indian cinema heritage foundation

Kartavya (1979)

  • LanguageHindi
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The film deals with an international problem - the preservation of forest and wild life. It attempts to educate the common man in respect of the vital part played by forests and wild life in maintaining human life; the Ecological cycle of Nature. It depicts the inhumane degradation of the poachers and their wanton acts which disturb the balance of nature and cut deep inroads into National wealth; acts which could lead to extinction of all human life on this earth.
This is the story of the Silent Service dedicated to fight these evils; of brave men who work and die in the deepest recesses of the rich jungles, whose exploits rarely receive adequate publicity, whose unique services to the Nation are seldom applauded. Strong, silent men whose watchword is secrecy.
The Forest Services, fighting the poachers who slaughter precious wild life for their evil ends, combating the dreaded smugglers who do not hesitate to rob the land of invaluable forest produce. Men who live dangerously and when opportunity arises, love passionately.
Vijay is one such man. He has buried his personal grief of losing a kidnapped brother in childhood, and has totally dedicated himself to the call of Duty. Fearless to a fault, Vijay stands as the one great obstacle in the way of the poachers and smugglers, the gangsters led by Dewan Dhanpat Rai, a man who has successfully concealed his past identity behind a facade of respectibility. Vijay suspects that the key to the problem lies with Dushyant, Dhanpat Rai's gun toting son.
And into the forest - seething with inttigue and beset with lawlessness - steps the lovely Nita, freelance photographer for an international magazine. Nita's search does not begin and end with her pictures of wild life in the raw; it extends right out to the man whom she believes to be responsible for the imprisonment of her father on a false and trumped up charge.
Thus the stage is set for an explosive situation, the like of which no forest has ever experienced. In the shadows of the giant trees and hidden by the thick undergrowth, terrible violence suddenly erupts. Man and beast alike struggle for their very existence, for their lives.................and for their loves.
 

(From the official press booklets)