Achut Kanya and Devika Rani: After 70 Years

Sanket Vyas has written a great article in Desicritics and the title of the article is: Devika Rani - Bollywood's First Lady. Achut Kanya (untouchable girl) created a lot of controversy when it was made 70 years ago. Well, I like to compare this movie with Huckleberry Finn of Mark Twain as Achut Kanya challenged the oppression of the Indian society against the untouchable people. Here is an excerpt from the article of Sanket Vyas:


This year marks the 70th anniversary of one of the landmarks of Indian cimema, Achut Kanya (The Untouchable Girl). The star of the movie was Devika Rani, co-founder of Bombay Talkies and an icon of Indian cinema herself. She was the grand niece of the legendary poet and Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore who was knighted but resigned his commission out of protest to British rule in India.

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The earliest (and still one of the only) film to deal with the Dalits/Untouchables, it was the fledgling Bombay Talkies first bonafide hit. This film about a Brahmin boy and an untouchable girl who fall in love generated quite a bit of controversy during the same time that Mahatma Gandhi was crusading for the rights of the Dalits in Indian society.



We should always respect the pioneers. Devika Rani was surely a pioneer in Bollywood. I do not know if Bollywood stars of today would do anything to celebrate the memory of this pioneering actress.