Director: Hrishikesh Mukherjee; Writer: Bimal Dutt; Producer: Sher Jeng Singh Punchhe; Cinematographer: Jaywant Pathare; Editor: Das Dhaimade; Cast: Ashok Kumar, Dharmendra, Sharmila Tagore, Robi Ghosh, David Abraham, Sanjeev Kumar, Tarun Bose, Sapru, Rajen Haksar, Sarika, Manmohan, Uma Dutt, Dina Pathak, Paul Mahendra, Kanu Roy, O.P. Kohli, Anand Mama, Abhimanyu Sharma, D.K. Sapru, Dev Kishan, Uma Dutt, Neelima, Bishan Khanna, Mukund Banerjee, Asrani, Baldev Khosa, Deenanath, Santosh Ghosh, Satya Banerjee, Samar Roy, Madhup Sharma, Biren Tripathy, Manju
Duration: 02:43:04; Aspect Ratio: 1.333:1; Hue: 2.382; Saturation: 0.085; Lightness: 0.379; Volume: 0.162; Cuts per Minute: 7.586; Words per Minute: 68.867
Summary: Nationalist melodrama using the metaphor of illegitimacy. When Satyapriya is born his mother dies (cf. Mukherjee’s Anupama, 1966). His father turns into a sanyasi (ascetic) and he is raised with strong nationalist feelings by his grandfather, a Sanskrit scholar. He grows up (Dharmendra) to become an engineer at the time of India’s independence. Employed by a princely state, he discovers that few of his nationalist-utopian dreams have been realised. The critique of the state of the nation is illustrated by the unfortunate Ranjana (Tagore) who has been raped by the prince and is pregnant. Satyapriya marries her and she gives birth to the child. The rest of the film concerns the aged grandfather’s refusal to accept a child born of sin and refers to a mythological tale from the Upanishads: Gautam accepted Jabala’s son, Satyakam, under similar circumstances.
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