Maratha Tituka Melavava (1964)

Stylised and wordy historical recreating Pendharkar’s favourite subject, the career of the Maratha king Shivaji. This film features the early career of the king (Alhaad) in a Maharashtra riven with internal dissent and threatened by the Adil Shahi sultans. Under the tutelage of his mother, Jijabai (Sulochana), Shivaji overcomes various threats from the Deshmukh, Bandal and Khopde families to found his empire. Pendharkar reveals yet again his penchant for rousing dialogue and his limitations in the action sequences, the biggest scenes in the film being mainly in the epilogue as all of Maharashtra celebrates Shivaji’s rise to power. It includes some all-time song hits in Marathi including Akhercha ha tula dandavata (sung by Lata Mangeshkar) and Shoor aamhi sardar (sung by Hridaynath Mangeshkar) in the powada form.