Bimal Roy distributed the film abroad in the name “Calcutta - The Cruel City”. Indeed, the shattering image of Shambhu overtaking a horse cart as his customer offers more money for going faster shows how humans and beasts are considered no different in the cities. The film carries a recurring contrast between the warmth of bucolic life and the sheer frigidity of urban living throughout. Shambhu is consistently snubbed and ridiculed when he asks for a job in the city whereas he was offered a Hookah in the village without even asking.

Rituporno Ghosh’s just released film ‘Khela’ raises an interesting, rather pertinent question–why does a director make a film? Is it because of personal monetary gain or for artistic pleasure or just to be ‘different’ from his/her earlier creations? The question remains unanswered. After sitting through the film for around two hours I am baffled by the very purpose of it. At one level, I felt, its probably what has been so heavily publicized - Ritu’s first film where one of the central characters is a child. A string of national awards aside, Rituparno Ghosh has, in the nineties, brought back to the theatre, a section of the cine-going Bengali middleclass intelligent audience who were till that time, bred upon the classics of Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. No wonder, Ritu was entrusted with carrying the Ray mantle.

Aranyer Din Ratri, (Days and Nights in the Forest), the 1969 masterpiece by Satyajit Ray, looks at the vagaries and vicissitudes of the “new generation” then, in a way, perhaps no other film of its time could. Forty years down, it seems to reflect the complexities of the 21st century generation, in an astonishing close-up.

The story unfolds around a group of four friends, quite unlike each other and yet bonded together deeply. They set out for the tribal Palamau, in Bihar, to tear themselves away from their regulated city life.

Pather Panchali is a director’s movie, where the visuals of the countryside with the meandering roads and the lush fields, the calm waters of the village pond and the disturbing loud chug of the distant train creates an atmosphere which reassures the viewer of the greatness of the director with each of its frame.

The movie, like other Italian neo-realist movies of that time uses non-actors as the protagonist and portrays the miseries and the little aspirations and desires of people….

In my opinion Jana Aranya represents a certain high-water mark of Ray’s film making craft. Made with clinical precision, the film flows well-oiled in every department. The script is lean and sharp and the whole film has a self-effacing feel minus even a hint of any kind of indulgence. Take Somnath the protagonist of the film and compare him with the complicated Dhritiman of ‘Pratidwandi’: none of that in-your-face intensity, instead a most refreshing debut by Pradip Mukherjee who has to be one of the most likeable characters ever in a Ray film.

Mandi is based on a short story called “Anandi” by Ghulam Abbas. Benegal has presented it as a black comedy about a group of prostitutes led by Rukmini Bai (Shabana Azmi) who wants to flourish the flesh trade in the city and runs her brothel with a stern and demanding hand with the charm and talent of her sex-workers. Rukminibai struggles against the ‘moral-police’ forces in the city that want them thrown out, and their brothel destroyed to make room for ‘development’ and make it free from the ill-effects of social “diseases” like Prostitution.

While I understand that criticism is easy and I respect the efforts of the author I do not see the passion for cinema and the efforts justifying the magnitude of the personality that is Rajini showing in this book. The storytelling is disjoint and contains numerous cliches. Dr Sreekanth, couldn’t you have put some more efforts? And what was the editor from the publisher (Om Books) doing ? Maybe they were all in awe of the subject.

Komal Gandhar is layered with cultural references — urban and folk. Heroes take names from Indian mythology- Bhrigu, Anasuya ; the theatre group wants to find its essence in a performance of Shakuntala; Bhrigu compares Shakuntala’s sorrow in leaving behind her forest with an eviction from someone’s own space in Calcutta, writes Anirban Lahiri
Komal GandharIt […]