Mor Chhainha Bhuinya

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya is a cult film from 2000 in Chhattisgarhi. The comedy-drama film is written and directed by Satish Jain. and produced by Shivdayal Jain. The film stars Shekhar Soni, Anuj Sharma, Poonam Naqvi, Jagriti Rai, Ashish Shendre, and Manmohan Thakur. It is the first film to be made in Chhattisgarhi language after Ghar Dwar (1971).

Mor Chhainha Bhuinya was released on Diwali day on October 27, 2000. The film was a major commercial and critical success. Every actor made his or her debut with this Chhattisgarhi film, most notably Anuj Sharma. The film is credited for giving a major impetus to Chhattisgarh's own film industry or Chhollywood.

Plot
The film is about a farmer family's trials and tribulations involving three generations. A man with his wife and children leaves his poor old parents' home alone and goes to Mumbai for work. However, disillusioned he is forced to return to the village after facing tough times in the big city where they had gone with many hopes and dreams.

Cast

 * Shekhar Soni as Uday
 * Piyush Mishra as young Uday
 * Poonam Naqvi as Sudha, Uday's Lover
 * Anuj Sharma as Kartik
 * Vash Shirshak as young Kartik
 * Jagriti Rai
 * Samita Nayak
 * Ashish Shendre as Kishan, Kartik's father
 * Sanju Sahu as Kartik's mother
 * Suresh Gondale as Kartik's grandfather
 * Nisha Gautam as Kartik's grandmother
 * Chandrakala as Sudha's Sister
 * Manmohan Thakur as Girdhari Pandey (Villain)
 * Ravi Tiwari as Netaji or Tauji
 * Shiv Kumar as Dipak
 * Anil Sharma as D.K. Sharma, College Principal
 * Kshamanidhi Mishra as College Teacher
 * Kamal Narayan Sinha as Librarian

Development
As no films were made in the Chhattisgarhi language till then for a long time, making the film was difficult for writer-director Satish Jain. He had a story ready, but no finance was available. The continued budget constraints forced curtailing the movie by cutting back on shooting of 20 scenes and 1 song. The director toured the state of Chhattisgarh extensively in search for suitable actors/actresses for his new film. A technical team came from Mumbai to shoot the movie. Even the action sequences were executed by fight master Andlib Pathan from Mumbai. The film led to the rebirth of Chhollywood.

Filming
The film was mostly shot in and around the city of Bhilai, Chhattisgarh.

Release
Initially, no one was willing to distribute/release the movie. So the writer/director Satish Jain and his brother decided to distribute the film themselves. Exhibitors were apprehensive of the idea of screening a Chhattisgarhi film. But Satish Jain requested exhibitors to release the film in Raipur, Durg, and Bilaspur on the occasion of Diwali on October 27, 2000. Initially released with just 3 prints, the subsequent demand after the film became a superhit, meant that producers released 12 prints. Post release a new song was added.

Box office
The film ran for more than 100 days across many theatres in the newly formed state of Chhattisgarh grossing over ₹2 crores in lifetime collections. The film had a slow start in the first 2 days, but word-of-mouth publicity turned the fortunes of the film from 3rd day onwards making it a blockbuster. The film even surpassed other Bollywood flicks that were also released alongside it on Diwali like Mohabbatein and Mission Kashmir in Chhattisgarh.

Sequel
After 23 years writer and director Satish Jain decided to make a sequel, Mor Chhainha Bhuinya 2. Satish Jain returns as writer and director of the new film, which is a remake or spiritual sequel of the original movie and was released on 24 May 2024. The lead characters in the new film play the same role as the original movie but the setting is different.