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''Bhavni Bhavai'' ((グジャラート語:ભવની ભવાઈ) – ''The Tale of the Life'' ) is a 1980 Gujarati film directed by Ketan Mehta, starring Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Smita Patil, Mohan Gokhale, Benjamin Gilani. The film tells the story of untouchability through folklores and Bhavai. Bhavni bhavai was Ketan Mehta's debut film and received a critical acclaim. Ketan Mehta won the prestigious Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, while Meera Lakhia won National Film Award for Best Production Design at the 28th National Film Awards. The film was also selected for the festival at Museum of Modern Art and received UNESCO Club Human Rights award at Three Continents Festival. ==Plot== The film begins with a group of Harijans migrating to a city pausing for a night. An elderly (Om Puri) starts narrating the story of King Chakrasen. King Chakrasen (Naseeruddin Shah) badly wants an heir, but neither of his two queens can conceive a child. One day Chakrasen smells foul smell at his darbar, upon investigating he is told the place is not cleaned because bhangis are on holiday for a wedding. Angrily, he summons them immediately and orders their flagellation as the punishment. Meanwhile, his spy brings the information that his people are conspiring against the king. On the advice of his prime minister (Benjamin Gilani), he decides to declare a war against the neighbouring state, as a distraction. Unknown to the king, his prime minister is having an affair with his younger queen (Suhasini Mulay). Before the king can declare a war, the neighbouring king decides to attack for the similar reasons. Chakrasen's army wins the war but suffers major brutality. At the same time, the king receives the news that his elder queen is expecting a child. Hearing this news, the jealous young queen and prime minister conspires with the royal astrologer and tells the king that if the king sees the face of the newborn, he will die immediately. Fearing for his life, the king orders to kill the newborn. The soldiers, ordered to kill the child, have a change of heart and instead of killing him, puts him in a wooden box and lets go of him in the river, where one of the bhangis, Malo Bhagat (Om Puri) accidentally finds the box and decides to raise the child with his wife, Dhuli (Dina Pathak), as his own, Jeevo. While in kingdom, the royal astrologer suggests that if the king wants a child, he must build a stepwell and the king agrees to it. Years pass by, the work on stepwell continues, but they can't find the water. Jeevo (Mohan Gokhale) is grown up, and has fallen in love with gypsy girl, Ujam (Smita Patil). The royal astrologer accidentally discovers that Jeevo is actually son of the king and tells the king that the king must sacrifice ''Batress Lakshano Purush'' (A man with thirty two qualities), if he wants water in the stepwell and Jeevo is the only eligible man besides the king himself. The army sets out to capture Jeevo, but he runs away. Ranglo (jester) (Nimesh Desai) finds out the truth and decides to inform the elder queen, but before that, the prime minister captures him and puts him in jail. Jeevo makes a plan with Ujam and tells the king that if he agrees to end untouchability of his caste, only then he'll surrender else he'll kill himself and the king won't be able to complete the sacrifice. After consulting his ministers, Chakrasen reluctantly agrees to demands. On the day of the sacrifice, Ranglo manages to escape from the prison and tells the king that Jeevo is his own son, to which king is delightful and aborts the execution and the stepwell is suddenly starts filling up with water. As the story approaches the end, one of the Harijans stops the elderly and tells him not to lure the children with false ''happy endings'' and narrates his own alternate ending. In the alternate ending, ranglo doesn't arrive to tell the truth and sacrifice proceeds as planned, but there is still no water in the stepwell. Unable to bear the shock of their son's death, Jeevo's mother dies and Malo curses the king and commits suicide in the stepwell. Upon Malo's death, stepwell gets over flooded killing king and his ministers with him. The final sequence is interspersed with the footage of violent protests of Indian independence movement. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Bhavni Bhavai」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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