I watched Bresson's Au Hasard Balthazar for the first time yesterday and still cant seem to get it out of my mind ( my recommendation to anyone interested in "pure-er" cinema - the DVD is awesome , i wish they had a commentary track as well ). Anyways, to understand and appreciate the film I was looking online when I stumbled upon this

http://www.cinemaofmalayalam.net/kazhutha.html




Agraharathil Kazhuthai - 1977
(Donkey in the Elite Colony)

John's second film, Agraharathil Kazhuthai made in Tamil, is a hard hitting satire on the brahminical bigotry and superstition, where a donkey becomes the central character.

A donkey strays into a village dominated by the upper cast Brahmins. Prof Narayana Swamy decides to keep it at his house. He appoints a mute girl to look after the donkey. The entire village turns against the donkey and his caretaker. When the girl's stillborn baby is deposited outside a temple, the donkey is blamed and is killed.

After the death of the donkey some miracles start happening in the village. People start believing that it is the donkey that brought about all the miracles and starts worshipping the dead body of the donkey. The villagers give a ritual funeral to the donkey by burning it. In a symbolic end, fire spreads and engulfs the entire village. Only the professor and the girl survive.

Even though this film won a National award, Doordarshan was forced to cancel a scheduled a TV screening and the Tamil press ignored the film as the Brahmin bigots tried to have the film banned.

Direction & Co-Screenplay: John Abraham
Co-Screenplay: Venkat Swaminathan
Cast: M B Srinivasan, Swathi, Savitri, Raman Veeraraghavan
Cinematography: K Ramachandra Babu
Editing: Ravi
Music: M B Srinivasan



More info here
http://www.collectivechaos.org/kazhuthai.html


n Agraharathil Kazhuthai

In many of his published and unpublished statements about his celebrated film, Agraharathil Kazhuthai (Donkey in the Brahmin Colony, Tamil, b/w, 1979), John Abraham had compared it to a folk poem or a fable. He never bothered to explain nor could he possibly have, least given to theorising as he was. Certain aspects of the film like its apparently farcical and quizzical narrative content, are rightly the sort of stuff that fables are made of. Apart from that, the aspect of the organization of narrative time also has more than a touch of the folk about it, as will be shown here. There are filmmakers who have drawn on known folk material as Mani Kaul did in Duvidha. Mani Kaul has stated at length how he went about the formal problem of the filmic adaptation of the folk material in the Straussian terms of an editing pattern of inside / outside, dark / light, etc. and a corresponding use of colour scheme. In the Donkey film, there is a sequence towards the middle, which may be called the seduction sequence, that shuffles about the narrative time which in every other sense conforms to a simple linear progression. Like an epilogue colours our experience of the narrative retroactively and a prologue sets the tone of the narrative that is to follow, this sequence that occurs in the middle acts back and forth on our perception of time within the narrative structure and prompts us to experience it in a way different from its apparent linearity.

To recount the narrative, the plot-line of the film is here briefly outlined. Professor Narayanaswamy sees an orphaned stray donkey calf near his rented house in the city. He takes pity on the poor animal and brings it to his house, deciding to rear it. Neighbours make sneaky enquiries and word goes around about the professor's curious ways. Ignoring the snide remarks of students and colleagues and putting up with the objections of neighbours, Narayanaswamy keeps the donkey in his house and rears it with great care. After not too long, the principal of the college intervenes and asks Narayanaswamy to mend his ways as it amounts to a breach of decorum on the part of a professor. Narayanaswamy takes the donkey calf home to his village where his old parents live. There he leaves it to the care of a deaf-mute girl who is specially engaged for the purpose. As the donkey is taboo for the Brahmin, it creates much resentment at home and a ruckus in the neighbourhood. Narayanaswamy joins back the college.

Returning home for the vacation, Narayanaswamy sees the donkey happily growing up under the care of the deaf-mute. He spends time feeding and nursing it. His parents and his brother do not express their distaste other than by telling him how the whole family has become the butt of abuse and ridicule on account of the donkey business. The father tells Narayanaswamy how he keeps receiving complaints about the mess created by the donkey in the neighbourhood. Once it has messed up a whole seemantham ceremony by straying into some house. Another complaint relates to how it has knocked down an old lady as she was returning from the temple pond. Again, it has spoiled the religious ritual of a homam and thrown everything into disarray. The vacation is over, Narayanaswamy gets back to the college.

Back home, things were getting worse for the donkey and the family of Narayanaswamy, as well. The deaf-mute woman is seduced by a scoundrel. The donkey enters the temple precincts and grazes there freely. Once when the temple priest tries to chase it away, it kicks him and he falls flat on the ground, injuring himself. The Brahmin elders decide to dispose off the animal by giving it away to the washermen. The deaf-mute is sent back from home. On his return Narayanaswamy learns what has happened to the donkey in his absence. With the help of the deaf-mute he traces the washerman and fetches the donkey back from him. He leaves for the college again.

In the meantime the deaf-mute becomes pregnant and she gives birth to a still-born baby. The sanctity of the temple is ritually defiled as the discarded body of a still-born child is seen in the temple precincts where the donkey also is seen nearby. All the Brahmin residents of the locality are outraged at the sacrilege. They assemble in front of the temple and decide that the donkey should be done away with. The job was left to the hirelings who take the donkey to a hillock outside the village where it is lynched to death. The calm that was thus brought to the village was soon unsettled by a series of events. People get visions of the donkey at night. Miracles happen, like the home coming of a long-lost son, an old crippled woman regaining her power of walking, a couple long resigned to childlessness overjoyed at the thought of the child they are expecting and so on. The village assemble to get a glimpse of the apparition of the donkey. They decide to build a temple consecrated to the donkey.

