Director: Kanjibhai Rathod; Writer: Mohanlal Dave; Cinematographer: Gajanan S. Devare; Cast: Moti, Gangaram, Sakina
Duration: 00:24:44; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Lightness: 0.254; Cuts per Minute: 19.761
Summary: Recently restored by the NFAI, this is the only surviving work of Rathod and the important Kohinoor studio. It tells two relatively independent stories from the Mahabharata. The first parr features the princess Savitri, who stands by her husband, the woodcutter Satyavan, when he is marked by Yama, the god of death. When Yama fulfills his prophecy and takes away Satyavan's life, Savitri pleads with him and eventually wins her husband back. The extraordinary scene showing Savitri's pleas with a god sitting astride a buffalo somewhere between heaven and earth is intercut with
shots of the couple's idyllic life as Savitri tends to her blind parents-in-law. The flash-back construction and the cross-cutting to the . 'tableau' of Savitri arguing with Yama provides
a more sophisticated temporal structure than is evident in e.g. Phalke's work of the period. The second half narrates the legend of Sukanya, the daughter of Sharyati. Seeing a large ant-hill, and unaware that it has been
built over the meditating sage Chyavana, she blinds the sage and, in return, is forced to
marry him. She tends to the old and decrepit man, and he changes into a handsome youth. The surviving print mentions the Krishna studio in its inter-titles, possibly because former Kohinoor partner Maneklal Patel reissued it under his new banner.
Suresh Chabria writes: ‘The only surviving film produced by the major Bombay-based studio Kohinoor Film Co. and made by one of the most important Indian silent film directors, Kanjibhai Rathod , Sukanya Savitri is a daring interweaving of the twin myths of Sati Sukanya and Sati Savitri who are upheld in Indian tradition as paragons of the pativrata—the chaste and dutiful wife and a symbol of ideal womanhood.
The film begins with Sukanya’s story. In the existing fragments we see the following episodes: Sukanya inadvertently blinding the old sage Chyavana who is covered by an enormous ant hill which has grown around him during his deep meditation; in atonement her father, King Sharyathi weds her to the infirm sage whom she serves faithfully; a handsome Ashwini Kumar or a demi- god is attracted by her beauty and youth but she spurns him; when he follows her to their hut her angry gaze reduces him to ashes. The episode about how she succeeds in restoring her husband Chyavana to his youth is missing.
The Savitri story has survived with the most important episodes intact: Savitri’s marriage to the exiled Satyavan; her devotedly caring for him and his blind parents; Satyavan’s death by snake bite in the forest; her appeasement of Yama, the God of Death, who gives her the three boons of restoring her parents-in-law’s eyesight, their recall to the royal court and Satyavan’s return to life.
The final sequences combine the two stories as a youthful Chyavana and Sukanya arrive at Satyavan’s parents’ hut and the dethroned King Dyumatsena (Satyavan’s father) is called back to the court by his people and Satyavan is crowned king by Chyavana. The sage Narada arrives to bless everyone, especially the dutiful Sukanya and Savitri whose devotion and humility has brought happiness to all.
It is perhaps inevitable to compare Sukanya Savitri with the surviving Phalke mythologicals. Rathod’s film holds its own on most counts and in some ways is even more remarkable. Even though almost all the inter- titles are missing, the narration is crisper and more fluent. The riverside and other outdoor locales are shot with more dynamic compositions, and there is a sophisticated awareness of the spatial logic of the scenes. And the bold interweaving of the two stories takes one’s breath away. There is an amazing moment in the early part of the Sukanya story when in a vision she first sees a young Ashwini Kumar (symbolising carnal temptation) emerge from her old husband’s sleeping body and then Savitri (from the twin story yet to unfold!) who exhorts her to remain chaste.. From Suresh Chabria ed. Light of Asia: Indian Silent Cinema 1912-1934, New Delhi: Niyogi Books/Pune: National Film Archive of India, 2013, pg 75-76.
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