Badnam Basti
Badnam Basti is a 1971 Bollywood drama film directed by Prem Kapoor and adapted from an eponymous novel by Hindi novelist Kamleshwar. Starring Nitin Sethi, Amar Kakkad, and Nandita Thakur, it is often described as India's first gay film. The film was thought to have been lost for 40 years, but a print was found in 2019.
Plot
Set in Mainpuri, Uttar Pradesh, Badnam Basti tells the story of Sarnam Singh, a bus driver who is also a bandit. Sarnam saves Bansuri from being raped by another bandit. Bansuri falls in love with him, but he is jailed for a petty crime. Upon release, Sarnam searches for Bansuri but does not find her. He then meets Shivraj, who works in a temple, and hires him as a cleaner in the bus. The two become physically and emotionally intimate. Sarnam again encounters Bansuri, who is now living with Sarnam's crony, Rangile, who won her at an auction in a village mela. Bansuri desires to return to Sarnam, but he is torn by his longing for Bansuri and his love for Shivraj. Shivraj, however, goes on to marry Kamala. Rangile, who is a police informant, is convicted and jailed for duplicity in legal matters. As the film ends, Sarnam takes Bansuri and her newborn to his home.Cast
- Nitin Sethi as Sarnam Singh
- Nandita Thakur as Bansuri
- Amar Kakkad as Shivraj
- Nandlal Sharma
Production
The film is based on Ek Sadak Sattavan Galiyan, the debut novel of the Hindi writer Kamleshwar Prasad Saxena which was originally titled Badnam Basti and serialized in the Hindi journal Hans in 1956 and published as a novel in 1957.Badnam Basti was produced by the National [Film Development Corporation of India|Film Finance Corporation] on a budget of 250,000. It was shot in a four-week period at Mainpuri. The theme of homosexual interest between the two male characters caused Kamaleshwar's novel to attract controversy; Prem Kapoor had to excise scenes from the novel and make their relationship only suggestive in order to receive clearance by the film censorship board.
Although it is labelled as India's first gay film, Badnam Basti neither explicitly depicts nor identifies the male characters as gay. They are bisexual rather than gay, and their relationship is secondary to their heterosexual relationships.
Songs
The music for Badnam Basti was composed by Vijaya Raghava Rao and Ustad [Ghulam Mustafa Khan]. Khan, who previously worked with Rao in Bhuvan Shome, sang "Sajna Kaahe Nahi Aaye" for the film. Lyrics were by Virendra Mishra and Harivansh Rai Bachchan; Bachchan recites the poem "Mele Mein Khoi Gujariya" in the film. Rao and Satish Bhutani also sang in the film. The sound recording was done by Narinder Singh.Following is the list of songs in Badnam Basti: