Kondura

About the film

Kondura / Anugraham is a 1978 Indian bilingual film directed by Shyam Benegal simultaneously in Hindi and Telugu. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Marathi writer, Chintamani T. Khanolkar, the screen adaptation was made by Shyam Benegal and Girish Karnad. The majority of the cast was common to both films and included Ananth Nag, Vanisri, Amrish Puri, Shekhar Chatterjee (Hindi version only), Rao Gopal Rao (Telugu version only) and Satyadev Dubey. The film was one of the Indian entries at the 4th Hong Kong International Film Festival.

Overview

The film involves the life of a young man who comes to believe that he has been bestowed supernatural powers. As the story unfolds, this boon eventually leads to a tragedy.

Kondura is a story whose protagonist is a young Brahmin named Parshuram. He is married to Ansooya, but is dependent partially on his brother for a living. This makes the elder brother chide him often and that drives him away from home. However, as he is leaving "Kondura", the mythical sage from the sea appears and anoints him the guardian of village, to cure it of all sins. The sage also grants him a physical boon, which is a dried herb. The boon works if he remains celibate. Parshuram returns home to celibacy. Often, the goddess of the village, grants him appearance in person, speaking to him through his wife (a phenomenon still seen in Indian villages, where a person is believed to have sudden visitation by God or Goddess, who speaks to people through the person).

The goddess instructs him to get the village rid of evils, which he interprets as rebuilding the parts of the temple. For this, he enlists financial support from the village landlord who is otherwise a tyrant and womaniser. It is known that Bhairavmoorthy takes in any woman in the village who catches his eye, including his younger brother's wife, both of whom die leaving behind a physically challenged son Venu to an otherwise heirless fiefdom. It is rumoured that Vasu is his son, but Bhairavmoorthy mistreats him all the time. He marries him off to young and beautiful Parvati, who comes from a very poor family. Bhairavmoorthy is said to be eyeing Parvati too, but Parvati is stronger than rest of the women in the family and challenges his might at occasions.

Key details