Bengali Cinema
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Grihajuddha / Crossroads(1982, Dir. Buddhadev Dasgupta, India)
Bengali director Buddhadev Dasgupta’s Grihajuddha is a stark and unflinching entry in India’s third phase of Parallel Cinema, which I have titled ‘the high point’, and which often thrived on perceptive socio-political critique. Funded by the West Bengal government, this early work from Dasgupta is a tautly scripted political thriller that takes a searing look Continue reading
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NAYAK / THE HERO (Dir. Satyajit Ray, 1966, India) – Past Transgressions
There is no repudiating that Nayak saw Ray entering a period of digression, from a fecund classical style to one of artistic self-examination. Nayak questionably deconstructs both masculinity and stardom in equal measure, and is clearly self-reflexive. But the film is also part of a longer struggle Ray expressed in a concatenation of films in Continue reading
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Chalchitra / Kaleidoscope (1981, Dir. Mrinal Sen, India)
This semi-comical snapshot of the middle class Bengali experience in Kolkata is apparently a minor work in Sen’s oeuvre. The story is slight; a young Bengali man Dipu (Anjan Dutta) aspires to be a journalist and as a sort of test of creativity, the editor of a newspaper (Utpal Dutta) asks Dipu to write a Continue reading
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THE APU TRILOGY – Robin Wood (1972) Movie Magazine
‘Where most of Godard’s detractors wouldn’t dream of missing a new Godard film, there is a general sense among Ray’s that Mahanagar and Charulata wouldn’t be worth the time and bus fare. The corollary is that Ray’s admirers (in print at least) tend to be critics of the conservative Establishment. Film enthusiasts who don’t know Continue reading
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PIKU (Dir. Shoojit Sircar, 2015, India)
What would Satyajit Ray have made of Piku? There was a sundry of questions running through my head as I left the cinema. There is no doubt he would have agreed that the central female protagonist of Piku (Deepika Padukone) educes the classical Ray woman: progressive, perceptive and selfless. Some critics have commented that Piku’s Continue reading
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