Changes between Initial Version and Version 1 of SAINT FILMS


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Timestamp:
Jun 23, 2012, 11:27:57 AM (12 years ago)
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salomex
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  • SAINT FILMS

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     1'''SAINT FILMS''' 
     2 
     3 
     4Genre of film biographicals of the medieval 
     5Saint-poets. This Bhakti tradition emerged from 
     6the proliferation of regional and lower-caste 
     7cultures after the 7th C. when the Pauranic 
     8texts and portions of the Mahabharata were 
     9rendered in the Prakrit or demotic languages 
     10spoken by the lowest castes of Shudra or 
     11Atishudra. Starting with Shankara (8th C.) and 
     12Ramanuja (12th C.), the movement expanded 
     13into several sects: e.g. the Jaina, the Shaiva, the 
     14Natha, the Lingayata, the Mahanubhav. It was 
     15strongest in the South and the West, creating 
     16the first major literatures in Tamil, Telugu, 
     17Kannada and Marathi. Directly addressing the 
     18peasantry and the artisans, the Bhakti tradition 
     19was revived in several currents of 19th C. 
     20nationalist and egalitarian reformism, e.g. by 
     21Mahadev Govind Ranade (1842-1901) who 
     22opposed a Vedantic revivalism by modelling 
     23his own sermons on the verses of the 17th C. 
     24Marathi poet, Sant Tukaram. In Telugu and 
     25Kannada the movement is traced to the spread 
     26of the Veerasaiva cult, pioneered by 
     27Mallikarjuna Pandit and Basvanna respectively, 
     28leading to the earliest reform movements 
     29which, as e.g. with the educational activities of 
     30the Lingayat Viratka monks in 19th C. 
     31Karnataka, fed into the social reform 
     32movement under British occupation (see 
     33Social) Used for the first time to create a 
     34political language in the banned film Bhakta 
     35Vidur (1921), a tradition continued by e.g. 
     36Prabhat's famous Saint films: Dharmatma 
     370935) drew parallels between Gandhi and the 
     3816th C. poet Eknath; Sant Dnyaneshwar 
     39(1940) made a call for peace in the context of 
     40WW2. The theatrical version of the genre 
     41emphasised miracle sequences in narratives 
     42culminating in intense devotional emotions. 
     43This approach found a natural extension into 
     44filmic spectacle beyond the means of the 
     45conventional mythological, best exemplified by 
     46S.S. Vasan's big budgetAvvaiY.var 0953). In 
     47Telugu the form is uniquely associated with the 
     48star Chittor V, Nagaiah (Bhakta Potana, 
     491942; Tbyagayya, 1946; Yogi Vemana, 1947 
     50et al.). Other classic Saint films are Chandidas 
     51(Bengali, l934),Sant Tukaram (Marathi, 
     521936), Bhakta Cheta (Tamil, 1940), Bhakta 
     53Kabir(Hindi, 1942),Meera (Hindi/rami! 
     541945), Bhakta Gora Kumbbara (Kannada, 
     551949), etc. The last major film in the genre is 
     56the Punjabi classic Nanak Naamjahaz Hai 
     570969) although this is not strictly a 
     58biographical. 
     59 
     60[[Glossary]]