Sant Tukaram: The religious life of a medieval Indian saint
Talk and the film "Sant Tukaram"
"Sant Tukaram" is a film about the most popular Indian writer/poet and saint/holy man, who lived in 1608 – 1650 in what is now the federal state of Maharashtra, with its capital Mumbai/Bombay. With his mystical devotion to God, which he expressed in his songs, Tukaram, who belonged to the low caste of the Shudra, challenged both kings and Brahmans alike. By staging Sant Tukaram’s miracles in strikingly realistic settings and perspectives, the two directors draw attention to his devoutness in the face of normality and everyday life. Sant Tukaram belongs to a popular religious film genre that focuses more on the worshippers than on the divinity himself and usually chooses medieval India as its setting. This greatest moment of this genre was when sound-motion pictures appeared in the 1930s, at a time when it was closely tied to the national struggle for freedom and the reform of social practices sanctioned by religion.
7 p.m.
Talk: Prof. Dr. Rachel Dwyer, Professor of Indian Cultures and Cinema, SOAS, University of London [in English]
Film
Sant Tukaram
D: VG Damle / Sheikh Fattelal, India 1936, 131 min., Marathi with German subtitles