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India 1999 / 35 mm / Color / 125 min. | |||
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A film crew leaves for the village of Kull, in the northern Bundelkhand region of Madhya Pradesh province in India to make a film about an incident that took place eight years earlier, an incident arising from the continuing conflict between castes. As the film-within-the-film progresses, parallels become apparent between the original events and tensions within the film crew itself. In the earlier incident, as the film recounts it, the Sarpanch, the village headman, a Thakur by caste, resents the installation of a water pump in the Dalit section of the village. This leads to his repression of the Dalits, not only preventing them from working in their fields but also stopping all services to their community. When Nathu, one of the Dalits, enters the local temple to make offerings to the deity in thanks to his wife being cured of an illness, he is beaten up and publicly humiliated. Unable to tolerate the repression, the Dalits turn for relief to the law. They don't get a sympathetic hearing from the local police officer, but a sit-down strike in front of the district commissioner's house finally results in a public hearing. |
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| Script: Ashok Mishra. Phot.: Rajen Kothari. Ed.: Aseem Sinha. Mus.: Vanraj Bhatia. Cast: Rajit Kapur, Rajeshwari Sachdev, Ravi Jhankal, Raghuvir Yadav, Kishore Kadam. Sales: Amil Pandid, Government of India, National Film Development Corp.. | |||
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Shyam Benegal Born in Hyderabad, India in 1934, Shyam Benegal became interested in the cinema at age 12 when his photographer father bought him a small movie camera. At college Benegal was active in the film society movement and after graduating in economics, he embarked on a career in advertising. Eventually he gravitated towards television and documentaries, working for WGBH in Boston and the Children's Television Workshop in New York. On return to India, Benegal launched his directorial career with the documentary, A CHILD OF THE STREETS (1967). He made his first fiction feature, THE SEEDLING, in 1974. He has since directed over twenty other features as well as several documentaries, television series and shorts. Among his films are: NISHANT (1975), JUNOON (1978), MANDI (1983), TRIKAAL (1985), THE INNER VOICE (1991), SEVENTH HORSE OF THE SUN (1993), THE MAKING OF THE MAHATMA (1995) and SARDARI BEGUM (1996). Shyam Benegal was a member of the Official Competition jury of the 1997 Montreal World Film Festival. |