New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2019; pp xx + 172, `
895.
This book grapples with the relationship between post-globalisation Hindi cinema and the shifting geography of cities, the rising masculine anxieties and the disappearance of tangible hard differentials. Paunksnis wants to make sense of recent shifts in Hindi cinema and address the rationale behind ‘‘the pessimism and alienation most films are infused with’’ (p xiii). The operative period for his analysis begins in the 2000s when, he claims, ‘‘a period of euphoric joy regarding becoming global’’ turned dark and eerie (p xii), for a “highly diverse rhizomatic film form” to emerge (p 5). Unlike the claims about
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Gurvinder Singh
Film director
My teacher, the master explorer of cinematic form, Mani Kaul, left us 10 years ago on July 6, 2011. He was 66. In his body of work, from Uski Roti (1969) to Naukar ki Kameez (1999), he created an idea of temporality, profoundly marked and informed by his understanding of Indian music, aesthetics and philosophy. In doing so, he not only created a highly personalised idiom of expression, but challenged the existing notions of meaning and cinematic forms that proved challenging for many an audience, used as they are to a certain acceptable system of the socio-industrial form of filmmaking, which treats facts and meaning as pivots around which a film’s narrative is received and understood.
The genius of Mani Kaul and 50 years of his seminal work, Ashad Ka Ek Din thehindu.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from thehindu.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
CHAITANYA TAMHANE’S WORK is gaining momentum. His directorial debut, Court (2015), a meditation on the banal evil of India’s judicial system, was praised for challenging the ideological conventions of the legal drama through static shots and long takes. No fast cut, close-up-heavy procedural is staged inside the courtroom; no dramatic monologues are delivered; justice is not served. Tamhane’s second feature, The Disciple (2020), while more kinetic in its camerawork (by Michal Sobociniski), proceeds at a similarly measured pace. Its narrative about the existential journey of Sharad (Aditya Modak),