Savkari Pash (1925)

The Marathi cinema's first explicit social, written by one of Maharashtra's most popular novelists in this genre. A peasant (Shantaram) loses his land to a greedy money-lender and moves to the city where he becomes a mill worker. Taking its cue from the realist tradition, thdilm counterposes an idyllic rural life (destroyed by the greedy money-lender who uses forged papers to steal the peasant's land) with the harsh city life. In spite of its high melodrama, the film was hailed as a realist breakthrough. Critics noted the poetic combination of visuals evoking sound and light, singling out the shot of a hut accompanied by a howling dog as one of the most memorable moments of the Inuian cinema to d~te. The ending intercuts tile money-lender snoring with his head on his safe while the poor peasant turned proletarian trudges the· streets. It was remade in 1936, hyping the drama with scenes showing the money-lender wrth a sexy courtesan.