<span style="color: #222222;">The National Film Archive of India – NFAI has acquired a rare footage of the iconic 1948 Marathi film Vande Mataram, in which legendary writer and playwright P.L. Deshpande played the lead role along with his wife Sunita Deshpande.<br />'' <br />'' A VHS cassette containing about 35 minutes of footage of the film was donated by Sunita Deshpande's nephew Dinesh Thakur and film historian Satish Jakatdar.<br />'' <br />'' Another donation include two U-matic cassettes of about one-hour duration containing rare footage of Mr. Deshpande playing Harmonium accompanied by Lalji Desai on Tabla as part of the crew of Varyavarchi Varat, a very popular comedy play.<br />'' <br />''<br />''NFAI's Director Prakash Magdum said it is a happy coincidence to discover this footage at a time when the birth centenary of P.L. Deshpande and Sudhir Phadke is being celebrated this year.</span><br />