Oka Oori Katha

Oka Oori Katha (English title The Marginal Ones) is a 1977 Telugu drama directed by Mrinal Sen. Adapted from Munshi Premchand’s short story Kafan (The Burial Shroud), it moves Premchand’s story from the Hindi heartland to rural Telangana. M. V. Vasudeva Rao, G. V. Narayana Rao and Mamata Shankar star, and Vijay Raghav Rao composed the music. The film won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Telugu and the Special Jury Prize at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival.

What the story is about

Venkayya and his son Kistayya live in a village under a feudal order. Venkayya lives in an eccentric, isolated world of his own. Hardened by long experience of extreme hunger, father and son have concluded that poor farmers are fools to labour for the wealthy only to keep suffering, and they resist the system in the one way open to them: by refusing to work. Kistayya marries Nilamma over his father’s objections, and she tries to take the household in hand, which sets her against Venkayya with Kistayya caught between them. The film is a stark, at times absurdist look at what that poverty does to people.

Cast

• M. V. Vasudeva Rao as Venkayya
• G. V. Narayana Rao as his son Kistayya
• Mamata Shankar as Nilamma
• Chintapally Bhadra Reddy as the zamindar
• A. R. Krishna and Pradeep Kumar

Festivals and awards

Oka Oori Katha was one of India’s entries at the 4th Hong Kong International Film Festival, and was also shown at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, where it won the Special Jury Prize, at the Carthage Film Festival, where it received a special award, and in the Indian Panorama section of the 7th International Film Festival of India. At the 25th National Film Awards it was named Best Feature Film in Telugu, awarded to Mrinal Sen and producer A. Parandhama Reddy. According to the Directorate of Film Festivals’ catalogue, the jury praised its transformation of Premchand’s story into a powerful commentary on rural poverty and social injustice. It also won the Nandi Award for Third Best Feature Film (Bronze).

What critics said

Writing in The Telegraph in 2019, a critic described the film as a blistering, absurdist critique of feudal exploitation and a unique, unsettling piece of Indian cinema, notable for its stark portrayal of the degradation of marginalised people.

Where to watch Oka Oori Katha

We do not have a confirmed streaming platform for Oka Oori Katha on file. The OTT details on this page will be updated when a platform’s own listing confirms it.

Sources: the Wikipedia article on Oka Oori Katha and the sources it cites, linked above; Wikidata; our own cast and crew records.