baba" was used to promote the film.^[22]

Ventilator premiered at the 18thMumbai Film Festival on 24 October 2016.^[23] Made on a small budget of₹35 million (US$550,000),Ventilator was released on 4 November 2016 inMaharashtra, and accompanied by English subtitles in several other cities includingGujarat,Goa,Madhya Pradesh,Delhi,Karnataka,Andhra Pradesh andTelangana.^[1][24][25] 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.^[26] The film continued to do well in its second weekend; revenues held up well despite the Indian government'ssurprise currency demonetisation and other big-budgetBollywood and regional films.^[26] The film was a commercial success, earning₹250 million (US$4 million) at the box office.^[2] As of October 2017^[update],Ventilator is the10th highest-grossing Marathi film of all time.^[27]

Distributed by Everest Entertainment, it was released onDVD on 26 April 2017 in allregions in a single-disc pack.^[28] AVCD version was released at the same time.^[29] The film'sBlu-ray version was released on 6 June 2017.^[30] The world television premiere occurred on 29 January 2017 onZee Marathi.^[31]

Ventilator has received widespread critical acclaim from critics.^[32] Rachit Gupta ofFilmfare gave it 4 stars out of 5, calling it an "achievement in handling extended ensemble casts and genuine human emotions with great effect", and said it "serves up humour, anger, hatred, envy, sorrow, regret and myriad human emotions with flawless impact. You’ll laugh and cry through this film at the drop of many a hat."^[33] Gupta added, "Ventilator is one of the most honest and emotional films of the year. It's a Marathi film worth treasuring. It's an Indian film worth celebrating."^[33]ABP Majha also gave the film a rating of 4 stars out of 5, praising the film's direction, writing, casting, music and sound design.^[34]

Mihir Bhanage, writing forThe Times of India, also gave the film 4 stars out of 5 and wrote, "The list of must-watch Marathi films of recent times just registered an addition in the form of 'Ventilator'. This Priyanka Chopra production is a beautiful journey of relationships, emotions, misunderstandings and priorities that are a part of many families."^[35] Hemant Waje ofRediff.com gave the film 3.5 out of 5, calling it "a refreshing family drama" and saying the characterisation is its biggest strength: "Rajesh Mapuskar has made sure that he uniquely introduces each and every character and their relationship, forming a strong base for the film. He allows each one to express themselves."^[36]

Kunal Guha ofMumbai Mirror gave a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5 and said that Mapuskar handled the film carefully while trying his best to contain the story and characters from stretching the limits of exaggeration: "While he largely succeeds, he should be credited for elaborately examining the unexpressed emotions in relationships—and doing so amidst the cacophony of various other parallel tracks—without allowing either to shadow the other."^[37] He also praised the performances, particularly that of Joshi, whom he said "furnishes his character's state of mind immaculately".^[37] R. M. Vijayakar fromIndia-West awarded the film 4 stars out of 5 and wrote that "with its subtle as well as biting satire", the film "grabs your emotional plexus and makes you love and cherish life and your loved ones all over again".^[38] Vijayakar praised Mapuskar's "masterly control of his script", and said that despite "the crackling undercurrent of humor", the film was a tearjerker and that "there will be lumps in the throat and tears in the eyes of those susceptible".^[38]

Hindustan Times writer Gulshankumar Wankar gave a rating of 3.5 stars out of 5, calling it "a delightful, well-written family drama" in which the director "successfully conveys his message about a father-son bond without going over the top" and "takes you inside the hospital and makes you sit with each character".^[39] Wankar also praised the performance of the cast, calling them "remarkable", and saying "Sukanya Kulkarni Mone and Jitendra Joshi play their characters of Gaju kaka’s children to perfection".^[39] A critic from theIndo-Asian News Service gave the film 3.5 stars and termed it a "heart warming saga" while writing, "we get another Marathi film of deep emotional worth, which challenges our long standing notions of the joint family system without the crutches of cynicism and self-loathing".^[40] Film critic Prachi Pinglay-Plumber ofOutlook gave the film a rating of 3 out of 4, praising the open ending, and writing, "The premise lends itself beautifully to chaos, comedy and dollops of emotion ... you have a film that has all of the above boxes ticked".^[41]

Soon after the release and success of the film, Mapuskar said the producers had received several offers to remakeVentilator in other languages, includingBengali,Tamil,Punjabi andGujarati.^[53][54] In August 2017, it was announcedVentilator will be remade inMalayalam with Chopra serving as a producer.^[55] The Gujarati remakeVentilator was released on 14 September 2018.^[56]

In early September 2017, it was announced it would be adapted into a Gujaratiplay directed by theatre actorRajesh Joshi, with Mapuskar serving as a creative consultant.^[57]

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