BHAKTIMALA 1941

Banner: Bhaskar Pics
Director:Haribhai Desai
Music:Kopparapu Subba Rao
Story:Haribhai Desai
Cinematography:M.A. Rehman
Cast:
V.R. Panthulu,
P Bhanumathi,
M. Lingamurthy,
Coconada Rajarathnam,
Shanta,
Venkatagiri,
Kuturnba Sastry,
Annapuma,
Kondala Rao,
G.V. Sitapathy

Story: Story paying tribute to the Varkari tradition of Marathi saint poets. Radha (Bhanumathi), a devadasi (South Indian form of ritualised prostitution, in which the woman is wedded to god), converts herself into a worshipper of the saints. She is persecuted by the pimp Timmaya Sastry (Kondala Rao) and the villainous Brahmin Ramanujachari (Sitapathy). The hero Mohan (Panthulu) joins her struggle for social reform. When Ramanujachari has her framed for Mohan's murder, she is saved through divine intervention. One of the best-known films of Haribhai Desai, a Gujarati graduate of the New York Institute of Cinematography as well as manager of Laxmi Pies and the Suvarna Studio in Poona, and the founder of the influential Bangalore-based Surya Film. This studio became a conduit for other Bombay-based directors (e.g. Sundarrao Nadkarni) to work in Tamil, Telugu and Kannada cinemas, bringing their influences of Marathi, Hindi and Gujarati cinema to the South.