A newly independent nation’s dreams were finding form in the contours of cinema in the 1950s and early 1960s, prominently in the works of Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt, B.R.Chopra, V.Shantaram and Raj Kapoor. The nation was brimming with positivity and hope; independence was being seen as a cure for every evil facing the nation. It... Continue Reading →
The golden radiance of Anuradha
Mention Hrishikesh Mukherjee and it is obvious that we conjure up images of boistrous households, kurta-clad men and sari-clad women celebrating their middle-class lives on-screen and everyday images of, what was then, Bombay. But way back in his inchoate days as a director, Hrishida came up with a silent gem called Anuradha. In the year... Continue Reading →
Intoxicated with Love, Sex aur Dhokha
It is a daunting task for a filmmaker to break into the big scene with a purely experimental work. But what if an established filmmaker tries to move off the beaten track? Dibakar Banerjee does just that with Love, Sex aur Dhokha. Having touched the lives of the urban middle-class in his previous films, the... Continue Reading →
In search of Ganga
I had boarded the Tamil Nadu express at 10pm. My break was over and I was headed towards my college. “Are you going to Delhi?” I asked him. He laughed at my question and climbed on to the upper berth and went off to sleep. I had always wanted to know what prompted foreigners to... Continue Reading →