Damul ( en, italic=yes, Bonded until Death) is a 1985 Hindi film directed by

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as “Hip Hip Hurray” (1984), '' Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand'' (1997), ''Gangaaj ...

, based on the story ''Kaalsootra'', by Shaiwal, a native of

Gaya district } Gaya district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. It was officially established on 3 October 1865. The district has a common boundary with the state of Jharkhand to the south. Gaya city is both the district hea ...

of Bihar., starring Annu Kapoor, Sreela Majumdar,

Manohar Singh Manohar Singh (12 April 1938 – 14 November 2002) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as ''Party'' (1984) and '' Daddy'' (1989). Starting his acting career ...

, Deepti Naval, Ranjan Kamath and Pyare Mohan Sahay in lead roles.

Plot

The story is about a bonded labourer who is forced to steal for his landlord, to whom he is bonded until death. Set in rural

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West ...

of 1984, the film focuses on the caste politics and the oppression of the lower castes in the region, through bonded labour. The film also highlights the issue of heavy migration of the poor villagers of Bihar to richer states like

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi Language, Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also Romanization, romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the I ...

in search of livelihood.''Damul''
''One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography'', by Shampa Banerjee, Anil Srivastava. Taylor & Francis, 1988. , . ''Page 66''

Awards

* 1984:

National Film Award for Best Feature Film The National Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of se ...

* 1985: Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie

International acclaim

Damul was invited for both the competition and participation sections at the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = List of sovereign states, Count ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

film festivals.

References

External links

*
Damul at Prakash Jha Productions

Prakash Jha's Homepage
1985 films Films directed by Prakash Jha 1980s Hindi-language films Films set in Bihar Best Feature Film National Film Award winners {{1980s-Hindi-film-stub