Film fest begins with 'Duniya Na Mane'

A film festival featuring the movies of V Shantaram began here from Tuesday at Antrang Hall, Bharat Bhavan.  Organised by Chhavi series of classical cinema, Bharat Bhavan, the festival would continue till October 31.

The fest began with the movie ‘Duniya Na Mane’ at Antrang hall. Released in the year 1937, it is a Hindi classical social drama film directed by V Shantaram. Notably, the film is based on a classical Marathi novel ‘Na Patnari Goshta’ by Narayan Hari Apte who also did the screenplay of the movie.

While talking to The Pioneer, organiser of the film fest Prem Shankar Shukla said, “As we conduct various events for the city art lovers, our Chhavi series of classical cinema endevours to screen best of the best movies ever made in the film industry. We not only focus on Bollywood, but we try to screen the best classical movies made by filmmakers across the world.” Elaborating further, he said, “From short documentaries to biographical movies we try to screen all the classics ever shot.”

 The movie Duniya Na Mane is based on a social issue that highlights the problem of a woman to marry an old widower. The basic storyline revolves around a young woman, Nirmala (Shanta Apte) rebelling against her marriage to a much older widower, Kaka Saheb (Keshavrao Date), as was the practice in those days. It was also, one of first film to touch upon the issue of widow remarriage.

Nirmala is trapped into marrying the old widower Kakasaheb. He is a progressive lawyer with a son and a daughter of Neera’s age. She refuses to consummate the union, claiming repeatedly that while suffering can be borne, injustice cannot. After facing many hurdles including an aunt (Vasishta), her mother-in-law, and a lascivious stepson Jugal, her husband has a change of heart and magnanimously commits suicide, enjoining Neera to marry someone more suitable. The change occurs mainly through his widowed daughter Sushil who provides a forcefully feminist movement in a speech to the young bride.

The opening eve of the fest relieved quite good response by the Bhopalites and they enjoyed the movie.