Ritwik Ghatak’s Subarna Rekha: Ghatak’s style is different from Ray’s. It is raw and edgy, replete with repressed energy. The film has a hopeful ending but Ghatak’s depiction of the social reality hits you hard. Caste prejudice, unemployment, poverty and migration are some of the themes. These forces were very strong in independent India as…
Orhan Pamuk’s The Black Book. Intertextuality of the novel made it difficult for me initially. It is also largely about an extraordinary range of reading, and in-depth intensive reading of a particular subject: in this case history, theology and philosophy. Pamuk’s way of looking at the situation is what the novel is about; what are…
Watched the movie Crucified Lovers by Kenzu Mizoguchi. Ugetsu Mongotrai, Sansho the Bailiff, Life of Oharu are all films by Mizoguchi that I had watched earlier. Japanese films of that era especially those of Mizoguchi and Yasuziro Ozu maintain a certain translucence and poise that is unmistakable. Kurosawa’s Rashomon and Yojimbo also have this quality….
A cinematic moment achieves greatness in capturing a particular moment of life, a moment which although small and individual by itself, represents or even encapsulates an entire way of life, a culture, or the personality of the character in entirety; Charulatha swinging in the garden; What Blake calls ‘To see the world in a grain…
Onibaba is an erotic horror story. It is about an old woman and her daughter-in-law living on the fringes of life, hunting down soldiers returning from the battle or killing embittered and emaciated warriors. They stash away the belongings of those who they kill to sell it to a local merchant who gives them sake…
Never watched Werner Herzog’s films before. Watched Aguirre, the wrath of God today. In search of El Dorado, a group of Spanish explorers voyage into the Jungle beyond the Andes along with their slaves. Unable to venture further in the inhospitable terrain, the commander appoints a smaller group of 40 members to go further on…