Sant Dnyaneshwar (1940)

An effort to reproduce the success of Sant Tukaram (1936) with a bigger budget and enlarged canvas. Dnyaneshwar (1275 - 1296) was the first of the Marathi saint poets and wrote the Dnyaneshwari as a commentary of the Bhagavad Gita in the rhythm of ovi form, using popular language for the first time in Marathi literature, the culmination of the regional literary works that emerged throughout India after the 7th C. More closely associated with the performances of miracles than Tukaram or Eknath, Dnyaneshwar's exploits are narrated in the keertan form of religious storytelling. Crowd scenes, elaborate sets and complicated miracle scenes (shot by Pralhad Dutt and Harbans) signal the film's spectacular ambitions. Like the director's last saint film, Sant Sakhu (1941) this effort at times finds an effective mise en scene using frontally shot imagery while allowing the action to expand around the fixed point of the god's position (in this case represented by the Bhagavad Gita) which, as the film progresses, Dnyaneshwar (Modak) gradually comes to occupy.