''Giddh'' (The Vultures) is a 1984 Hindi film directed by T.S. Ranga starring

Smita Patil Smita Patil (17 October 1955 – 13 December 1986) was an Indian actress who worked in films, television series and theatres. She appeared in over 80 Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Malayalam and Kannada films in a career that spanned just o ...

Om Puri Om Prakash Puri (18 October 1950 – 6 January 2017) was an Indian actor who appeared in mainstream commercial Hindi films as well as Bengali, Kannada,English, Punjabi and one Telugu film, as well as independent and art films and also starred ...

and Nana Patekar among others. The film won Special Jury Award (32nd National Film Awards) for in-depth depiction of the helplessness of people struggling against the ''

Devadasi In India, a devadasi was a female artist who was dedicated to the worship and service of a deity or a temple for the rest of her life. The dedication took place in a ceremony that was somewhat similar to a marriage ceremony. In addition to taki ...

'' tradition.

Plot

In a remote village at

Karnataka Karnataka (; ISO: , , also known as Karunāḍu) is a state in the southwestern region of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, with the passage of the States Reorganisation Act. Originally known as Mysore State , it was renamed ''Karnat ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra (; , abbr. MH or Maha) is a states and union territories of India, state in the western India, western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. Maharashtra is the List of states and union te ...

border in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

, the poor residents follow ''

'' tradition according to which young girls are given up in the service of Goddess Yellamma. The landlords, priests and other men take advantage of these young girls and pimps like Veerapppan take them to brothels in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

. Bhashya, a laborer and his wife Hanumi lead an attempt at awakening against the practice by deciding to save Laksmi from becoming a ''Devadasi'' with the help of Masterji, going against the powerful feudal lord Desai.

Cast

as Basya *

as Hanumi * Nana Patekar as Veerappan *Savita Bajaj as Sundri *Vikas Desai as Patil *Vijay Kashyap as Katra * Achyut Potdar as Desai *

M.K. Raina Maharaj Krishen Raina (born 10 February 1948), popularly known as M. K. Raina, is an Indian theatre actor and director. Raina graduated from National School of Drama in 1970 with the Best Actor award. Early life Maharaj Krishna Raina was born o ...

as Masterji

References

External links

* * 1980s Hindi-language films 1984 films Films about prostitution in India Films scored by B. V. Karanth {{1980s-Hindi-film-stub