Returning home, Narayanaswamy learns what has happened to the donkey and is agitated. With the help of the deaf-mute, Narayanaswamy traces the place where the donkey was buried. He hands over its skull to the same group of hirelings who killed the donkey. They set the skull on flame and do a ritual dance in invocation of the all-consuming fire. The village goes up in flames.



has anyone seen this film ?? if so what did you guys think about it and more importantly is there a DVD/VCD/VHS available anywhere ?

BTW - there seems to be an excellent cinema-club in india
http://www.collectivechaos.org/index.html <-- anyone on this forum member of this club ??

That's an excellent site, thanks for sharing it with us. From where do you get your stuff, even that site about experimental Indian cinema you posted a while back was very fascinating.

http://www.google.com (which along with Apple's IPOD i consider to be two of the best invented 'products' in my life so far !) and an obsessive love for the medium called cinema , I am glad to see that others have similar interests.

Thanks again for sharing this with us. Since you mentioned Au Hasard Balthzar earlier, I haven't seen this one yet, I have yet to even see Bresson's Diary of A Country Priest. I have it laying in my Criterion collection box, but haven't seen it yet. But speaking of Criterion DVDs, have you seen there recently released F for Fake by Orson Welles? I just finished checking out the entire DVD earlier tonight and they did such a fantastic job in making this DVD, majority of the points should go to the documentary on Welles on the supplementary disk, featuring rare footages of lost and unfinished films by Welles himself.

No i dont own or seen 'F for Fake' (infact so far i have seen only Citizen Kane and Third Man , both of which i love) - i hope to see it someday though , seems to posses a fellinisque style

As for Bresson's films i have a strong feeling you will love them. At a personal level his films seem to 'influence' me more than 'intrigue' me. With him, film became a legitimate art and not a b***** child of theater. I suggest you get hooked to him rightway , esp. since i see you are a fan of Dreyer <-- who along with Ozu form my own 'Trimurti' of old-wave masters .

I did not know that Bollywood pin up John Abraham made films about donkeys.

Seriously, I'm missing out on many good films on DVD (Criterion etc.) because I wait for HD. The Criterion stuff is all from HD transfers. In some years it's catch up time, though.

Dreyer's The Passion of Joan of Arc -- I'm not quite sure why this film affects me soo profoundly. Sure, Falconetti's portrayal of the title character is perhaps the most fully embodied, utterly transcendent performance ever caught on film. And the film is certainly the work of a great artist (one of the finest the medium has ever known) working at the height of his power and artistry. Still, as a devotedly secular person, I can never put my finger on just why or how I'm so moved by Dreyer's film. But, alas, I am. I will also go as far as to say that The Passion of Joan of Arc is the most affectionate film experience I've had to date.

It's not often that I hear about a good art film in Tamil. Seems like the "parallel cinema" wave hit Hindi, Malayalam, and Kannada, but not Tamil.

I haven't seen any Bresson. Is AHB a good place to start? Is he related to Henri Cartier-Bresson?

Passion of Joan of Arc. Falconetti had a captivating face. BTW, have you watched it in total silence as it was intended? I've never tried, but I think it would be even more disturbing.

I will have to pay my library fines and start renting more Criterion discs

I've seen Dreyer's Joan Of Arc about 5 times now on the Criterion DVD; three times with Richard Einhorn's Voices of Light composition, once in its true silent form, and once with it's audio commentary. Although, absorbing the film in it's original silent presentation would be the faithful approach towards the experience, somehow, I find it more rewarding watching the film with Richard Einhorn's rich composition. The notion of sound & imagery as juxtaposition has a perfect symmetry to the whole experience.

When I got this DVD I watched it the first time late at night with the sound turned down. It was an amzing experience. I couldn't sleep afterwards. The way that Maria Falconetti expressed herself with her eyes, saying what could not be said or heard, left a lasting expression on me. Amazing.

Yup - she pretty much created a benchmark in expressionistic acting for all future artists. I heard she acted in only one film and it was POJA - amazing stuff . I also love ORDET ( which really got me hooked on CTD !)



I personally think its a great place to start ..., just be aware of the fact that religion plays a much bigger role in his films that most others and a slight understanding Catholicism will help. Also, i dont think he is related to Henri in any way but who knows !

for people who want more check this book out ( its not a great book .., but def 'ties' these artists together )
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... s&n=507846

I will be receiving Au Hasard Balthazar soon. Ordet was on TV last week but I missed it.

Make sure you watch the documentary ( assuming its the criterion disk ) , its well worth your time. Would love to know what your thoughts are on this one...

Tonight I watched Diary of a Country Priest. It was a haunting film about a young ineffectual priest in a small French town. I need to see it again to absorb everything, but the austere, minimalist style was intriguing to watch. The Criterion disc includes a commentary and a liner note essay, but nothing else.

Also rented La Dolce Vita, The Last Laugh, and The Lower Depths (Renoir and Kurosawa versions).

Now thats a great rental list , I am yet to watch Lower Depths....

BTW - i have listened to the commentary track on DOCP and its not stellar but def gives you an introduction on "what a bresson film/style is" , given balthazar doesnot have a commentary , i would recommend you to listen to it to get a feel for what 'cinema' is all about - not movies, but cinema ( a point bresson seems to stress all life-long )