| Zapatlela | |
|---|---|
 VCD cover art | |
| Directed by | Mahesh Kothare |
| Story by | Mahesh Kothare |
| Based on | Child's Play byDon Mancini[1][2] |
| Produced by | Mahesh Kothare |
| Starring | Mahesh Kothare Laxmikant Berde Kishori Ambiye Pooja Pawar Madhu Kambikar Ravindra Berde Jairam Kulkarni Vijay Chavan Raghavendra Kadkol Bipin Varti Dilip Prabhavalkar |
| Cinematography | Suryakant Lavande |
| Edited by | Vishwas–Anil |
| Music by | Anil Mohile[3] |
Production company | Jenma Films International |
| Distributed by | Adinath Film Distributors |
Release date |
|
Running time | 149 minutes[4] |
| Country | India |
| Language | Marathi |
| Box office | est.₹3 crore (US$340,000)[5] |
Zapatlela (transl. Possessed) is a 1993 IndianMarathi-languagehorror comedy film directed and produced byMahesh Kothare under Jenma Films International. The film stars anensemble cast of Mahesh Kothare,Laxmikant Berde,Pooja Pawar, Kishori Ambiye,Madhu Kambikar,Jairam Kulkarni,Vijay Chavan, Ravindra Berde, Raghavendra Kadkol,Bipin Varti, andDilip Prabhavalkar made a cameo appearance and provided the voiceover for the puppetTatya Vinchu in the film. The practical effects for the puppet were created byRamdas Padhye, a renowned ventriloquist and puppeteer.[6] A sequel titledZapatlela 2 was released 20 years later in 2013 in 3D format. The movie was also dubbed in Hindi asKhilona Bana Khalnayak.
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The film begins on a dark night with the car of a notoriouscrime lord, Tatya Vinchu, and hissidekick, Kubdya Khavis, approaching thecave of amagician named Baba Chamatkar inMumbai. Tatya Vinchu threatens Baba Chamatkar for the "Mrityunjay Mantra", avoodoospell that can transfer the chanter'ssoul into any living or non-living object, and Baba Chamatkar unwillingly provides Tatya Vinchu the mantra out of fear. Soon after,CIDInspector Mahesh Jadhav, who has been working on his mission to capture Tatya Vinchu, raids hiswarehouse and pursues him until Tatya Vinchu and Kubdya Khavis hide in a nearbypost office. At the post office, Mahesh gets into acombat with Kubdya Khavis and ends upshooting Tatya Vinchu fatally in thechest inencounter. With the last breath, Tatya Vinchu discovers the parcel of aventriloquist'spuppet lying on the floor in the post office, and uses the mantra provided by Baba Chamatkar to enable his soul topossess the puppet. Meanwhile, Mahesharrests Kubdya Khavis for hiscrimes and believes that Tatya Vinchu is finally dead.
A few days later, Mahesh's employer,Superintendent Jairam Ghatge, gets transferred to the village of Shrirangpur,Maharashtra and at the same time, his young daughter, Gauri, arrives inIndia from theUSA to pursuedoctor of philosophy incriminal psychology. Gauri meets her younger brother, Laxmikant Bolke, also known as Lakshya, who lives with his widowed mother, Parubai, in Shrirangpur and is ashopkeeper. Lakshya is also in a relationship with Aavdi, the daughter ofConstable Tukaram, who has fixed her marriage with Constable Sakharam against her wishes. Due to his fondness for ventriloquism, Gauri sends Lakshya a puppet from the USA throughcourier but unfortunately, the puppet turns out to be the same one which is possessed by Tatya Vinchu. The puppet reveals himself to be Tatya Vinchu to Lakshya, who, however, believes it to be containing anaudio tape recorder for the puppet being imported.
Later, Lakshya and Parubai'slandlord, Dhanajirao Dhanavte, is offended after being publicly insulted by Lakshya viapuppetry. Under the pretext of unpaid rent, Dhanajirao has all thefurniture in Lakshya and Parubai's house (including the puppet of Tatya Vinchu)confiscated and stored in his warehouse. Shocked at learning this, Lakshya decides to teach Dhanajirao a lesson and angrily storms off to his warehouse. Meanwhile, Tatya Vinchu reveals his identity to Dhanajirao in the warehouse and threatens to kill him with asickle, causing a horrified Dhanajirao to die ofheart failure. In the moments immediately after Dhanajirao's death, Lakshya reaches the warehouse and is shocked to discover Dhanajirao dead, realising that the puppet of Tatya Vinchu is indeed a living thing. Just then, Mahesh too arrives at the scene with Gauri and the police, and arrests Lakshya for believing him to have committed Dhanajirao's murder in a fit of rage. Inprison, Lakshya desperately tries to explain that the culprit is Tatya Vinchu, not him, but Mahesh refuses to believe him and considers him to bementally ill. The next day, however, Dhanajirao'spostmortem reports prove Lakshya innocent and he isreleased from prison by Mahesh.
Meanwhile, the puppet of Tatya Vinchu travels to Mumbai and meets with Baba Chamatkar, demanding him to explain to him how to migrate into ahuman form. Baba Chamatkar initially refuses to do so, but when Tatya Vinchu threatens to kill him, Baba Chamatkar explains to him that he must transfer his soul into thehuman body of the person whom he has confessed his identity first and that person is Lakshya. On learning this, Tatya Vinchu returns to Shrirangpur during the festival ofHoli with the intention of possess Lakshya's body. One night, Tatya Vinchu enters Lakshya's house through the window and tries to chant the mantra on him, but Lakshya manages to lock him up inside thecloset. The next morning, Aavdi takes the puppet of Tatya Vinchu out from the closet andburies itunderground, but Tatya Vinchu succeeds in coming out bydigging from inside, much to Lakshya's fear. Tukaram and Sakharam believe Lakshya to be mentally unstable and forcefully take him into amental hospital in Shrirangpur.
