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imported>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Malayalam film scores by Salil Chowdhury to :Category:Films scored by Salil Chowdhury per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 March 13#Film scores by language

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Merging Category:Malayalam film scores by Salil Chowdhury to Category:Films scored by Salil Chowdhury per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 March 13#Film scores by language

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{{Short description|1991 film by G. Aravindan}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=November 2015}}
{{Use Indian English|date=November 2015}}
{{Infobox film
| name = Vasthuhara
| image = Vasthuhara.jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| director = [[G. Aravindan]]
| producer = T. Ravindranath
| screenplay = G. Aravindan '''Dialogues:''' [[C. V. Sreeraman]] G. Aravindan N. Mohanan
| story = [[C. V. Sreeraman]]
| based_on = {{Based on|''Vasthuhara''|[[C. V. Sreeraman]]}}
| starring = [[Mohanlal]] [[Shobana]] Neelanjana Mitra [[Neena Gupta]]
| narrator =
| music = [[Salil Choudhury]]
| cinematography = [[Sunny Joseph]]
| editing = K. R. Bose
| studio = Paragon Movie Makers
| distributor = Chnadrakanth Release
| released = 3 June 1991
| runtime =
| country = India
| language = Malayalam
| budget =
| gross =
}}

'''''Vaasthuhara''''' ({{Translation|The dispossessed}}) is a 1991 Indian [[Malayalam]]-language [[Social problem film|social drama film]] written and directed by [[G. Aravindan]]. It is based on the [[short story]] of the same name by [[C. V. Sreeraman]]. The film looks into the lives of partition refugees from [[East Bengal]] to [[West Bengal]]. At a larger level, it's the universal story of refugees. The film stars [[Mohanlal]], [[Shobana]], Neelanjana Mitra, and [[Neena Gupta]]. The dialogues were written by Sreeraman, Aravindan, and N. Mohanan.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Gopalakrishnan |first1=Aswathy |title=Legacy Of The Partition: Vasthuhara, A Tale Of The Dispossessed |url=https://silverscreen.in/features/legacy-of-the-partition-vasthuhara-a-tale-of-the-dispossessed/ |publisher=Silverscreen.in |access-date=30 July 2019 |date=16 August 2017}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last1=Venkiteswaran |first1=C. S. |title=The mastery of Aravindan |url=https://www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/remembering-master-filmmaker-g-aravindan/article8218692.ece |access-date=30 July 2019 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=11 February 2016}}</ref>

The story is told through the eyes of Venu, a [[Malayali]] government officer send for a mission in [[Calcutta]] to rehabilitate refugees to the [[Andaman and Nicobar Islands]].<ref>{{cite web |title=#FaceOfTheWeek @Mohanlal & #NeenaGupta from #GAravindan's #Vasthuhara.|url=https://twitter.com/nfaiofficial/status/1000285034673131525?lang=en |website=[[Twitter]] |publisher=[[National Film Archive of India]]|access-date=30 July 2019 |date=26 May 2018}}</ref> ''Vaasthuhara'' was released on 3 June 1991 to widespread critical acclaim. The film won the [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam]] and three [[Kerala State Film Awards]]—[[Kerala State Film Award for Best Film|Best Film]], [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Director|Best Director]] and [[Kerala State Film Award for Best Story|Best Story]] (Sreeraman). ''Vasthuhara'' was the last work of Aravindan before his death.<ref>{{cite web |title=Vasthuhara – a Lament & a Celebration |url=http://stancemagazine.in/Article/183/VasthuharaandndashaLamentandampaCelebrationandnbsp |website=stancemagazine.in |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref>

== Plot ==
The film takes place in Calcutta, 1971. The story begins with rehabilitation official Venu ([[Mohanlal]]) coming to Calcutta in one of his regular visits to shift about 35 to 40 refugee families to the [[Andaman Islands]]. The current rehabilitation plan is that only those who fall under the category of schedule caste farmers. People in Andaman, too, are not happy about taking in refugees. All the refugees have been staying in Permanent Liability Camp in Rana ghat, West Bengal for the past two decades. Experiencing the shattered lives of poor displaced people deeply hurts Venu in his silent moments alone in his small lodge room frequently finds himself lost in the thoughts about the lives of the refuge seekers he meets during the day. Living an oppressed life, their only hope being the occasional promises of land, cattle, and other grants by the bureaucratic state.

