Bagh Bahadur

aka The Tiger Dancer, The Tigerman 1989 91’ col Hindi d/p/sc Buddhadev Dasgupta pc Doordarshan st Prafulla Roy c Venu m Shantanu Mahapatra lp Pawan Malhotra, Archana, M.V. Vasudeva Rao, Biplab Chatterjee, Rajeshwari Roy Choudhury, Masood Akhtar

Inspired by the atmosphere of folk-tales, the film tells of Ghunuram (Malhotra), a quarry worker who returns to his native village of Nonpura to participate in its annual festival as the celebrated Tiger Dancer and to marry Radha (Archana), the daughter of the drummer Sibal (Rao, referring to his earlier role in Chomana Dudi, 1975). However, Ghunuram’s dance is eclipsed by a real-life leopard show staged by a circus. In addition, Archana falls in love with a circus performer. In desperation and encouraged by Sibal’s drumming, Ghunuram enters the leopard’s cage and challenges it to a duel, which he loses.

Film