Diksha (film)

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Movie
Original title Diksha (दीक्षा)
Country of production India
original language Hindi
Publishing year 1991
length 134 minutes
Rod
Director Arun Kaul
script Umesh Kalbag , JP Dixit , Arun Kaul
production Ravi Malik for National Film Development Corporation and Doordarshan
music Mohinderjit Singh
camera Apurba Kishore Bir
cut Adesh Verma
occupation

Diksha ( Hindi दीक्षा dīkṣā ) is an Indian feature film by Arun Kaul from 1991. It is based on a novel by UR Ananthamurthy .

action

The story takes place in Mulki, a village in southern Kannara , in the 1930s . A father who has five sons died in childbirth brings - as he promised his gods - his son Narayan Bhatt (called Nanni), born afterwards, to a guru (Udup Pandit) so that he can learn the teachings of the Veda in his guru is instructed. The teacher takes him in only reluctantly. Acharya Udup lives in his house with the two older students Vishwanath Shastri and Ganesh Bhatt and his young, widowed daughter Yamuna. As a domestic worker he employed the “ untouchable ” Koga, who lives with his aunt Dondamma in the hut village of the untouchable.

For the local Brahmins and especially the temple priest Manjunath, life in the Gurukul appears to be scandalous and contrary to religious regulations. They get news from the talkative Godavari, who with her curiosity gets the information for the gossip in the village.

When Koga's aunt dies, he asks the Udup Pandit to perform the last rites on her with tulsi and sacred water. Although it is against tradition, Udup Pandit gives in after some resistance and goes to the Shudra village for the death ceremony . Godavari communicates this enormity to Manjunath, who complains to Udup's master student Shrikar Upadhyay about the moral decline. He laments that sati , child marriage and devadasi have already been banned and now the untouchables will also demand access to rites and religious sites.

Shrikar takes the matter to his Acharya Udup and receives a lesson from him on the difference between traditions and the scriptures. These traditions are not always like this, nor are they immutable for all eternity. Just as fashion has changed over time, be it with the customs of the Brahmin society. Since Udup Pandit is going away for some time, he asks Shrikar to take over the classes for the students.

Yamuna has a secret affair with the village teacher, who consults Udup Pandit regularly. During Udup Pandit's absence, they meet more often at night. Yamuna becomes pregnant and a target of Orthodox society after Godavari noticed the first signs of pregnancy. Manjunath informs Shrikar and gets Ganesh Bhatt's father to take his son out of Gurukul. The village school teacher persuades the desperate Yamuna to have an abortion in Shudra Village. Nanni watches alone next to the hut where the abortion is performed.

The next morning Udup Pandit returns home. He casts his daughter out of his home and society when he learns of what happened. Koga angrily teaches him a lesson on the value of religious verses that put religion above humanity. Udup Pandit sees himself trapped in social conventions and declares his daughter dead in front of the assembled Brahmins. Only Shrikar publicly opposes this judgment, which he understands as his second diksha . At the same time, Nanni is brought back by his father. Udup Pandit symbolically performs the dead ritual Ghattashraddha for the soul of Yamuna on the river bank .

background

The same story of UR Ananthamurthy was filmed in 1977 by Girish Kasaravalli under the title Ghattashraddha , who also received film awards.

Awards

Diksha won a National Film Award in 1992 for best film in Hindi and received the Filmfare Critics Award for best film in the same year .

The film took part in the 1992 International du Premier Film Festival in Annonay (France), where it won the audience award for best film. In 1993 it was shown at the International Film Festival of India .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Diksha NFDC