Pedgaonche Shahane

1952 131’ b&w Marathi d/p Raja Paranjpe pc Makarand Films, Raja Paranjpe Prod. s/co-lyr G.D. Madgulkar dial G.R. Kamat co-lyr Mukhram Sharma c Bal Bapat m Datta Davjekar lp Raja Paranjpe, G.D. Madgulkar, Chittaranjan Kolhatkar, Dhumal, Master Dwarkanath, Vasant Shinde, Nalini Nagpurkar, Nayana, Prasad Sawkar, Sadashiv Thakar, Ganpatrao Kelkar, Daldaseth

In his best-known film as director and as actor, Paranjpe plays the bearded Kaka Shahane, a once-famous surgeon who went insane when he performed an unsuccessful operation on his girlfriend. Escaping from the mental asylum, he finds shelter with a family, pretending to be their long-lost uncle back from Zanzibar. The family, corrupted by ‘modernity’ (mother is a singer, daughter a dancer, one son obsessed by racing) tries to get the presumably rich uncle’s money. The madman eventually reforms the family and denounces rationalist notions of sanity.

Film