Ghulami

Ghulami

The film focuses on the caste and feudal system in Rajasthan. Ranjit Singh Chaudhary is the son of a Jat landless peasant, living in a village which is dominated by a rich zamindar landlord Rajput Thakur family. As a teenager studying in the village school, Ranjit is rebellious and defiant against deep-rooted caste prejudices and discriminatory practices. He is bullied by the two sons of the landlord, who are of his own age. Two girls who also study in the same school are sympathetic to Ranjit. These are the daughter of the schoolmaster and the daughter of the rich landlord (sister of the bullies). Sick of the exploitation he sees around him, Ranjit runs away to the city. Several years later, Ranjit's father dies, and a telegram summons Ranjit back to the village to perform the last rites. Ranjit returns to find that nothing has changed in the village. He is also told that his father had taken loans from the landlord to pay for his medicines and healthcare, and that Ranjit is now required to repay those loans, or forfeit his lands and house, which were the collateral for the loan. Ranjit feels that this is a great injustice. His logic of reasoning is that the peasants have been tilling the land and working hard for many generations, that the landlord only owns the land and does no work, and therefore, if the landlord has lent money to a peasant, the loan does not need to be paid back. A long and emotional monologue delineates this logic for the benefit of the viewers.

Director

J. P. Dutta

Release

28 Jun 1985

Run time

171 min

Language

Hindi