That night, Gauri takes the puppet of Tatya Vinchu to her house when Tatya Vinchu reveals his true identity and attacks Gauri, who manages to escape from him, horrified, and meets Mahesh to inform him the reality about Tatya Vinchu. Having received the whereabouts of Baba Chamatkar's cave, Mahesh and Gauri arrive and confront Baba Chamatkar, who reveals that the only way to kill Tatya Vinchu is to shoot him right between his twoeyebrows. Meanwhile, Tatya Vinchu tries to enter the mental hospital through the window to reach out to Lakshya, scaring Lakshya enough to escape from the mental hospital back to his house in the middle of the night. Tatya Vinchu then meets Kubdya Khavis, who has escaped from prison, and the two barge into Lakshya's house and capture him and Parubai. However, Mahesh arrives at the scene with Gauri on time and frees Lakshya and Parubai from the clutches of Tatya Vinchu and Kubdya Khavis.
In the ensuing fight, Tatya Vinchu pursues Lakshya up to theroof to possess his body. Mahesh injures Kubdya Khavis and reaches up to the roof, but Tatya Vinchu nearly drops Mahesh down the roof, leaving him hanging on its edge, and begins chanting the mantra on Lakshya. Just as Tatya Vinchu is about to utter the last verse, Mahesh manages to get back on the roof and uses hisgun to shoot Tatya Vinchu right between his two eyebrows. The puppet falls down the roof, now lifeless, and the police arrest Kubdya Khavis once again. Finally, Tukaram and Jairam also agree for Lakshya and Mahesh's marriages with Aavdi and Gauri, respectively. The film ends with a renowned ventriloquist andpuppeteer,Ramdas Padhye, presenting Lakshya a new puppet as a bravery award, and Lakshya screaming at Mahesh due to his fear of puppets since the incident of Tatya Vinchu.
This film was inspired from the 1988 Hollywood movieChild's Play, a film byDon Macini. It was ahorror film. As inZapatlela, it opens with a serial killer (Charles Lee Ray) transferring his soul into a doll,Chucky after being shot dead by a police officer, and is given to a child, Andy Barclay, who is not believed to when he claims that the doll is alive. Chucky goes to meet his oldvoodoo master John in a similar mannerTatya Vinchu confronts Baba Chamatkar and learns that the only way to become human again is transferring his soul into the body of the first person he told his true name to, who happens to be Andy, which puts him in the same danger Lakshya is subjected to by the living doll.[7] Tatya is also shot dead by the same police officer that originally killed his human self after the cop was instructed by John that Chucky's weakness is his heart, just like how Baba does by telling Mahesh to shoot Tatya between hiseyebrows to kill him.[8]
Mahesh Kothare said he wrote the story ofZapatlela in a hotel room in a week. Name of the mainantagonist, notorious criminalTatya Vinchu, Kothare developed from the amalgamation of his make-up man's name 'Tatya' and 'RedScorpion', which he had seen in his childhood.[9] The evil puppet Tatya Vinchu and Lakshya's naughtiest puppet Ardhavatrao are both created and operated by Ramdas Padhye, aventriloquist.[10] The voice of Ardhvatrao was dubbed by Ramdas Padhye. Dilip Prabhavalkar performed thevoiceover for Tatya Vinchu puppet.[11]
Laxmikant Berde signed in the lead role, making his fifth collaboration with Mahesh Kothare. Kothare wrote the role of Gauri withNivedita Joshi-Saraf in mind, but turned down the offer due to she got married and the offer went to Kishori Ambiye.Priya Arun was the first choice for the role of Aavdi but she also turned down and the offer went toPooja Pawar.[12]Dilip Prabhavalkar made acameo appearance in the role of Tatya Vinchu, theantagonist in the film.[11]
| Zapatlela | |
|---|---|
| Soundtrack album by | |
| Released |
|
| Genre | Feature film soundtrack |
| Language | Marathi |
The music is composed by Anil Mohile
| No. | Title | Singer (s) | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Zapatlela" | Sudesh Bhosle, Uttara Kelkar | |
| 2. | "Tujhya Majhya Premachi Godi" | Suresh Wadkar,Sadhana Sargam | |
| 3. | "Dhak Dhak Manat Zalay Suru" | Vinay Mandke, Uttara Kelkar | |
| 4. | "Zap Zap Zapatlela" | Sudesh Bhosle, Sadhana Sargam,Vinod Rathod |
A sequel to the film, titledZapatlela 2, was released in 3D on 7 June 2013 withAdinath Kothare andSonalee Kulkarni in the lead roles. It also featuresMakarand Anaspure,Sai Tamhankar,Mahesh Kothare,Madhu Kambikar andVishakha Subhedar in supporting roles.[13] This film got mediocre success.[14]Mahesh Kothare declared his intentions to create "Zapatlela 3" in 2017.[14] Then, in 2024, he reiterated the announcement, revealing plans for a theatrical release in 2025.[15]
After theatrical release,Zapatlela became huge hit and it is a popular film inMaharashtra.[16]
The film was remade inTelugu in the year 2001, with the titleAmmo Bomma, withRajendra Prasad playing the lead role.[17]