Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Film Anand Math, released in 1952, was screened here on Saturday, the second day of the six-day film festival - Ekagra.
Directed by Hemen Gupta, the film is based on the famous Bengali novel, Anandamath, written by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in 1882. The novel and film are set in the events of Sanyasi Rebellion, which took place in the late 18th century in Bengal.
In a BBC World Service poll conducted in 2003 across 165 countries, Vande Mataram song written by Chatterjee, composed by Hemant Kumar, sung by Lata Mangeshkar was voted 2nd in the World's Top Ten songs of all-time.
It stars Prithviraj Kapoor, Bharat Bhushan, Geeta Bali, Pradeep Kumar and Ajit in lead roles. Pradeep Kumar made his debut in Hindi cinema, as did the film's music director Hemant Kumar. Hemant had already worked in Bengali cinema for a while, but then shifted to Mumbai to start a career in Hindi cinema.
With this film, Hemant Kumar took a staff position as a composer with S Mukherjee's Filmistan Studios. The film was dubbed in Tamil with the title Ananda Madam and was released in 1953.
Chhavi, a movie wing of the Bhawan, has organised the film festival. Film, Mahabharat, directed by Peter Brook, will be screened at 6 pm on Sunday.
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