''Santha Shishunala Sharifa'' ( kn, ಸಂತ ಶಿಶುನಾಳ ಶರೀಫ) is a 1990 Indian

Kannada Kannada (; ಕನ್ನಡ, ), originally romanised Canarese, is a Dravidian language spoken predominantly by the people of Karnataka in southwestern India, with minorities in all neighbouring states. It has around 47 million native s ...

biographical drama A biographical film or biopic () is a film that dramatizes the life of a Nonfiction, non-fictional or History, historically-based person or people. Such films show the life of a historical person and the central character's real name is used. The ...

film directed and co-written by

T. S. Nagabharana Talakadu Srinivasaiah Nagabharana (born 23 January 1953), commonly known as T. S. Nagabharana, is an Indian film director, in the Kannada film industry and a pioneer of parallel cinema. He is one of the few film directors to have straddled t ...

and produced by Srihari Khoday and Mahima Patel for Yajaman Enterprises. The story is based on the life of acclaimed saint poet

Shishunala Sharif Muhammad Sharif was an Indian social reformer, philosopher and poet. Birth and early life Santa Shishunala Sharifa was born on 7 March 1819 in Shishuvinahala, a village in Shigganvi (now Shiggaon) taluk (in Haveri district), Karnataka. He ...

who wrote several moral poems striving towards social reformation. A collection of Sharif's poems are set to tunes by C. Ashwath, who also did the major playback singing. The soundtrack consisting of 16 poems was extremely popular upon release. The dialogues for this movie was written by Gopala Wajapayi, a well known theatre figure and translator of

Bertolt Brecht Eugen Berthold Friedrich Brecht (10 February 1898 – 14 August 1956), known professionally as Bertolt Brecht, was a German theatre practitioner, playwright, and poet. Coming of age during the Weimar Republic, he had his first successes as a pl ...

's play ''

The Caucasian Chalk Circle ''The Caucasian Chalk Circle'' (german: Der kaukasische Kreidekreis) is a play by the German modernist playwright Bertolt Brecht. An example of Brecht's epic theatre, the play is a parable about a peasant girl who rescues a baby and becomes a b ...

''. The film's cast comprised Sridhar in the titular role along with

Girish Karnad Girish Karnad (19 May 1938 – 10 June 2019) was an Indian actor, film director, Kannada writer, playwright and a Jnanpith awardee, who predominantly worked in South Indian cinema and Bollywood. His rise as a playwright in the 1960s marked the ...

Suman Ranganathan Suman Ranganath is an Indian model and actress. She has starred in Kannada, Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi films. Personal life Suman Ranganath was born in Tumakuru, Karnataka. She was married to Bunty Walia, an Indian film pro ...

and

H. G. Dattatreya Wing Commander Harihar Gundurao Dattatreya AE(L) (Retd.) (born 1942), popularly known as Dattanna, is an Indian actor who has appeared in more than 204 films and several plays. Alongside his career as an actor, he served in the Indian Air Force ...

Hema Chaudhary Durga Prabha, known by her stage name, Hema Chaudhary (born 1955) is an Indian actress who has predominantly acted in Kannada, Telugu, Malayalam and Tamil films. Starting her career as a lead actress in the Telugu film ''Pelli Kani Pelli'' in 1 ...

among others.Cast and Crew
/ref> The film was widely appreciated by critics and audience upon release. It went on to win

Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration The Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration is one of the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organization set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of ...

. The film also received multiple

Karnataka State Film Awards Karnataka State Film Awards are the most notable and prestigious film awards given for Kannada film industry in Karnataka, India. These are considered the highest awards for Kannada language films. They are given annually by the Government ...

including

Best Film This is a list of categories of awards commonly awarded through organizations that bestow film awards, including those presented by various film, festivals, and people's awards. Best Actor/Best Actress *See Best Actor#Film awards, Best Actress#F ...

, Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor categories.

Plot

( Shridhar) was born of Muslim parents in Shishuvinahala, a village in

Dharwad Dharwad (), also known as Dharwar, is a city located in the north western part of the Indian state of Karnataka. It is the headquarters of the Dharwad district of Karnataka and forms a contiguous urban area with the city of Hubballi. It was merge ...

district of

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 ...

in 1829. Shocking both the Hindus and Muslims, he studied under the Hindu Guru Govinda Bhatta (

) and at the same time discovered that Vachana literature and the teaching of mystic saint

Allama Prabhu Allamaprabhu ( kn, ಅಲ್ಲಮಪ್ರಭು) was a 12th-century mystic-saint and ''Vachana'' poet (called ''Vachanakara'') of the Kannada language, propagating the unitary consciousness of Self and Shiva. Allamaprabhu is one of the cele ...

. Under these influences, he composed devotional lyrics which are still sung today. His own philosophy based on Hindu-Muslim unity, discarding the inequalities of caste, creed and religion. Poverty and death of his wife (

) made him a wanderer and he toured the country singing his songs. He died in 1889 on his birthday. Today Hindus and Muslims throng to the grave of this saint, who belonged to both religions equally.

Cast

* Sridhar as Sharifa *

as Govinda Bhatta *

as Fatima, Sharifa's wife *

as Imam Sab, Sharifa's Father *

as Hajju Maa, Sharifa's Mother * Master Jayanth as Child Sharif * Brahmavar * Venkata Rao as Mullah Sab * Vishwanath Rao * Shankar Rao * Prem Kumar

Soundtrack

The music of the film was composed by C. Ashwath. All the 16 songs composed for this film have been from the literary work collection of poet

. The songs are rendered by popular

Sugama Sangeetha Sugama Sangeetha, a variety of Bhavageethe, is an Indian musical genre in which poetry in the Kannada language is set to music. It gained recognition with the work of P. Kalinga Rao in the mid -20th century. Mysore Ananthaswamy and C. Aswath ...

singers with most of them sung by C. Ashwath himself.

Awards

The film has won the following awards since its release. Indian National Film Awards 1989 * Won – National Film Award for Best Film on National Integration 1989-90

(India) * Won –

Karnataka State Film Award for Second Best Film The Karnataka State Film Award for Second Best Film is one of the Karnataka State Film Awards presented annually since the awards were instituted for films of 1966–67. The award is given to Kannada films produced in the year. Winners See al ...

* Won –

Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor Karnataka State Film Award for Best Actor is a state film award of the Indian state of Karnataka given during the annual Karnataka State Film Awards. The award honours Kannada Language films. Superlatives Recipients The first recipient was ...

– Sridhar * Won –

Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actor Karnataka State Film Award for Best Supporting Actor is a state film award of the Indian state of Karnataka given during the annual Karnataka State Film Awards. The award honours Kannada language films. Superlative Winners Award winners The ...

–

References

External links

*
Karnataka greats & C Aswath cast a spell
{{DEFAULTSORT:Santha Shishunala Sharifa 1990 films Films set in the 19th century Films scored by C. Ashwath 1990s Kannada-language films Indian biographical drama films Indian historical drama films Best Film on National Integration National Film Award winners 1990s biographical drama films 1990s historical drama films 1990 drama films Films directed by T. S. Nagabharana