Ram Ram Pahuna

1950 122’ b&w Marathi d/s Dinkar D. Patil pc Uday Kala Chitra lyr P. Sawalram, Shanta Shelke c Shankar Savekar m Lata Mangeshkar lp Damuanna Malvankar, Chandrakant, Baburao Athane, Ratnamala, Kusum Deshpande, Madhu Bhosle, Shakuntala Bhome, Susheela Devi, Kusum Sukhtankar

The first solo film by Maharashtra’s best-known exponent of the ‘gramin chitrapat’ genre set in a Maharashtrian village frontier area evoking the Western genre. This melodrama, more intimate than some of Patil’s later work, features good elder brother Shripati who sends younger brother Jaisingh to his uncle to study English. The wily uncle encourages Jaisingh’s affair with his daughter, and she becomes pregnant. Shripati arranges for the two to marry, but the uncle causes a rift between the brothers, causing Shripati and his wife to be evicted from their own home. Jaisingh falls prey to several vices while his uncle takes over the family property, but eventually he makes up with his brother. Lata Mangeshkar, making her debut as composer, scored some melodious tunes, esp. Bara gava majhya sathi jhurati.

Film