Harishchandra Taramati (1963)

King Harishchandra of Ayodhya is famous for his devotion to truth, and the sage Vishwamitra sets out to test it. Bound by a promise, the king surrenders his kingdom and wealth, and then, to pay a debt he owes the sage, sells himself, his queen Taramati and their young son into servitude, ending up as a keeper of the cremation ground. Each trial is harsher than the last, but he refuses to break his word. This 1963 Hindi mythological retells one of the best-known stories of Indian tradition, with the patriarch of the Kapoor family, Prithviraj Kapoor, bringing his commanding stage presence to the role of the king and Jaymala as Taramati. It is a slow, devout film whose power lies in its moral story.