A 57-minute tribute to Malviya

VARANASI: In a very different way of paying tributes to its founder Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, the Bharat Kala Bhawan (BKB) of Banaras Hindu University has come up with the a documentary film 'Yug Purush'. It has started screening the documentary from Tuesday.
According to Dr Dev Prakash Sharma, director of Bharat Kala Bhawan, the 57-minute-long documentary is an effort of the past one year and has been produced on a budget on Rs 4 lakh.The film has been directed by assistant curator of Bharat Kala Bhawan Vinod Kumar while other members of the museum assisted him. The budget to produce the film was allocated from the money that came from entry ticket sale of Bharat Kala Bhawan. A token amount of Rs 10 is charged from Indians and Rs 100 from foreign tourists.
According to Sharma, Yug Purush has also filmed the closely associated friends and relatives of Malviya, like Karan Singh, Girdhar Maviya. It also throws light on his early life and struggle for forming BHU in Varanasi. "The film is being screened for visitors at Bharat Kala Bhawan with the help of a projector. There are four shows that will run from Tuesday apart from DVDs that are available for sale at the store of Kala Bhawan on 'no profit no loss' basis," informed Sharma.
Meanwhile, commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of the great scholar, over 100 pictures, hand written letters and articles of M M Malviya have been put on display at Malviya Gallery. From early childhood pictures to letters and belongings of Malviya, all have been well stored and now put on public display.
According to Sharma, the exhibition that was informally inaugurated by vice chancellor Prof Lalji Singh on Tuesday will travel to different museums of the country to mark his 150th birth anniversary. A pictorial book on Malviya was also released. "While collecting the pictures, it was found that all the pictures were black and white, they were changed into coloured copies and printed in the form of a book so that general public could also get a glimpse of those flickers," he said. Bharat Kala Bhawan has also prepared medals, badgets, calendars and idols of Malviya which were released for sale on Tuesday.