Bharthari (1944)

This review is written by Mr Arunkumar Deshmukh

BHARTHARI-1944 was a movie by Navin pictures. It was directed by Chaturbhuj Doshi with music by Khemchand Prakash. The correct name is Bhartrihari, but the common name is Bharthari.

Raja Bharthari was a king of Ujjain either in the 1st or 7th century. There are many folk tales about him in North india where he was famous as a saint. He was also a subject matter of many films like-
Bharthari-1922
Bharthari-1932
Bharthari-1944
Rajyogi Bharthari-1954
PBharthari-1990 and
Raja Bharthari(Gujarathi)-1973

The music of this film was very popular. The story is, King Bharthari goes on a Hunt when he sees a young woman jumping on the burning pyre of her dead husband(Sati). He comes home and asks his queen Pingala if she would also do the same after his death. The queen replies No, because she will die the moment she hears about his death. The king wants to test this and goes for hunting once again. From there he sends a false message of his death. Hearing the news, the queen dies instantly. The king is repentent and mourns very much. Hearing this episode, Guru Gorakhnath comes and creates 750 images of pingla and also makes her alive. The king realises the futility of this mortal world, renounces everything and becomes a saint.

The film cast was Surendra as Bharthari, Mumtaj Shanti as Queen Pingala and Nagendra (who later became pahadi Sanyal) as guru Gorakhnath, Kajjan, Sulochana, Dave, Babar etc.

The music was outstanding, particularly Amirbai-Surendra duet ‘Bhiksha dede maiyya pingala…’