Tears on hot sand
| Movie | |
|---|---|
| German title | Tears on hot sand |
| Original title | Ankur अंकुर |
| Country of production | India |
| original language | Hindi |
| Publishing year | 1974 |
| length | 125 minutes |
| Rod | |
| Director | Shyam Benegal |
| script |
Shyam Benegal Satyadev Dubey (dialogues) |
| production | Mohan J. Bijlani , Freni M. Variava |
| music | Vanraj Bhatia |
| camera | Govind Nihalani |
| cut | Bhanudas |
| occupation | |
| |
Ankur ( Hindi अंकुर aṅkur ; translated: seedling ) is a Hindi film by Shyam Benegal from 1974.
action
A great procession of sacrifices moves across the country to a small village temple. Young Lakshmi wants nothing more from the goddess than a child.
Surya is the son of a landowner and has just graduated from high school. He wants to start a bachelor's degree in college, but his father is against it because he doesn't think his son is intelligent enough and only senses an urge to have fun. Surya is married against his will to a girl named Saru, who will move in with him when she comes of age. His father sends him to the country to take care of the family property.
He drives into the village to the family farm and meets Lakshmi and her deaf-mute husband Kishtaya. For two years no one has been with the family property and due to the poor condition Surya has the impression that the local police officer in charge of the administration had the property and the lands neglected. To his horror, he not only has to discover that the villagers are helping themselves to the fruits of the lands. The half-brother Pratap, whom he despises, also cultivates the neighboring rice field with his mother Kaushalya - a long-term extramarital affair of Surya's father - and branches off water there. Surya stops that immediately. At the request of Lakshmi, who works as a maid in the house, he hires the unemployed potter Kishtaya as an ox cart driver. But with his excessive alcohol consumption, Kishtaya makes Lakshmi desperate.
Lonely and bored in his little house, Surya is interested in the maid Lakshmi. He watches her graceful movements while doing housework. In the village there is already gossip about the strange behavior of the young landowner's son, in particular that he has food prepared by the poor Lakshmi and what else may be going on between the two of them in the house.
Kishtaya cannot leave the toddy (palm wine) and steals from Surya's trees. As a punishment and as a pillory, his hair is shaved and he is led backwards through the village while sitting on a donkey. Because of the humiliation, Kishtaya disappears without letting his wife know.
Surya's advances become more concrete. When Lakshmi suddenly no longer shows up for work in the house, he even goes to her hut and asks her to resume work the next day. She clearly feels flattered.
The next day, the case of an adulterous woman is tried in front of the village Panchayat , who, according to the villagers, has dishonored her husband's family, also because the other man came from a different caste. She accuses her husband of impotence, which she sees as the cause of childlessness. The Panchayat finally decides that the wife has to return to her husband and should turn to his brothers in case of any complaints, because "a wife belongs not only to the husband, but to the household". Stepping in, Surya and Lakshmi watch the scene.
Surya's relationship with Lakshmi has now also become physical, he asks her to live with him in the house. He knows how to dispel your objections in a charming manner. At Diwali , guests come to the card game for the first time, but Surya only wants to watch because he doesn't know the rules of the game. One of the card players has lost everything and is so drunk in the end that he even uses his wife and loses it to another player. Shocked, Surya throws her out.
One day, Surya's father unexpectedly comes to the country house. He is angry that the son has withheld water from his half-brother's mother. He also has no understanding that he does not accept the local priest's food, but rather lets the woman from a lower caste cook for himself and lets her live in the house. He admonishes Surya to act according to his status if he does not want to lose the respect of the villagers. Lakshmi now lives in her hut again. Shortly afterwards, Surya's wife Saru moves into the house. Since she refuses to touch food prepared by a lowly woman, she only lets Lakshmi sweep the house; later only do other work outside the house.
Lakshmi is pregnant, which makes it increasingly difficult for her to work. Surya urges her in vain to abort the child. The village policeman recognizes Lakshmi's circumstances and tries to persuade Surya to make an arrangement for Lakshmi, as his father arranged for Kaushalya and Pratap in the same situation. But Surya brusquely rejects him.
One morning Lakshmi wakes up in the hut and Kishtaya is lying next to her. He gives her the money he made in his absence. Lakshmi feels guilty for cheating on her husband. Kishtaya discovers pregnancy and is happy. She lets him believe the child is his. Kishtaya wants to drive ox carts for Surya again and walks across the field to Surya's house with a cane in hand. This sees him coming and believes that he wants revenge on him. Surya immediately has three men hold him down and whips him. Lakshmi comes to the rescue of Kishtaya while other villagers watch in shock. She curses Surya and his feudal demeanor and slowly walks home with Kishtaya.
Surya has lost his reputation. In the last shot, a boy throws a stone at Surya's house and the screen turns red.
background
The film is set in rural Andhra Pradesh and is the film debut of both director Shyam Benegal and Shabana Azmis . For lead actor Anant Nag it is the first role in a Hindi film. Ankur is one of the most important works of the New Indian Cinema , an art film movement of the early 1970s. Azmi and Nag introduced a new style of naturalistic drama and used Hindi with a regional accent - here those Haidarabads - as was also common for later works by Benegal. The director had had the story in his head for a long time and was finally able to persuade an advertising film producer, for whom he had previously worked, to finance the project. The dialogues for his screenplay were written by the well-known playwright Satyadev Dubey , who wrote film texts here for the first time after his only film directing work in 1971.
The role of Lakshmi was also offered to Waheeda Rehman , who refused.
Awards
22nd National Film Awards (1975)
Berlin International Film Festival 1974
- nominated for the Golden Bear : ( Shyam Benegal )
literature
- Ankur . In: Ashish Rajadhyaksha, Paul Willemen: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema. , Oxford University Press, New Delhi, revised edition 1999, ISBN 0-85170-669-X , pp. 415 f.
Web links
- Tears on hot sand in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Ankur (1974) in The Hindu of September 20, 2012
- 'Ankur (The seedling)' - A look at class differences in The Daily Texan, July 21, 1980
- Review