Neo realism
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NAGARIK / THE CITIZEN (Dir. Ritwik Ghatak, 1952, India) ‘Film-making is not an esoteric thing to me…’
The film is about an unemployed youth named Ramu, who comes from a middle-class family that has been turned refugee overnight by the Partition, but which nevertheless refuses to abandon its petty- bourgeois aspirations. Ramu gets saddled with the responsibilities of running the household, tending to his aged parents, getting his younger brother an education, Continue reading
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APANJAN (Dir. Tapan Sinha, 1968, India)
Before Mrinal Sen and Satyajit Ray responded to the political unrest in Calcutta with their respective treatises on the Naxalite movement, the Bengali film maker Tapan Sinha had already mounted a powerful neo realist critique with his 1968 film Apanjan. All three films that I have mentioned feature a male character, symbolising the Calcutta middle Continue reading
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Navketan Films: Chetan, Vijay and Dev Anand
NEECHA NAGAR / Lowly City (Dir. Chetan Anand, 1946, India)TAXI DRIVER (Dir. Chetan Anand, 1954, India) Dev Anand in one of his many publicity poses – one of the overlooked stars of 50s Hindi cinema. Trapped amongst the ideological sincerities of Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt was Dev Anand – the suave, sardonic Continue reading
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SHREE 420 / MR. 420 (Dir. Raj Kapoor, 1955, India) – Contesting Ideologies
The title for Raj Kapoor’s 1955 film Shree 420 takes its social inspiration from the Indian Penal Code. Section 420 deals with cases of fraud and cheating yet it’s popularisation by Raj Kapoor has meant it has become ubiquitous with the figure of the con-man or trickster in Continue reading
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