FILMS DIVISION

BRINGS YOU
th
12 MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL(MIFF-2012) for Documentary, Short &
Animation Films 3rd to 9th February, 2012
Participate and win award worth Rs. 63.50 lakhs

MIFF- 2012 will have following Sections: -

I) International Competition Section: - In addition, following awards will be given from
Categories the Competition Entries: -
a. Documentary Film (upto 40 minutes) a. Best Debut Film of a Director
b. Documentary Film (above 40 minutes) b. Student Film Award
c. Fiction (upto 70 minutes) c. Jury Award
d. Animation d. Critics Award
II) Indian Competition Section: - e. Best Film / Video of the Festival Award
Categories (For Producer only)
a. Documentary Film III) Information Section
b. Fiction (upto 70 minutes) IV) Retrospectives / Special Packages
c. Animation V) Marketing Section

Films eligible are … DVD (All Code) for purpose of selection in Competition
1. Entry in International Competition Section - Section is extended to 17.10.2011
Only films made in India and Abroad in 16mm /
35mm/ Digital format between 1st September, 2009 Note: -
and 31st August 2011 are eligible. (a) Entry by Indian Film Maker or Film entered
within India only
2. Entry in Indian Competition Section - Non - Refundable Entry Fee of Rs.1,000/-(Rs.One
only film made in India by an Indian citizen in 16mm Thousand Only) may be paid by Pay Order /
35mm / Digital format between 1st September, 2009 Demand `Draft Only in favour of Accounts
and 31st August, 2011 are eligible. Officer, Films Division, Government of India,
Mumbai payable at Mumbai (India) Entry fee will
3. Same film cannot be entered in both section. not be accepted in any other form.
4. Films entered / screened in earlier M.I.F.Fs and (b) Entry by Foreign Film Maker or Film entered from
shorter versions / revised versions of films already abroad only
entered will not be eligible. Non - Refundable Entry Fee of US $ 50/- may be
paid by Demand Draft in favour of Accounts Officer,
FOR MORE DETAILS & ENTRYFORM: Films Division, Government of India, Mumbai
You can access our websites www.filmsdivision.org , payable in Mumbai (India) only or send by
www.miffindia.in or you can obtain the Entry Forms from using SWIFT code mentioned below under
our nearest Offices and Branches of Films Division intimation to Films Division, Mumbai. "State Bank
of India, Pedder Road Branch, SWIFT Code No.
Please remember the cut-off date …… SBININBB532 A/C No. 10366538051 - Pay and
Last date for receipt of entry forms, entry fee and related Accounts Officer, Films Division, Mumbai"
documents / publicity material with Digi Beta (PAL only) /

Please rush your entries to:

DIRECTOR
MUMBAI INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL(MIFF)
for Documentary, Short & Animation Films
FILMS DIVISION
Ministry of Information & Broadcasting
Government of India
24-Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai - 400 026, INDIA Tel.: 91 (22) 23513176, 23516931, 23513633 Fax: +91 (22) 23515308 / 2351 1008
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected] Web Site:www.filmsdivision.org , www.miffindia.in
 In This Issue
21
A Requiem for Mani Mama
“Jaipurwali ladki” TANUJA CHATURVEDI recalls the
special bond that she shared with Mani Kaul at the Pune
Film Institute and later in life.

25
His Last Assignment
ARUNA VASUDEV and NEVILLE TULI recall the time
that they spent with Mani Kaul and the contribution he made
to the Osian Cinefan Film Festival.

30
Remembering Mani Kaul
Mani Kaul may have been a visionary filmmaker but his
warmth as a person touched all those who came in contact
with him. Here friends and colleagues remember the simple
qualities which made him such an endearing person.

35
Memories of Mani Kaul
Mani Kaul was a totally uncompromising filmmaker who Tributes
never sought popularity but assiduously pursued his own Noted critics KHALID MOHAMED, GIRISH SHAHANE,
vision of cinema. His own version of true cinema led to DEREK MALCOLM and RADA SESIC pay rich tributes to
Kaul being admired by the more adventurous Indian and the genius of Mani Kaul.
European critics and often adored by the film students he
taught, but largely ignored by the public. Documentary
45
Today pays homage to this visionary filmmaker who Chris Marker at 90
passed away on July 6, 2011, at the age of 66 years, Chris Marker, the writer and director of such influential
films as La Jetée (1962) and Sans Soleil (1982), turned 90 in
04 July this year, but he shows no signs of slowing down. One
Mani Kaul will live through his students of the great cineastes of our time, he is also one of the most
Noted Hindi poet, essayist, short fiction and script-writer private persons. He hates publicity and rarely makes public
UDAYAN VAJPEYI pays tribute to his guru. appearances. This is a rare interview of the legendary French
filmmaker and photographer taken eight years ago.
08
Master of the visual
50
PARTHA CHATTERJEE writes an obituary on the departed A Scholar and a filmmaker
master of cinema and in doing so reveals several hitherto Documentary Today pays tribute to Bhagwandas Garga who
unknown anecdotes from his life. was an internationally-reputed film scholar and
documentary filmmaker.
11
The Invisible Man of Indian Cinema
58
Indian audiences found his films too European while the The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka
foreign audiences found them too culturally-rooted in India. Is the Channel 4 film on the mass scale ethnic killings in Sri
SRIKANTH SRINIVAS analyses the master's work. Lanka doctored? DT reports on the raging controversy.

