Shabana Azmi, Shyam Benegal's landmark film 'Ankur'

~A ‘New Wave Cinema’ offering, Ankur will be screened on Friday, 22^nd May at 6.15 PM! ~

 

Zee Classic, India’s only classic movie channel, adhering to its core proposition ‘Woh Zamaana Kare Deewana’ is all set to telecast the internationally acclaimed film ‘Ankur’ starring actor par excellence, Shabana Azmi.  The channel is celebrating‘New Wave Cinema’ film festival commemorating the life and works of Shabana Azmi with four off-beat movies that were instrumental in putting India on International art and film diaspora.

Ankur, a raw yet surreal presentation of rural India, was a directorial debut of the widely applauded director Shyam Benegal.  Ankur literally means ‘Seeding’ and was a rhetoric portrait of 1970’s India, where Benegal criticized the caste system and exposes the hypocrisies of the ruling class prevailed in the era.  Shabana Azmi with her realistic portrayal of young servant Lakshmi-wife of a low caste, drunken, deaf-mute farm hand ends up having an illicit affair with her young and upper class employer Surya (Anant Nag). In fact, it’s Shabana’s tender act that gives the central relationship its suppressed sensuality in a restrained manner.

This internationally acclaimed masterpiece was probably the most effective condemnation of the caste system and went on to become both a commercial and critical success. Lalit M. Bijlani, the producer of the film, made it with just  Rupees five lakhs and recovered around Rupees one crore with its theatrical release.

This Saturday, tune-in to Ankur to watch Shabani Azmi’s many splendid avatars starting Friday, 22^nd May at 6.15 PM only on Zee Classic!