Shakuntala 1943

Shakuntala is a 1943 Indian Bollywood mythological, costume film released on Jan 01, 1943. The film is directed by V. Shantaram.
Having quit the Prabhat Studio, Shantaram inagurated his new company with his new company with this costumed adaptation of Kalidasas 3rd-C play. The beautiful Shakuntala (Jayashree) gets pregnant following a romance with King Dushyanta (Chandramohan), but she is rejected when she arrives at his royal court. Abandoned, she bears a son, Bharat (Ganesh), in the forest. When a repentant Dushyanta comes to take her back she refuses, using the same lanugage with which she had been evicted, but the two are eventually reconciled. Shantaram writes that the venture was a major gamle, made during WW2 and in a changed film industry context. Both the future ofhis new studio as well as his reputation depended on its success, established when the film became a major hit running for 104 consecutive weeks. Shantaram intended the birth of Bharat to symbolise the newly independent India. The film remains one of the best-known adaptations of the literary classic, and has a quaint period flavour as an early instance of the directors highly decorative use of neo-classical design, which later degenrated into garish calendar art. A 76 version was released in the USA, where Life magazine saw it as having a touch of Willaim Tell. Check out this page for more updates on Shakuntala.