''Anhe Ghore Da Daan'' (Eng: ''Alms in the Name of a Blind Horse)'' is a 2011 Indian

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabis, Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a ...

-language film directed by

Gurvinder Singh Gurvinder Singh is an Indian film director. He is best known for his Punjabi language films ''Anhe Ghore Da Daan'', and Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction) which premiered at Venice and Cannes Film Festival respectively. Gurvinder is an alumnu ...

, based on the 1976 novel of the same name by

Gurdial Singh Gurdial Singh Rahi (''Gurdi'āl Sigh''; 10 January 1933 – 16 August 2016) was an Indian writer and novelist who wrote in Punjabi. He started his literary career in 1957 with a short story, "Bhaganwale." He became known as a novelist when he p ...

. It portrays the plight and problems of

Dalit Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for untouchables and outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called Harijans. Dalits were excluded from the fourfold var ...

farmers in

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

and their conflict with the upper caste

landlords A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord applies ...

. The film won National Awards for

Best Direction The MTV Video Music Award for Best Direction is an award given to the artist, the artist's manager, and the director of the music video. From 1984 to 2006, the full name of the award was Best Direction in a Video, and in 2007, it was briefly renam ...

Cinematography Cinematography () is the art of motion picture (and more recently, electronic video camera) photography. Cinematographers use a lens (optics), lens to focus reflected light from objects into a real image that is transferred to some image sen ...

and Best Feature Film in Punjabi at the

59th National Film Awards The 59th National Film Awards, presented by the Directorate of Film Festivals, honoured the best of Indian cinema for 2011 and took place on 3 May 2012 at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi. Awards were presented in 38 categories in the Feature Films se ...

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. The film was shot in and around

Bathinda Bathinda is a city and municipal corporation in Punjab, India. The city is the administrative headquarters of Bathinda district. It is located in northwestern India in the Malwa Region, west of the capital city of Chandigarh and is the fifth ...

in February and March 2011. The first part of Singh's ''Punjab Trilogy'', it is followed by ''

The Fourth Direction ''The Fourth Direction'' (Punjabi: Chauthi Koot) is a 2015 Indian Punjabi-language drama film directed by Gurvinder Singh. It is based on the short stories ''The Fourth Direction'' and ''I Am Feeling Fine Now'' from Indian author Waryam Singh S ...

'' (2015) and ''Crescent Night'' (2022).

Plot

Both the novel and the movie derive their title from an ancient myth associated with the churning of the ocean, in which

Vishnu Vishnu (; , , ), also known as Narayana and Hari, is one of the Hindu deities, principal deities of Hinduism. He is the supreme being within Vaishnavism, one of the major traditions within contemporary Hinduism, and the god of preservation ( ...

had been less than fair in his dispensation to the

Asuras Asuras () are a class of beings in Indian religions, and later Persian and Turkic mythology. They are described as power-seeking beings related to the more benevolent Deva (Hinduism), Devas (also known as Suras) in Hinduism. In its Buddhism, ...

, supposedly the progenitors of latter-day

Dalits Dalit ( from meaning "broken/scattered") is a term used for Untouchability, untouchables and Outcast (person), outcasts, who represented the lowest stratum of the Caste system in India, castes in the Indian subcontinent. They are also called ...

. The film is set in a village on the outskirts

city, where the Dalit villagers work in the fields of the local

landlord A landlord is the owner of property such as a house, apartment, condominium, land, or real estate that is rented or leased to an individual or business, known as a tenant (also called a ''lessee'' or ''renter''). The term landlord appli ...

. It is a village where Dalit people are trying hard to make peace with their existence. Daily rituals betray their simmering anger and their helplessness. The landlord has sold his plots to an industry that has demolished the house of one of the villagers who refuses to vacate it. The elderly farmer's son is a rickshaw puller in the nearby town. The rickshaw pullers have gone on a strike that has turned violent. Both father and son are equally clueless about their futures.

Cast

* Samuel John as Melu, the rickshaw puller *Mal Singh as Father *Sarbjeet Kaur as Dayalo *Emmanuel Singh as Bhupi * Kulvinder Kaur as Ballo, Melu's wife *Lakha Singh as Lakha *Gurvinder Makhna as Dulla *Dharminder Kaur as Mother

Awards

''Anhe Ghore Da Daan'' is the first Punjabi-language film to have traveled to numerous international film festivals. The film premiered in the Orizzonti section (Horizons) at the

68th Venice International Film Festival The 68th annual Venice Film Festival, Venice International Film Festival was held from 31 August and 10 September 2011, at Venice Lido in Italy. American filmmaker Darren Aronofsky was the jury president for the main competition. Italian actre ...

. It won the Special Jury Award and the $50,000 Black Pearl trophy at the

Abu Dhabi Film Festival The Abu Dhabi Film Festival (ADFF; ), formerly the Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF), was an international film festival held in the city of Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates from 2007 to 2015. History The Middle East Internationa ...

. It was also shown at the 55th

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival held in London, England, in collaboration with the British Film Institute. Founded in 1957, the festival runs for two weeks every October. In 2016, the BFI estimated that around 240 fe ...

, 49th New York Film Festival and the

16th Busan International Film Festival The 16th Busan International Film Festival was held from October 6 to October 14, 2011 at the Busan Cinema Center and was hosted by actresses Uhm Ji-won and Ye Ji-won, making it the first year to be hosted by two women. The 16th BIFF also marks ...

. The film won the National Awards for

and

(for cinematographer Satya Raj Nagpaul) at the

of India. In the regional category (Punjabi language), it was given another award for Best Punjabi Feature Film at the 59th National Film Awards. This film has also won the Golden Peacock (Best Film) at the

42nd International Film Festival of India The 42nd International Film Festival of India was held on 23 to 30 November 2011 in Goa. The International competition (Feature) was chaired by Adoor Gopalakrishnan, and Short film competition was chaired by Basu Bhattacharya. For the first tim ...

References

External links

* {{Gurvinder Singh 2011 films Indian drama films 2011 drama films Films based on Indian novels Films whose director won the Best Director National Film Award Films whose cinematographer won the Best Cinematography National Film Award Indian avant-garde and experimental films Punjabi-language Indian films 2010s Punjabi-language films 2010s avant-garde and experimental films Best Punjabi Feature Film National Film Award winners 2011 directorial debut films National Film Development Corporation of India films Films about the caste system in India Films about landlords Films about Sikhism Films about the working class Films about social issues in India Films about poverty in India Indian film series