Maa Bhoomi (Goutam Ghosh) 1980

Maa Bhoomi (1980)

Director: Goutam Ghosh; Writer: Gautam Ghose, B. Narasinga Rao, Krishan Chander, Partha Bannerjee, Pran Rao; Producer: G. Ravindranath, B. Narasinga Rao; Cinematographer: Kamal Nayak; Editor: Dandamudi Rajagopal Rao; Cast: Kakarala, Saichand, Ramireddy, Bhupal Reddy, Pokala, Rajeswari, Hansa, Prasad Rao, Pradeep Kumar, Lakshman Rao, Telangana Sakuntala, Yadagiri

Duration: 02:10:05; Aspect Ratio: 1.311:1; Hue: 304.340; Saturation: 0.000; Lightness: 0.342; Volume: 0.178; Cuts per Minute: 9.801

Set during one of India’s main peasant risings, the Telangana insurrection between 1945 and 1951 in the pre-Independence state of Hyderabad, the Bengali director’s first feature tells the story of Chander’s best-known novel (Jab Khet Jaage (1948)) from the peasant’s point of view. A young peasant, Ramiah, rebels against the corrupt rule of the nizam, and when his girlfriend has to submit to the potentate’s sexual coercion, Ramiah leaves. He befriends a Marxist activist (the rising was CPI-inspired) and participates in the Independence struggle. When the peasants take over the village after Independence, their anger boils over and they perpetrate a massacre. In 1948 the Indian army marched into Hyderabad and suppressed the rising. Many of the ousted landlords returned to power by becoming Congress officials, so that the peasants had to face the same struggle all over again. The film is made in a documentary style inspired by Latin American political cinema but also uses Indian folk idioms such as the Burrakatha style (cf. the political education sequence with the union leader Maqbool). The film’s view of the rising is mostly an uncritical one, esp. in comparison with recent analyses by historians sympathetic to political groups currently working in Telangana.

Lyricist: Suddala Hanumanthu
Music: Vinjamuri Sita Devi
Singer: Sandhya
Song: Palleturi Pillagada Pasulagaase Monagada (Background Song)

పల్లెటూరి పిల్లగాడా పసులగాసే మొనగాడా

OU101A

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