SANGRUR: A low budget
Punjabi film has won international acclaim. The movie,
Anhey ghore da daan (
Alms of the blind horse), has bagged the special jury award and the $50,000 black pearl trophy at the
5th Abu Dhabi film festivallast week.It is the first Punjabi film to have travelled to so many international film festivals.It has been shown at the
68th Venice film festival,
55th British film institute,
London film festivaland
Busan international film festival. Now, it is slotted for Hong Kong Asian, South Asian and the Tromso film festivals.Based on a novel by Jnanpith award winner Gurdial Singh, it portrays the suffering of the poor. The citation commends it ''for its visual style ... indicating a new and intriguing voice to emerge from the cinematic landscape of India.''In the film, ''Anhey ghore da daan'', the landlord sells his land to an industry, which demolishes the house of one of the farmers, who refuses to vacate it. The protagonist's son is a rickshaw puller in the nearby town, where the rickshawpullers' strike has taken a violent turn. Circumstances bring the father and son to a point where they are clueless about what will happen to their lives.Samuel John, 40, from Sangrur has played the lead role of the rickshawpuller, Melu, in the film directed by Gurvinder Singh, a product of the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune.
''The film's selection for Venice, London and Busan, Abu Dhabi and
Hongkong international film festivals makes it clear that Punjabi cinema has come of age,'' declares an elated Samuel.
''The film focuses on the socially repressed and the exploited. It covers a day in the life of a family whose dreams of making better living are dashed,'' said Gurvinder.
This is Samuel's first experience with serious cinema. He has been promoting rural theatre singlehandedly for two decades.
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