Oka Oori Katha is a 1977 Telugu film directed by Mrinal Sen

Mrinal Sen

Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...

. It is based on the story Kafan by Munshi Premchand

Munshi Premchand

Munshi Premchand , was a famous writer of modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is generally recognized in India as the foremost Hindi-Urdu writer of the early twentieth century...

. It is one of the few Art film

Art film

An art film is the result of filmmaking which is typically a serious, independent film aimed at a niche market rather than a mass market audience...

s made in Telugu language.

The plot

Venkaiah (Vasudeva Rao) and his son Kistaiah (Narayana Rao) lives in a village. Venkaiah lives in a queer world of his own. They have learnt to conquer hunger and are mentally strong. They consider the poor farmers are fools to work for the rich and suffer. Kistaiah wants to marry Nilamma (Mamata Shankar). The father does not like the marriage. Kistaiah refused and married Nilamma.

Nilamma tries to control the family. Venkaiah does not change. Kistaiah stands between them. There is bitterness in the family. In course of time Nilamma conceives. One day, they find Nilamma in acute pain. The father refuses to call a midwife and Nilamma dies. They decide to conduct funeral rites to Nilamma. They go begging around the village and gather some money and decide to spend it on drinks.

Cast

• A. R. Krishna
• Pradeep Kumar
  Pradeep Kumar
  Pradeep Kumar was an Indian actor in Bengali and Hindi films.-Career:When Kumar was 17 years old, he decided to take up acting. His started his film career in Bengali films...
  
  
• G. Narayana Rao as Kistaiah
• M. V. Vasudeva Rao as Venkaiah
• Mamata Shankar
  Mamata Shankar
  Mamata Shankar is an actress in the Bengali language film industry of India. She has acted in films by renowned film directors including, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Rituparno Ghosh, Buddhadev Dasgupta and Gautam Ghosh...
  
  as Nilamma
• Bhadra Reddy as Zamindar

Crew

• Director: Mrinal Sen
  Mrinal Sen
  Mrinal Sen is a Bengali Indian filmmaker. He was born on 14 May 1923, in the town of Faridpur, now in Bangladesh in a Hindu family. After finishing his high school there, he left home to come to Calcutta as a student and studied physics at the well-known Scottish Church College and at the...
  
  
• Story: Munshi Premchand
  Munshi Premchand
  Munshi Premchand , was a famous writer of modern Hindi-Urdu literature. He is generally recognized in India as the foremost Hindi-Urdu writer of the early twentieth century...
  
  
• Screenplay: Mohit Chattopadhya
• Writer: Yandamoori Veerendranath
• Producer: Pattabhi Rama Reddy
• Original Music: Vijay Raghava Rao
• Cinematography: K. K. Mahajan
  K. K. Mahajan
  K. K. Mahajan was an Indian cinematographer. He has won four National Film Awards for best cinematography. He worked simultaneously with parallel and main stream films...
  
  
• Assistant Cameraman: Nadeem Khan
  Nadeem Khan
  Mohammad Nadeem Khan is a former Pakistani cricketer who played in 2 Tests and 2 ODIs from 1993 to 1999. Nadeem was an effective spinner who currently plays for Sheffield Collegiate C.C. I XI. He is the older brother of Pakistan's former wicket keeper, Moin Khan.-References:...
  
  
• Film Editing: Gangadhar Naskar
• Art Direction: B. Kalyan

Awards

• The film won Nandi Award for Best Feature Film in 1977 from Government of Andhra Pradesh.
• National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu
  National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu
  The National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu Cinema winners: The awards received by the films released in the previous year are listed below...
  
   in 1977.
• Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
  Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
  The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
  
   - Special Jury Award
• Carthage Film Festival
  Carthage Film Festival
  The Carthage Film Festival is a biannual October film festival hosted by the government of Tunisia. It alternates with the Damascus International Film Festival....
  
  - Special Award

External links

• Oka Oori Katha at IMDb.