Sant Tukaram
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| Original title | संत तुकाराम (Sant Tukaram) |
| Country of production | India |
| original language | Marathi |
| Publishing year | 1936 |
| length | 128 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Vishnupant Damle , Sheikh Fattelal |
| script | Shivram Vashikar |
| production | Prabhat Film Company |
| music | Keshavrao Bhole |
| camera | V. Avadhoot |
| cut | AR Shaikh |
| occupation | |
| |
Sant Tukaram ( Marathi संत तुकाराम Sant Tukārām , alternative title: The Holy Tukaram ) is an Indian film by Vishnupant Damle and Sheikh Fattelal from 1936. The biography deals with the Hindu mystic Tukaram . It was the first Indian film to be shown at an international film festival.
action
Tukaram lives with his wife Jijai - called Avali by him - and their children Kashi and Mahadeo in the village of Dehu . He is entirely dedicated to the worship of the god Vithoba (Pandurang), a form of the god Vishnu . His praising songs arouse envy and resistance in the Brahmin Salomalo. He pretends to be the true author of Tukaram's songs and tries in vain to turn the population against Tukaram.
Unlike Tukaram, Jijai is pragmatic and down-to-earth, she can not understand the religious devotion of her husband if he does not at least provide the family with the bare essentials. She only disparagingly calls the god he adores "black face". When Tukaram only knows how to call the name of Pandurangs for the sick Mahadeo, Jijai pulls the boy into the temple in front of the statue of the gods and insults them. With a “divine hand” the boy is healed. But Solomalo is so upset by Jijai's behavior that he throws Tukaram out of the temple for it. His hypocrisy reveals itself in his home, where Salomalo lets Sundara sing love songs to him.
At Jijai's request, Tukaram seeks work. He is allowed to guard the field for the farmer Dnyanoba, but Salomalo tramples the plants with a herd of cows. Almost the entire harvest seems to have been destroyed, but through divine help more than ten times the usual yield is achieved. Tukaram receives many sacks of grain for his family, but to the horror of his wife gives everything away to the beggars. While Jijai is away, Sundara tries to seduce Tukaram. But instead of succumbing to her charms, to the chagrin of Solomalus, he converts her to God.
Salomalo lets the learned priest Rameshwar come to the village to deal with the Tukaram problem. Tukaram's songs are sung in the alleys of the village and the lower caste people worship him as a saint. Rameshwar accuses Tukaram of blasphemy . By constantly chanting the name of God, he seduced people and degraded the reputation of the Vedic rituals. To do this, he has to sink the recordings of his songs in the river. Tukaram fasts for twelve days and on the thirteenth day the river goddess returns his records to him. Rameshwar becomes a follower of Tukaram.
Tukarams accepts the sufferings that his oppressor Solomalo inflicts on him and his family and gains a spiritual bond between himself and the population. His popularity increased nationwide, his home became a place of pilgrimage. He even receives a visit from Shivaji and passes his holiness test by rejecting all precious gifts for himself and his family. In the temple of Pandurang, Shivaji is protected from armed attackers with divine confusion.
In the end, Tukaram has fulfilled his mission on earth and asks Jijai to follow him into the heavenly realms, but she refuses. When he is picked up by a giant bird, she passes out.
background
An important aspect of the film is Tukaram's affiliation with the 17th century Bhakti movement , which softened the hegemony of the priestly class and produced poets such as Tukaram, Ramdas , Eknath , Vidyapati and Chandidas who wrote in the language of the people instead of the scholarly Sanskrit . Even today, the return of Tukaram's writings from the Indrayani River is celebrated by a large number of pilgrims every year in a similar way to the film.
The actress Gauri had her first leading role in Sant Tukaram after a few small roles in Prabhat film productions , which was followed by successes in V. Shantaram's Manoos / Admi (1939) and the Damle Fattelal Nene film Sant Sakhu (1941). Vishnupant Pagnis was already active as a bhajan singer before his tukaram role . Sant Tukaram premiered at Central Cinema in Bombay on December 12, 1936 and was so successful that it was shown in this cinema for 57 weeks, which no other film has achieved before. Years later the film was shown to a mass audience in villages of Maharashtra .
Sant Tukaram was the first Indian film to appear at an international film festival; The film received a special mention at the 5th Venice International Film Festival in 1937. The original confirmation of participation is said to have been found in a garbage can in Pune in 1979 by a former student of the FTII , the cameraman Sunny Joseph , and has been in the National Film Archive of India since 2004 - just like the restored film .
Film music
The film has the eight songs: Pandurang Dhyani , Chalali Jawani Raaya , Vrukshavali Aamha Soyari , Goda Tujhe Roop , Aadhi Beej Ekale , Nishidini Haricha , Jai Jai Pandurang and Vaanu Jitake . The lyrics to the music of Keshavrao Bhole are from Tukaram, except for Aadhi Beej Ekale , which was written by Shantaram Athavale .
In the scene in which Tukaram praises the fertility of nature, the song Aadhi Beej Ekale underscores the work rhythm of the women at the millstone and is written in the poet's typical ovi verse form of 3½ beat . It was therefore initially believed by scholars to be an unknown original composition by Tukaram.
Reviews
“As one of the cheaper productions of the studio, the film adheres to the conventions of the genre [the saints films] with numerous 'miracle' scenes in which the poet-god intervenes and demonstrates the truth in Tukaram's teachings.”… “Breaking new ground he with Gauri's down-to-earth portrait of Tukaram's wife Jijai, who vigorously kneads cow dung into heating material, refuses to go to heaven and instead looks after the children on earth. "
Film historian Bhagwan Das Garga believes that “the simplicity of film and its sincerity of feeling are the two elements that make film stand out above any other of the same genre.” For art historian Geeta Kapur, “film belongs to a sub-genre of particular significance, in which the lives of saints as legends are adapted to historical circumstances in a quasi-biographical way and in the light of their obvious commitment to spiritual equality and popular language patterns. " Kumar Shahani sees" in the passion of piety as in the scene of conversion of the Prostitutes by the saint, and Pagnis' depiction [Tukarams] erotic elements. "
literature
- Entry on Sant Tukaram in Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema , p. 269 f.
- Sant Tukaram (1936, Marathi) in BD Garga: The Art of Cinema: An Insider's Journey Through Fifty Years of Film History , Penguin Books India, 2005, pp. 90-93
Web links
- Sant Tukaram in the Internet Movie Database (English)
Individual evidence
- ^ The Art of Cinema, p. 92
- ↑ a b The Art of Cinema, p. 91
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original dated November 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema , p. 270
- ↑ Geeta Kapur: Mythic Material in Indian Cinema . In: Journal of Arts and Ideas , No. 14-15, July-December 1987
- ↑ Kumar Shahani: The Saint Poets of Prabhat . In: TM Ramachandran (ed.): Film World Annual , Bombay, January 1980
