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dvdisoil
PostPosted: Mon Jun 06, 2005 2:41 pm 
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Location: Chennai, India
Having read his book "Introduction to Tamil Cinema", i can say Bhaskaran is very knowledgeble on indian cinema and writes very well. His pick is very intersting

http://in.rediff.com/movies/2005/jun/06list.htm


Today, we feature film historian Theodore Bhaskaran.

Says Bhaskaran, "First of all, I want to say that many Western film critics and film historians do not have an idea of the complexity of Indian cinema. There is no such thing as Indian cinema; you have Bengali cinema, you have Malayalam cinema, you have Tamil cinema, you have Hindi cinema just as you have French cinema, Spanish cinema, Italian cinema and English cinema. You can't talk about something called European cinema. Indian cinema is like that."

"Though it is very difficult to choose 10 best films, this is my list of 10 all time best Indian films. It is a neck to neck race. The films I have chosen are rooted in the soil, whether it is Bengali, Kannada, Malayalam or Tamil. These films are typically Indian," he says.

Vipul Shah's list | Subhash Ghai's list | Time magazine's selection

Ezhai Padum Padu

(1950)

This Tamil film is an adaptation of Victor Hugo's Les Miserables. A very imaginatively adapted film. The French Revolution, which was the backdrop of Les Miserables, was changed to the Indian freedom struggle. It was shot in the typical Hollywood style. I would rate this as one of the best films made in India.

Director: K Ramnath


Pather Panchali

(1955)

This film burst onto the international scene, and started a process of introspection in Indian cinema. Pather Panchali was a path breaker, and an all time great.

Director: Satyajit Ray


Mughal-e-Azam

(1960)

This film captured the splendour of the Mughal court beautifully. It is also a very typically Indian film with songs, music, and spectacle. Mugal-e-Azam deserves a place in the history of world cinema.

Director: K Asif


Titash Ekti Nadir Naam

(1960)

This film is about the fishermen community on the river Titash and how river silting affects their lives. It was shot entirely in Bangladesh. I would rate this as one of the greatest movies Indian cinema has seen.

Director: Ritwik Ghatak


Duvidha

(1973)

Duvidha is about a Rajasthani folktale. It is about ghosts and how such beliefs form a part of Indian rural life. What I recall distinctly is the way colour is used in the film, very imaginatively and symbolically; subdued and in an understated way. Story telling was also in the folklore style.

Director: Mani Kaul


Mrigaya

(1976)

Mrigaya was set against the Santhal rebellion (1857 to 1858). There is a Santhal couple and two white couples in the film, and Mrinal Sen juxtaposes their lives beautifully. It is an imaginative story set with the Santhal rebellion as the backdrop. It also brings out the political and social tensions.

Director: Mrinal Sen


Elipathayam

(1981)

Images in Elipathayam are fantastic, especially the way he uses the rat trap as a metaphor for life. This is really a master's work. When you go to the Museum of Moving Images in London, there is only one Indian film that visitors can see, and that is Elipathayam. That is the kind of respect the film gets.

Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan

Chidambaram

(1985)

Chidambaram is a beautifully made film in Aravindan's typical, mystical way of story telling. His distinct style is also evident in the film.

Director: G Aravindan

Tabarana Kathe

(1986)

This film is a strong statement on the Indian bureaucracy. The story is about how a poor retired government servant tries to get his pension. It is a socially and politically relevant film. It was chosen as the best Indian film of the year.

Director: Girish Kasarvalli

Prohor

(2002)

Prohor had a great impact on me because it tells the story by images and a minimum of words. The images are haunting and so appropriate. It is the story of three women, all lonely in their own way. One woman, a nurse, gets raped when she is on her way home after her night duty. Later, she finds the rapist in the intensive care unit. All she has to do was pull the tube and the man will be dead but she doesn't do that. She nurses him back to life and when he sees her, he cries. It is a very powerful film.

Director: Subrata Chowdhary
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bhaskar
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 11:24 am 
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Joined: Tue Nov 27, 2001 3:26 pm
Posts: 2254
Location: Birmingham
dvdisoil wrote:
Duvidha

(1973)

Duvidha is about a Rajasthani folktale. It is about ghosts and how such beliefs form a part of Indian rural life. What I recall distinctly is the way colour is used in the film, very imaginatively and symbolically; subdued and in an understated way. Story telling was also in the folklore style.

Director: Mani Kaul



Isn't Duvidha the base for the story of Paheli?

I've seen a copy of Prohor on a 3-in-1 DVD................will try and get hold of it at the weekend and post screenshots if I can.
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dvdisoil
PostPosted: Tue Jun 07, 2005 2:07 pm 
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Joined: Fri May 09, 2003 11:54 pm
Posts: 834
Location: Chennai, India
bhaskar wrote:
Isn't Duvidha the base for the story of Paheli?

I've seen a copy of Prohor on a 3-in-1 DVD................will try and get hold of it at the weekend and post screenshots if I can.


Paheli is a remake of the original Duvidha - Mani Kaul's movie based on the literary work of Vijaydan Detha's Dohrijoon. Interestingly enough Satyajit Ray found this film very fulfilling, hopefully Paheli is upto the mark of this classic !
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