Damul ( en, italic=yes, Bonded until Death) is a 1985 Hindi film directed by

Prakash Jha Prakash Jha (born 27 February 1952) is an Indian film producer, actor, director and screenwriter, mostly known for his political and socio-political films such as “Hip Hip Hurray” (1984), ''Damul'' (1984), ''Mrityudand'' (1997), ''Gangaaja ...

, based on the story ''Kaalsootra'', by Shaiwal, a native of

Gaya district } Gaya district is one of the thirty-eight districts of the Indian state of Bihar. It was officially established on 3 October 1865. The district has a common boundary with the state of Jharkhand to the south. Gaya city is both the district head ...

of Bihar., starring

Annu Kapoor Annu Kapoor (born Anil Kapoor; 20 February 1956) is an Indian actor, singer, director, radio disc jockey, and television presenter who has appeared in over a hundred films, as well as television series. His career has spanned over 40 years as a ...

Sreela Majumdar Sreela Majumdar (also credited as Srila Mazumdar) is an actress in the Bengali language film industry of India. She has done voice dubbing for Aishwarya Rai in the film '' Chokher Bali'' (2003). Early life She was born to Ramchandra Majumdar a ...

Manohar Singh Manohar Singh (12 April 1938 – 14 November 2002) was an Indian theatre actor-director and character actor in Hindi films. He is best known for his performances in films such as ''Party'' (1984) and ''Daddy'' (1989). Starting his acting career ...

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, Ranjan Kamath and Pyare Mohan Sahay in lead roles.

Plot

The story is about a bonded labourer who is forced to steal for his landlord, to whom he is bonded until death. Set in rural

Bihar Bihar (; ) is a state in eastern India. It is the 2nd largest state by population in 2019, 12th largest by area of , and 14th largest by GDP in 2021. Bihar borders Uttar Pradesh to its west, Nepal to the north, the northern part of West Be ...

of 1984, the film focuses on the caste politics and the oppression of the lower castes in the region, through bonded labour. The film also highlights the issue of heavy migration of the poor villagers of Bihar to richer states like

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

in search of livelihood.''Damul''
''One Hundred Indian Feature Films: An Annotated Filmography'', by Shampa Banerjee, Anil Srivastava. Taylor & Francis, 1988. , . ''Page 66''

Awards

* 1984:

National Film Award for Best Feature Film The National Award for Best Feature Film is one of the categories in the National Film Awards presented annually by the Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in India. It is one of sev ...

* 1985:

Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie The Filmfare Critics Award for Best Film is awarded during annual Filmfare Awards, given by the Filmfare magazine. The awards are the oldest and most prominent film awards given for Hindi films in India. The yearly awards started in 1954. Mov ...

International acclaim

Damul was invited for both the competition and participation sections at the

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

film festivals.

References

External links

*
Damul at Prakash Jha Productions

Prakash Jha's Homepage
1985 films Films directed by Prakash Jha 1980s Hindi-language films Films set in Bihar Best Feature Film National Film Award winners {{1980s-Hindi-film-stub