Aravindan takes us closer into the life of a refugee when Venu realizes that the sorrow of one refugee family is his own. One day, an old lady, Arthi Panicker (Neelanjana Mitra) comes to meet Venu in his lodge. She speaks broken Malayalam which surprises Venu. She's a refugee from East Bengal. She desperately wants to move out of the wretched Calcutta for a better future of her children, a daughter (who's completed MA but never appeared of the examination) and a son about whom she's very sad. Her daughter Damayanti ([[Neena Gupta]]) quit studies and is a communist revolutionary on parole. Venu realizes that they are no one but his own uncle's family, his uncle Kunjunni Panicker whom he admired so much, a poet and revolutionary who left home long back (probably to join Bose's INA) when Venu was a child.

Venu visits home in Kerala, a typical matrilineal nair household, to discuss about his chance meeting with Kunjunni uncle's family and also to secure their rightful share for them. Venu's mother has no sympathies for Arthi Panicker and her kids. Kunjunni uncle's land is in possession of Venu's aunt Bhavani (Padmini) who, as a beautiful teenager had loved Kunjunni.Venu remembers his childhood days where he used to run secret errands for a young Bhavani played by Shobana. Aunt Bhavani is more sympathetic towards Arthi. Having never met the wife and children of the man she once loved, she's curious about them. She agrees to give them the land or money, whatever is convenient to them. (One gets the impression that at the late time of her life Bhavani is leading a lonely, guilt-ridden life, having destroyed the lives of both the brothers — she married Anandan who commits suicide, probably due to unhappy marriage.)

Venu returns to Calcutta and reveals his identity to Aunt Arthi. She is pleasantly surprised; she and Damayanti finally feel a sense of security and belonging in their lives. But Arthi rejects the financial help from her husband's family who hadn't allowed her to enter the compound of the house when she visited them years back. Arthi narrates the humiliation of having to return on a hot summer afternoon from the locked gates of her husband's ancestral house, she and Kunjunni breaking down on their way back. Immediately after their return to East Bengal, the country gains independence and in the consequent partition they sought refuge in Indian side. Kunjunni dies of cholera in the refugee camp and a pregnant Arthi is left on her own in abject poverty, with two-year-old Damayanti by her side.

Venu meets Damayanti's brother who is also a communist revolutionary hiding from the police. Venu's arrival into their life brings long lost hope and happiness. But its short-lived as its time for Venu to return to the Andaman Islands with the selected refugees. As the rest of Calcutta celebrates Durga puja, a few bunch of refugee families are packed in the back of a goods truck and offloaded at the harbor. Arthi and Damayanti arrive at the harbor to see him off. Damayanti is not able to control her emotions and breaks down inconsolably as Venu hugs her, himself overcome by sadness. Arthi Panicker looks on emotionless, here face hardened by years of victimization.

The film ends tragically as Venu has to rush hastily into the ship about to depart, abruptly ending his goodbye to his uncle's family. As Venu rushes through the crowded stairways of the ship, a crying Damayanti shouts from behind, "Write to me Dada... Damayanti Panicker, Apilore Central Jail, Calcutta".

The ship moves towards Andaman, beginning a new journey, a new era for a few Vasthuharas, towards the green shores of a new promised land somewhere in the eastern islands, a land new hope. But even as a handful of them find hope, another wave of exodus begins, which ends in the Indo-Pak Bangladesh liberation war in December 1971.

Displaced from their homes, unwanted outsiders in their land of refuge, doing sundry small-time jobs, working in abject conditions as bonded laborers, some wait to return to their land, some simply give up, and some others like Damayanti and her brother, become rebels.

