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Shobhna Samarth as Sita in Ram Rajya
when Ram’s abandonment of Sita is extolled
as the noble act of a just king, there was no
question of her expressing any displeasure
at the way she was treated. She disappeared
silently.
Subsequently, there have been reworkings
of Valmiki’s Ramayan from Sita’s point of
view, but Vijay Bhatt’s film was faithful
to the epic (written for the screen by
Vishnupant Aundhkar) that was meant The poster for the film
to be a saga of Ram’s valour and divinity. Shobhana Samarth’s daughters Nutan and
Seen today, one can only admire the craft Tanuja, and granddaughter Kajol, went on
that went into the making of the film. Kanu to become major movie stars. Prem Adib had
Desai’s magnificent (if kitschy) palace sets a successful career, cut short by his death of
with their intricate carvings and statues, a brain haemorrhage when he was just 42.
Zaver Solanki’s costume design and Shanker Their films as Ram and Sita made them so
Rao Vyas’s music popular that their faces were used to portray
the idols for years in magazines, calendars
and reportedly in a temple!
Vijay Bhatt was one of the pioneering
filmmakers of the country, whose son Pravin
and grandson Vikram followed his lead into
the world of cinema. After starting his career
as a writer in the silent era, he turned to
production and direction, founding Prakash
Pictures with his brother Shankarbhai
Bhatt. His best remembered movie musical
may be Baiju Bawra (1952), but his early
blockbuster mythologicals remain master
Sita with Luv and Kush in the film classes in large-scale costume dramas.
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #17 | NOVEMBER 2020 55
