Saraswatichandra

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Saraswatichandra is a black-and-white 1968 Hindi film directed by Govind Saraiya starring Nutan and Manish. The music was given by Kalyanji-Anandji, for which they won a National Award for "originality of the score."

The film was based on Saraswatichandra, a landmark Gujarati novel, written by late Govardhanram Madhavram Tripathi, a famous author of early twentieth century Gujarat, India. It depicts the social fabric of that time: extended family life and beginning of the meltdown of old customs and traditions. It starts with a most romantic courtship between Saraswatichandra and Kumud, followed by a complex plot where Kumud ends up a Sadhwi (a minister or a preacher) and spends a life of celebacy. A peculiar feature of this novel is that names of all the 30+ characters the novel depict their personality. For example the hero, Saraswatichandra, is a very learned man, an author and a poet (Saraswati is the goddess of literacy), and the leadinng lady is Kumud (means beautiful like a water lily).