The National Film Archive of India – NFAI has acquired a rare footage of the iconic 1948 Marathi film Vande Mataram, in which legendary writer and playwright P.L. Deshpande played the lead role along with his wife Sunita Deshpande.
A VHS cassette containing about 35 minutes of footage of the film was donated by Sunita Deshpande’s nephew Dinesh Thakur and film historian Satish Jakatdar.
Another donation include two U-matic cassettes of about one-hour duration containing rare footage of Mr. Deshpande playing Harmonium accompanied by Lalji Desai on Tabla as part of the crew of Varyavarchi Varat, a very popular comedy play.
NFAI’s Director Prakash Magdum said it is a happy coincidence to discover this footage at a time when the birth centenary of P.L. Deshpande and Sudhir Phadke is being celebrated this year.
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