Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani 1946

Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani is a 1946 Indian Bollywood biopic film released on 1946. The film is directed by V. Shantaram.

Dr. Kotnis(V. Shantaram) afters completing his M.B.B.S.returns to his home town,Solapur. His father has kept a dispensary ready for his practice. Dwarkanath Kotnis inspired by a speech at Azad maidan tells his father that he has agreed to go to China with 4 other doctors. His father readily agrees to this decision & bids him farewell with an advice to " Return to India only after completing his work ". Dr. Kotnis & the other doctors reach China & start their work of treating war soldiers. Dwarka's father passes away in India & 3 doctors from the panel return to India owing to ill health. Dwarka & another doctor remain behind. Dwarka meets Dr. Ching lan who assists him in his work. Dwarka & Ching lan fall in love and get married. Japan attacks the Chinese war camp due to which they have to evacuate the place & seek refuge near the Langshan mountain range. To add to their difficulties an epedemic spreads in the camp. Kotnis tries to find a cure for the epidemic but he falls ill himself. When Japan attacks India, he returns to India to serve but he succuumbs to the illness.

A chronicle of the real-life story of Dwarakannath Kotnis (V.Shantaram a memebr of medical team sent by India during WW2, an intensely nationalist period, to fight alongside the Chinese during the Japenese invasion. Kotnis goes to China, works almost singlehandedly to provide medical relief to the wounded, meets and marries a Chinese girl, Ching Lan (Jayashree), is captured by the Japenese and eventually dies in battle while developing a cure against an epidemic. Ching Lan and their infant son return to India, symbolising the solidarity of their nationalist struggles. Made along with the IPTA backed Dharti Ke Lal and Neecha Nagar (both 1946) under a special WW2 licence as a war-effort film, Dr Kotnis is remarkable for its absolute abandonment of any pretence at cinematic realism and its powerful nationalist rhetoric, culminating in the heros dying speech describing what his wife will see when she goes home. This is intercut with documentary footage of Nehru at a mass meeting. The film succeeded in simultaneously pleasing the Communists, the Congress and the colonial occupation force. Shantaram re-edited a shorter version in English in 1948 in which, according to S. Bannerjee and A. Srivastava (1988), the clothing of the Indian characters was made more ethnic to please a Western audience. [Source: Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema] Check out this page for more updates on Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani.