Nishant

<p>Vishwam is the youngest brother of the powerful and influential village . The jagirdar will not hesitate to do anything for the welfare and protection of his family, which also includes bending the law to his own advantage. The shy and quiet Vishwam is married to Rukmani while his brothers Anjaiya and Prasad make it a practice to demand the services of any village woman they fancy. The village gets a new schoolmaster, who arrives in the village with a wife, Sushila, and a son. When Vishwam sees Sushila for the first time, he is unable to take his eyes off her and unable to get her out of his mind. Sushila does not reciprocate his feelings. One night, while the schoolmaster is enjoying a quiet dinner with his family, someone knocks on the door and, when Shushila goes to answer the door, Anjaiya and Prasad take her away forcibly. Several people are present, but no one dares to raise a hand or voice to stop this abduction. At the jagirdar’s house, Sushila is raped regularly and repeatedly at the will of the jagirdar and his brothers. The distraught schoolteacher, who is denied justice by everyone from the local police officer to the district collector, is helped by the old pujari of the village temple. They succeed in mobilizing the villagers who slaughter their oppressors. In the end, the frenzied villagers also kill the innocent Rukmani as well as Sushila whom her husband was trying to rescue. and made their debut with this film. The film was shot in village in , known as ‘weavers village’ and popular for its hand woven sarees. The movie has only one song at the end “Piya Baj Pyala” sung by with music composed by Vanraj Bhatia. K.M. Amladi of wrote, “It is however disappointing that Benegal’s approach to the exploitation of the villagers is not subtle at all. The glaring facts which are exposed merely succeed in detracting from the credibility of the story. Benegal has, no doubt, used actual locations for his film and brought a measure of realism in the portrayal of the characters, but there seems to be an invisible gap between what he wants to depict and what the viewers want to comprehend or get involved in.” In a retrospective review, Ziya Us Salam of wrote, “Miles removed from the work of everyday filmmakers, for many of whom cinema is nothing more than a hero waiting in eager anticipation of the heroine and post-dinner desserts, Benegal’s “Nishant” (Night’s End) is a dawn that did not come an hour too soon. The National Award for the best film, the nomination for the Oscars were just rewards for a film that lived up to its name.”</p>