==Cast==
*[[Mohanlal]] as Venu
*Neelanjana Mitra as Arathi Panikkar
*[[Neena Gupta]] as Damayanthi
*[[Padmini (actress)|Padmini]] as Bhavani
*[[Shobana]] as Young Bhavani
*[[N. L. Balakrishnan]] as Man at the Lodge
*Lakshmi Krishnamurthy as Devaki
*Shyama as Shantha
*[[C.V. Sreeraman]]
*[[Valsala Menon]]

==Production==
The film is based on the short story of the same name, written by [[C. V. Sreeraman]]. The film was shot in [[Calcutta]] in 1990.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kumar |first1=P. K. Ajith |title=An actor's thoughts on the real world |url=https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/kerala/an-actors-thoughts-on-the-real-world/article7221805.ece |access-date=30 July 2019 |work=[[The Hindu]] |date=19 May 2015}}</ref> ''Vasthuhara'' was the first Malayalam film shot with [[sync sound]].<ref>{{cite web|last=Warrier|first=Shobha|title=Mohanlal on directors close to his heart|url=https://www.rediff.com/movies/2003/sep/03dir.htm|work=[[Rediff.com]]|access-date=13 June 2020|date=3 September 2003}}</ref>

==Release==
''Vasthuhara'' was released on 3 June 1991. It received widespread critical acclaim. Despite being an [[art film]], ''Vasthuhara'' was a commercial success at the box office.<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.khaleejtimes.com/uae-india-ties/malayalam-cinema-pushes-its-boundaries |title=Malayalam cinema pushes its boundaries |last=Gauri |first=Deepa |date=25 January 2017 |work=[[Khaleej Times]] |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> The film is regarded as a classic in Malayalam cinema.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://upperstall.com/film/vasthuhara/ |title=Vasthuhara |last=Venkiteswaran |first=C. S. |date=15 March 2016 |website=Upperstall.com |access-date=30 July 2019}}</ref> [[Khalid Mohamed]] wrote in ''[[The Times of India]]'', "''Vasthuhara'' (The Dispossessed) is a moving, thought-out masterwork, clear and crystalline."<ref>{{Cite tweet |number=1187655718003859456 |user=NFAIOfficial |title=Revisit this #NewsArticle, published in Times of India, March 1991, featuring review of G. Aravindan’s last film #Vasthuhara (1990), starring #Mohanlal. @Mohanlal @Jhajhajha @timesofindia |author=National Film Archive of India |author-link=National Film Archive of India |date=25 October 2019}}</ref> Film critic [[Kozhikodan]] included the film on his list of the 10 best Malayalam movies of all time.<ref>{{cite book |author=Kozhikodan |author-link=Kozhikodan |year=2001 |title=മലയാള സിനിമയിലെ എക്കാലത്തെയും മികച്ച പത്ത് ചിത്രങ്ങൾ [Malayala Cinemayile Ekkalatheyum Mikacha Pathu Chithrangal: 10 Best Films of All Time in Malayalam Cinema] |location=[[Calicut]], India |publisher=Poorna Publications }}</ref>

==Major awards==
;[[National Film Awards]]
* [[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam|Best Feature Film in Malayalam]] – G. Aravindan, T. Ravindranath

;[[Kerala State Film Awards]]
*[[Kerala State Film Award for Best Film|Best Film]] – G. Aravindan, T. Ravindranath
*[[Kerala State Film Award for Best Director|Best Director]] – G. Aravindan
*[[Kerala State Film Award for Best Story|Best Story]] – C. V. Sreeraman

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* {{IMDb title|0155334|Vasthuhara}}
* [https://www.bfi.org.uk/films-tv-people/4ce2b7bc9db87 ''Vasthuhara'' on British Film Institute]

{{G. Aravindan}}
{{KeralaStateFilmAwardBestFilm}}
{{National Film Award Best Feature Film Malayalam}}

[[Category:1990s Malayalam-language films]]
[[Category:Indian films]]
[[Category:1991 drama films]]
[[Category:1991 films]]
[[Category:Indian drama films]]
[[Category:Films directed by G. Aravindan]]
[[Category:Films based on short fiction]]
[[Category:Films set in 1971]]
[[Category:Films set in Kolkata]]
[[Category:Films scored by Salil Chowdhury]]
[[Category:Best Malayalam Feature Film National Film Award winners]]

Vasthuhara - Revision history

AhmedSturgis: added info

imported>JJMC89 bot III: Merging :Category:Malayalam film scores by Salil Chowdhury to :Category:Films scored by Salil Chowdhury per Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Log/2021 March 13#Film scores by language