अछूत: परदे पर मंदिर के दरवाज़े

Ranjit Movietone and Chandulal Shah's Achhut (1940) — a reformist social film against untouchability, in the spirit of Gandhi's Harijan movement. Starring Gohar and Motilal, scored by Gyan Dutt, its premiere endorsed by Sardar Patel himself.

By late 1939 untouchability was the burning wound of India's reform movement, and Gandhi's Harijan campaign was working to tear it out by the root. Chandulal Shah of Ranjit Movietone carried that pain to the screen — the story of an untouchable girl for whom the temple doors stayed shut. In the world of entertainment it was a bold, openly political move.

Chandulal Shah wrote and directed the film himself. Gohar played Lakshmi — the girl whose very birth seals her fate — and Motilal played Ramu, her childhood companion. The tale moves through the clash of love and caste to the moment the temple doors open to the untouchables: not injustice but equality is where the film ends.

Gyan Dutt's music gave this reform tale its voice, in the Ranjit tradition he had long composed within. The film's message echoed beyond the screen: at the premiere on 23 December 1939 Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was present and said that if the picture helped India remove this curse, it could be said to have helped India toward Swaraj.