Ghatashraddha

Plot

Udupa (Ramaswamy Iyengar) runs a run down Vedic school, operating from his house in a village. Apart from his uncontrollable and unruly students, he lives with his young daughter, Yamuna (Meena Kuttappa), already a widow. Naani (Ajit Kumar), the innocent boy from a distant village, is a new student. A bond develops between a homesick Naani and Yamuna. Yamuna has a lover, a school teacher, whom she meets clandestinely. She is also pregnant by him. As Udupa goes out of town to raise funds for his crumbling school, things go out of hand at the school. The students go out of control and soon the entire village knows about Yamuna's pregnancy. The traditional village members excommunicate Yamuna. Her lover gets the baby aborted without anyone's knowledge. Udupa returns and on finding out what has happened, performs the last rites of his living daughter. Amidst all these, Naani is the only person in the village determined to support her but not for long for his father comes back to take him away. Yamuna is shaved bald and is abandoned under a banyan tree.

Cast

• Meena Kuttappa as Yamuna
• Narayana Bhat as Shastri
• Ajith Kumar as Naani
• Ramakrishna
• Shantha
• Ramaswamy Iyengar
• Jagannath
• B. Suresha
• H. S. Parvathi

Production

Girish Kasaravalli approached U. R. Ananthamurthy for the rights of Ghatashraddha through dramatist K. V. Subbanna. Ananthamurthy, who was in the US at the time, gave his go-ahead on hearing the screenplay from Kasaravalli, on his return to India. It was on the former's suggestion that Meena Kuttappa, his former student, was signed to play the female lead in the film.

Restoration

During February 2024, US film publication Variety announced that the Martin Scorsese's World Cinema Project, George Lucas' Hobson/Lucas Family Foundation and Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's Film Heritage Foundation (FHF) have partnered to restore the film in time for its 50th anniversary from the original camera negative preserved at India's National Film Development Corporation of India-National Film Archive of India.

The restored version of the film was showcased in the Venice Classics section of the 81st Venice International Film Festival, where it was given the English-language title The Ritual. It was also screened at the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival 2024 under the Restored Classics section.

Awards

;25th National Film Awards

• Best Feature Film
• Best Music Direction — B. V. Karanth
• Best Child Artist — Ajith Kumar

;1977–78 Karnataka State Film Awards

• First Best Film
• Best Story — U. R. Ananthamurthy
• Best Screenplay — Girish Kasaravalli
• Best Child Actor — Ajith Kumar

References

References

1. "southasiancinema".
2. "Asiatic Film Mediale".
3. (25 April 2011). "Girish Kasaravalli to be felicitated". [[The Hindu]].
4. (4 December 2009). "Ghatashraddha, one of the 20 best movies". The Times of India.
5. (5 December 2019). "A journey in reels". The Hindu.
6. Maslin, Janet. (1979-04-24). "Ghatashraddha (1977) The Screen: A Vignette From India". [[The New York Times]].
7. (23 August 2014). "Ghatashraddha was ideal for a movie: Girish Kasaravalli". The Times of India.
8. Ramachandran, Naman. (February 24, 2024). "Martin Scorsese, George Lucas Team With Film Heritage Foundation to Restore Indian Classic 'Ghatashraddha'". Variety.
9. [https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/hindi/bollywood/news/restoration-of-kannada-film-by-martin-scorsese-and-george-lucas-foundations/articleshow/107979991.cms]
10. (2024-08-27). "Kasaravalli's restored 'Ghatashraddha' to be showcased in Classics section of Venice International Film Festival". The Hindu.
11. Deb, Deepshikha. (2024-09-30). "MAMI Mumbai Film Festival Unveils 2024 Official Lineup".