Synopsis
An ordinary young man Audumbar (Vinayak)
inspired by a militant lecture on bachelorhood
and nationalism by the Deshbhakta Jatashankar
(Javdekar), renounces his sexual desire,
throws away his collection of movie star
posters, starts exercising his muscles in
the tradition of Hanuman's disciples and
joins the Self-Help Institute of the Acharya
Chandiram (Malvankar) where he devotes himself
to spinning and wielding the broom. All
his discipline however comes to naught as
he encounters Kishori (Meenakshi), the young
and charming dayghter of a visiting forest
officer. The god of celibacy has to beat
a hasty retreat leaving Audumbar at the
mercy of the God of Love!
The film
A brilliant combination of wit, satire
and romance, Brahmachari a bilingual
made in Marathi and Hindi boldly ridiculed
puritanical social norms and at the same
time had the audience laughing uncontrollably.
The dialogues by Acharya P.K. Atre in the
Marathi version and the situations in which
the  hero
finds himself sparkle with wit and the film
moves along at a quick tempo greatly helped
by Vinayak's performance in the central
role, a simple minded innocent pitted against
entrenched hypocrisy and fossilized beliefs.
Though he was called Audumbar in the Marathi
version, in the Hindi version he was called
Kanhaiya and was a total antithesis of the
original Kanhaiya (Lord Krishna) the great
lover. Vinayak's aversion to religious bigotry
and social hypocrisy combined with Atre's
keen sense of satire make for an extremely
entertaining film with outrageous humour
and gentle mockery. Damuanna Malvankar has
his first major success in the role of the
Acharya Chandiram. Meenakshi also makes
her first appearance in a Vinayak film.
She went on to act in several of his films
- Devata (1938), Brandichi Batli
(1939), Ardhangi (1940) and Badi
Maa (1945). Brahmachari was a
roaring success and made screen history
by running for twenty-five weeks in Bombay
and fifty-two weeks in Pune. Incidentally,
Brahmachari was perhaps one of the
earliest Indian films in which the heroine
appeared in a bathing costume in a sensational
seduction song!. |
