Saamna (1975)

Tendulkar’s first independent Marathi script and Jabbar Patel’s debut is set in Maharashtra’s notorious sugar co-operatives, the power base of the state’s Congress Party. In his best-known screen role the noted Marathi stage and film actor Phule plays Hindurao Dhonde Patil with the familiar body language of the arrogantly corrupt politician secure in his power. He covers up an incident involving the military officer Maruti Kamble (Agashe) until a mystic hobo, a former schoolteacher, amateur magician and drunkard (Lagoo) challenges the politician’s might. The film’s high points are the actorial duel between the two biggest names of the Marathi theatre, Lagoo and Phule, and characters which a literary critic would describe as rounded. The film continues directly from Tendulkar’s 70s theatre (cf. Sakharam Binder, 1971) but glorifies cinema’s ability to show actual locations. Lagoo sang the hit song Kuni tari ashi phataphat.