Samskara (film)

Samskara
Directed by	Pattabhirama Reddy Singeetam Srinivasa Rao
Produced by	Pattabhirama Reddy
Screenplay by	Girish Karnad Pattabhirama Reddy
Story by	U. R. Ananthamurthy
Starring	Girish Karnad P. Lankesh Dasharathi Dixit B. R. Jayaram Lakshmi Krishnamurthy Snehalatha Reddy
Music by	Rajeev Taranath
Cinematography	Tom Cowan
Edited by	Steven Cartaw Vasu
Distributed by	Rama Manohara Chitra
Release dates	1970
Running time	113 minutes
Country	India
Language	Kannada

Samskara (Kannada: ಸಂಸ್ಕಾರ) is a 1970 Indian Kannada film written by U. R. Ananthamurthy, directed and produced by Pattabhirama Reddy. It is said to have been a path-breaking venture and is supposed to have pioneered the parallel cinema movement in Kannada. The word samskara means ritual in the Kannada language. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao was executive director for the film. Samskara garnered the National Film Award for Best Feature Film for 1970.

Cast

• Girish Karnad
• Snehalatha Reddy
• Jayaram
• Lankesh
• Pradhan
• Dasharathi Dikshith
• Lakshmi Krishnamurthy
• Jayadev
• Arbutha Rani
• Lakshmana Rao
• C H Lokanathan
• Srikantaiah
• G Shivananda
• Yashavanth Bhat
• Vilas
• K Gopi
• Pranesha
• Vasudeva Murthy
• B R Shivaram
• Chandrashekara
• C R Simha
• Shamanna Shastry
• Balachandra
• Srikanthji
• Ganapathi Shastry
• Appu Rao
• B S Rama Rao
• Krishna Bhat
• A L Srinivasamurthy
• Goda Ramkumar
• Bhargavi Narayan
• Shanthabai
• Vishalam
• Yamuna Prabhu
• Esthar Ananthamurthy
• Ammu Mathew
• Chamundi
• Kasthuri

Production

The story was written by U. R. Ananthamurthy in 1965, when he was studying at the University of Birmingham for his Ph.D.

He saw the film The Seventh Seal by Ingmar Bergman and was deeply moved by it. His tutor Malcolm Bradbury suggested he write about his experiences in India concerning the multilayered structure of time in Indian society.

After completing the story, he sent the manuscript to Girish Karnad in India who got in touch with Pattabhirami Reddy and came up with a film script for the same. Samskara was the first Kannada film to be directed and produced by Pattabhirami Reddy who had mainly dealt with Telugu films. A visiting Australian cameraman, Tom Cowan, was selected to shoot it. The film was shot in a village in the Shimoga district of Karnataka.

Storyline

The story is set in a street in a small village called Durvasapura in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. A majority of the people who live in the street belong to the community of Madhwas (a Brahmin community). The people who stay here have a traditional mindset and strictly follow the rules defined by their religion. Two of the main characters in the story are Praneshacharya (Girish Karnad) and Naranappa. Praneshacharya is a devout Brahmin who has completed his Vedic education at Varanasi and has returned to Duravasapura and is considered as the leader of the Brahmin community of his village and the surrounding ones. His main goal is to attain liberation (moksha) and he is willing to go to any length to achieve it. To remain focused on his goal and as an act of self-sacrifice, he marries an invalid woman and hence remains celibate.

The other main character, Naranappa, a Brahmin by birth but one who has rejected the set rules of Brahminism by eating meat and by keeping the company of a prostitute named Chandri. Once Naranappa and his friends catches the sacred fish in the temple tank, cooks, and eats them. This causes the Brahmins in the villages to rise up against him. They approach Praneshacharya to throw him out of the village. Praneshacharya decides against taking this extreme step and he believes that Naranappa can be convinced to get rid of his immoral acts. Once Naranappa visits Shimoga and he returns to Duravasapura with high fever and dies. The Brahmins are left in a piquant situation because, according to Brahmin principles, a person who dies should be cremated as early as possible. None of the Brahmins wants to cremate the body — they feel that by cremating Naranappa's body, they will become polluted as he was against the Brahmin principles during his life.

However, the Brahmin principles also stipulate that a non-Brahmin cannot cremate the body of a Brahmin. Praneshacharya, being the leader, is responsible for finding the answer to this difficult problem. He reads the holy books, but they do not provide any solution. He then goes to a temple to pray to God and spends a whole day there. Disappointed at not being able to solve the problem, he trudges back home. On his way, he encounters Chandri. He is mesmerised by her beauty and when he wakes up in the middle of the night, he finds himself lying on Chandri's lap. Chandri rushes home, finds that Naranappa's body has started to rot, gets it cremated in secrecy, and leaves Durvasapura. Praneshacharya is left in a piquant situation on whether he has to reveal his immoral act to the people of the village or keep quiet about it. Feeling guilty, he leaves the village but the guilt never leaves him. Finally deciding to own up his act, he returns to the village and the story ends here. Its left to the imagination of the viewer on whether Praneshacharya owns up or not.

Cast

Girish Karnad as Praneshacharya and P. Lankesh as Naranappa were the main characters. The role of Chandri was played by Snehalatha Reddy, the wife of the director Pattabhi Rama Reddy.

Awards

• National Film Award for Best Feature Film - 1970
• Bronze Leopard at Locarno International Film Festival (1972)
• Karnataka State Film Awards 1970-71
• Second Best Film
• Best Supporting Actor – B R Jayaram
• Best Story Writer – U R Ananthamurthy
• Best Cinematographer – Tom Cowan

This film screened at IFFI 1992 Kannada cinema Retrospect.

Controversy

Samskara was initially banned by the film censor board because it was felt that the strong anti-caste message being conveyed could spark tensions among the public. However, it was released later and went on to win awards at national and international levels.

External links

• Samskara at IMDb