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Taking a massive risk in the age of wartime shortages and shrinking private industry, veteran filmmaker V. Shantaram leaves Prabhat Studios to start his own production company, inaugurating it with this adaptation of the third century play. Following a passionate encounter with King Dushyanta (Chandramohan), the comely Shakuntala (Jayashree) finds herself pregnant and rejected by the royal court. She gives birth in a forest to a son which she names Bharat (Kumar Ganesh). When the King tracks his former lover down and tries to take her back, she flatly refuses him. A shortened version of this film was released in 1948 in the United States, meeting with generally favorable reviews.