Sara Akash (1969)

A realist critique of arranged marriages and patriarchy set in North India. The film chronicles the relationship of Samar (Pandey), whose parents (Pathak and Hangal) coveted the dowry his marriage would bring, and his wife Prabha (Chakravarty). Samar shuns his wife because he is afraid her presence might hinder his educational ambitions. She thus has to accept being confined largely to the joint family’s kitchen or to return to her parental home for long visits. She commits the faux pas of washing the vessels with the clay symbolising a deity designed for use only during the religious ceremony of her sister-in- law’s (Thakur) newborn child. Together with Sen’s Bhuvan Shome and Kaul’s Uski Roti, made in the same year, this film set the pattern for what the media described as New Indian Cinema. All three films were shot by cinematographer K.K. Mahajan who had just graduated from the FTII and who received his first national award for Sara Akash.