Shekhar
Adventure classic featuring Durga Khote's most memorable role as the pirate Queen Saudamini. Faced with extreme patriarchal laws in an ancient seaport kingdom and denied the legal custody of her infant son Sudhir, Saudamini becomes a pirate declaring war on the state, and especially on its tyrannical minister of justice, Durjaya (Chandramohan). She attacks a royal ship and captures Durjaya, inadvertently also taking Princess Nandini (Apte). In captivity, Durjaya declares his love for Nandini but she falls fir a shepherd boy (Nandrekar) who turns out to be Saudamini's long-lost son Sudhir. Durjaya's men then capture Saudamini and a palace intrigue ensues marked by her emancipatory rhetoric and the universal humanist arguments of her adviser Shekhar (Kale).
This saint film is about Sant Eknath (1533-99), a major Marathi poet, author of the Eknathi Bhagvata and numerous abhangas evoking folk poetry, especially the bharuda form of solo performances. The film focuses on Eknath's humanitarian defence of the 'untouchable' castes. Opposed by the evil Mahant (Kelkar/Chandramohan), Eknath becomes a social outcast when he arranges to have the lower-caste people fed before the Brahmins during a prayer meeting at his house, compounding the offence by going to eat in one of their houses. The drama is heightened by Eknath's son Hari Pandit (Kale) who joins the ranks of the opposition. The happy ending occurs when the film transcends the food motif and Eknath defends himself by reading his poems to the Pradayananda Shastri of Kashi.
