Hindi

  • Gulzar – Mausam AKA Seasons (1975)

    Drama1971-1980GulzarIndiaRomance

    Mausam (Seasons) is a 1975 Indian film directed by Gulzar and loosely based on the novel, The Judas Tree, by A.J. Cronin. Sharmila Tagore for her acting received The Silver Lotus Award at the 23rd National Film Festival and the movie was honoured by presenting an award for 2nd Best Feature Film. The movie bagged two of eight nominations at the 24th Filmfare Awards. The background score for the movie was composed by Salil Chowdhury and the songs were composed by Madan Mohan.Read More »

  • Amit Dutta – Jangarh Film Ek (2008)

    Amit Dutta2001-2010DocumentaryIndiaShort Film

    The village artist Jangarh Singh Shyam left home and became a well-known contemporary painter. He committed suicide in 2001. Through his art, places and stories, the filmmaker explores the traces he left on his path.Read More »

  • Amit Dutta – The Game of Shifting Mirrors (2020)

    Amit Dutta2011-2020ExperimentalIndiaShort Film

    Quote:
    How do the vicissitudes of contemporary notions of nationhood alter our relationship with cultural patrimony? It’s a question obliquely suggested by Amit Dutta’s latest film. As a camera explores the architecture of a museum, we hear a description of a painting we never see. Eventually, we leave the building behind and examine the remains of a temple, exposed to weather and war. Sensual and rigorous, THE GAME OF SHIFTING MIRRORS reaffirms Dutta’s place as India’s most accomplished experimental filmmaker. (Michael Sicinski)Read More »

  • Goutam Ghose – Raahgir AKA The Wayfarers (2019)

    2011-2020DramaGoutam GhoseIndia

    Nathuni and Lakhua are driven by hunger across the undulating terrain of Jharkhand to the nearest town. Nathuni has a paralytic husband and two children, while Lakhua is a loner, perpetually on the fringes of survival. When the monsoon clouds overpower the sky, they encounter Chopatlal, whose makeshift van is stuck in the mud as he carries an ailing old couple to the hospital.Read More »

  • Payal Kapadia – Dopahar Ke Baadal AKA Afternoon Clouds (2017)

    2011-2020ArthouseIndiaPayal KapadiaShort Film

    Kaki is a 60-year-old widow who lives with her Nepali maid, Malti. The film takes place on one afternoon in their house where a flower blossoms in the balcony. Malti meets a boy (a sailor) from her hometown unexpectedly.Read More »

  • Mrinal Sen – And the Show Goes On – Indian Chapter [BFI Century of Cinema: India] (1995)

    Mrinal Sen1991-2000DocumentaryIndia

    Does India have a national cinema? Does it, indeed, require one? Mrinal Sen is not quite sure. Yet, his latest celluloid essay, And the Show Goes On, a British Film Institute-funded tribute to the world’s largest movie industry in cinema’s centenary year, is quite polemically categorical about what India’s filmic output should be.

    But can it ever be what it ideally ought to be? Again, Sen, as is his wont, is not forth coming with a clear answer. His prescription, however, is rather unambiguous: cinema should confront social realities, no matter how harsh; it cannot continue being as cavalierly escapist as it is in India and yet expect to be taken seriously on the global stage. As film director and critic Chidananda Dasgupta says on camera: “India lives too much by myth and too little by fact”. That, for Sen, is where the problem begins. And ends.Read More »

  • Ashish Avikunthak – Ashish Avikunthak Short Films (1995 – 2010)

    Ashish AvikunthakExperimentalIndiaShort Film

    1. Et cetera
    1997, 16mm, Color, 33 mins

    ‘Et cetera’ is a tetralogy of four separate films that seek to examine the various levels at which the reality of human existence functions. Shown at Dhaka Short film festival, 1999, and Cinema Nova Brussels, 2005.

    Avikunthak’s foray into filmmaking was directly an attempt at playing with time — all the four films in Et cetera, are directly an attempt at engaging with real time, the fact that they are single shot, single take, unedited films. For him, as a temporal experience they are most linear cinematic narrative, most pure. These films, rather than sculpting in time, were slicing time. However video art has been more successful as an engagement with real time, he says, “I look at my films as an attempt at invoking ‘kaal’ as a metaphysical entity, rather than ‘kaal’ as a temporal category; Et cetera and Kalighat Fetish being articulation of such an invocation.”Read More »

  • Shakti Samanta – An Evening in Paris (1967)

    1961-1970ClassicsIndiaShakti SamantaThriller

    In romantic Paris, two Parisians of Indian origin are in love namely Shyam or Sam and Roopa. Mystery and intrigue surround this romance, as Roopa is abducted and held by criminal mastermind Jack and his minions, who will trade her for a hefty ransom. Roopa has a look-alike in the shape and form of Suzy, who is sent in place of Roopa to ensure that the money is received, while the real Roopa is still being held captive. Sam must use all the resources available to in order to set Roopa free, but he will have a difficult time to differentiate between Suzy and Roopa.Read More »

  • Cristina Hanes & Isabella Rinaldi & Arya Rothe – A Rifle and a Bag (2020)

    2011-2020Arya RotheCristina HanesDocumentaryIndiaIsabella Rinaldi

    After years of fighting in the Naxalite guerrilla for the rights of the Indian tribes, Somi and her husband, handed over their rifles and surrendered in front of the State. They are now sharing a settlement with other former fighters, in an attempt to become civilians and grant their son a future.Read More »

Back to top button