भारत स्टोर्स - एक छोटी फिल्म

Film portraying 'kirana' shop's plight bags national film award
G S KUMAR, TNN Mar 19, 2013, 01.28AM IST

Tags:
Prasad Kumar|national awards|Govinda Shetty|govinda|FDI
BANGALORE: Bharat Stores, a Kannada movie directed by P Sheshadri and produced by Basant Kumar Patil, has won the national award for Best Regional Film in Kannada. The 60th National Film Awards for 2012 were announced in New Delhi on Monday.
The movie highlights how globalization has resulted in mushrooming of malls and marts, leading to closure of neighbourhood 'kirana' shops, affecting the lives of those dependent on them.

Senior artiste HG Dattatreya (Dattanna) won a special mention for his performance as a shopkeeper (Govinda Shetty) in the movie. Chi Gurudutt, Sudharani, Padmakala, Prasad, Kumar and Venkat Rao are the others in the cast.
Sheshadri's has won the Best Regional Film award, his seventh, every time he has been in the fray.
Bharat Stores begins with Bharathi (Sudharani) returning to Bangalore after a nine-year stay in the US with her husband Sharath. She had promised her father that she would repay his dues to Govinda Shetty, owner of Bharat Stores, a kirana shop. The store was so popular that a bus stop in front of it was named after it.
On alighting at the bus stop, Bharathi fails to find the shop. She begins search for Govinda Shetty and meets Chandru and Manjunath who had worked in the shop. The meeting takes her to an old-age home where she finds Govinda Shetty, who has not been able to speak for months and is unable to respond to her. She comes to know that he is a victim of globalization and had shut his shop.
Sheshadri found the subject interesting for a movie when a debate started after the central government opened India to FDI.
"The story is based on the subject and I have just highlighted the pros and cons of FDI and stopped short of giving any judgment. I want petty shop owners to know about the issue. The story is based on the life of a petty shop owner in Bangalore," he said.
According to Dattatreya, it is a complex subject the results of which will be known years later. "But we have made efforts to create awareness among 'kirana' shopowners to prepare themselves for the possible situations due to entry of mall and mart culture. Of course, the subject is debatable. But it is difficult to give a judgment on the issue," he said.