Marking the third day of Ekagra, Kannada film Samskara was screened at Bharat Bhavan on Tuesday.
Samskara is a 1970 Kannada-language film written by U. R. Ananthamurthy based on his eponymous novel, and directed and produced by Pattabhirama Reddy. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao was executive director for the film. It is considered a path-breaking film that pioneered the parallel cinema movement in Kannada. Samskara won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film (1970).
The story is set in a street in a small village called Durvasapura in the Western Ghats of Karnataka.
A majority of the people who live in the street belong to the community of Madhwas (a Brahmin community).
Two of the main characters in the story are Praneshacharya (Girish Karnad) and Narayanappa.
Praneshacharya is a devout Brahmin who has completed his Vedic education at Varanasi and has returned to Duravasapura and is considered as the leader of the Brahmin community of his village and the surrounding ones.
The other main character, Narayanappa, a Brahmin by birth but one who has rejected the set rules of Brahminism by eating meat and by keeping the company of a prostitute named Chandri.
Once Narayanappa and his friends catches the sacred fish in the temple tank, cooks, and eats them.
This causes the Brahmins in the villages to rise up against him.
This causes the Brahmins in the villages to rise up against him.
They approach Praneshacharya to throw him out of the village. Praneshacharya decides against taking this extreme step and he believes that Narayanappa can be convinced to get rid of his immoral acts. This follows the rest of the story.