16 60
Seven Days In August Festival News
Mani Kaul was only one of the two Indians – the other being Festival reports on the Kerala Film Festival, the Jeevika
Satyajit Ray – invited to present their work at the prestigious Livelihood Festival and the Festival of Emerging
Robert Flaherty Seminar. Curator L. SOMI ROY recalls the Cinemas.
time he curated Mani's work at the Seminar.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 1
From The Editor’s Desk

Documentary at MIFF 2010.

And when he spoke he said something which
delighted us. Recalling his association with Films
Division Mani said, “Films Division was a place …
(where)… we could show each other films, criticise
and fight about cinema. It was an environment where
documentary directors met and it provided a kind of
platform where you were able to show your work,
hear criticism, get together and think.”
Giving hope for the future Mani said, “I think that, if
you really want to empower documentary
Late Shri Mani Kaul was dear to all those who met filmmakers then we need to open up and we need an
him. He may have made some of the most difficult institution and that institution, I believe, is Films
films in Indian cinema but the man himself was Division. That's a place that is so beautiful and so big
uncomplicated and simple. He had a good sense of and it is meant to do this actually. It is meant for us,
humour which made him come up with some of the the filmmakers.”
funniest remarks in a deadpan fashion – very typical
trait of his personality. We are sad that Mani is not here to share this brilliant
vision of the future with us. And indeed, we dedicate
He had a special place at Films Division. We this issue to the man who showed us what cinema is
continued to produce his films and some of his really meant to be.
greatest landmarks in documentary are with us. He
made his first film with Films Division when he came D.P.Reddy
out fresh from the Film Institute. He cut his
cinematic teeth on Homage to the Teacher (1967), Editor
D.P.Reddy, I.A.S.
Forms and Designs (1968) and During and After the
Air Raid (1970). Executive Editor
Sanjit Narwekar
And then came Uski Roti which established his
Assistant Editor
reputation. He continued to make films for Films Anil Kumar N.
Division not making his technical colleagues
Publicity & Promotion
conscious of his international reputation and stature. A. K. Maharaja
The Nomad Puppeteers (1974) followed and one
Production Co-ordinator
could make out that he had found his stride. He Pankaj Ahuja
continued to make films for Films Division
Photographers
(Chitrakathi in 1977) till he hit the high spot in the S.S. Chavan, D.S. Naik
1980s, making a series of brilliant documentaries
Printed at
which redefined the genre: Arrival (1980), Dhrupad Akshay Enterprises
(1982), Before My Eyes (1988) culminating in A1/221, Shah & Nahar Industrial Estate,
S.J. Road, Lower Parel (W),
Siddheshwari (1989).
Mumbai – 400 013
Tel. : 24948608/09/10
Even after he went abroad he stayed in touch, turning
up at the Mumbai International Film Festival which Published by
Films Division
he had helped to structure and strengthen over the last 24, Dr. Gopalrao Deshmukh Marg,
two decades. We last met Mani when he accepted an Mumbai – 400 026
Tel. : 2351 0461 / 2352 1421
invitation to speak at the seminar on Redefining The

2 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Memories of Mani Kaul

Mani Kaul was undoubtedly the Indian filmmaker who succeeded in radically overhauling the
relationship of image to form, of speech to narrative, with the objective of creating a 'purely
cinematic object' that is above all, visual and formal. He was born Rabindranath Kaul in
Jodhpur, Rajasthan in 1942 into a well-connected Kashmiri family. One of his uncle's was the
well-known actor-director Mahesh Kaul. Another uncle was the stylised mainstream actor Raaj
Kumar. Mani joined the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune initially as an Acting
student but then switched over to Direction. He graduated from FTII in 1966. Mani began his film
career playing a small role in Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash (1969) – probably as a tribute to his
initial choice of career (acting) – and then made his first fiction film Uski Roti (1969). The film
created shock waves when it was released as viewers did not know what quite to make of it due to
its complete departure from all existing Indian Cinema, in terms of technique, form and
narrative. After that there was no looking back. One brilliant film followed another: Ashad Ka Ek
Din (1971), Duvidha (1973). All ahead of their times and now widely regarded as the first formal
experiments in Indian Cinema. At that time, however, they were all violently attacked in the
popular press for dispensing with standard cinematic norms and equally defended by India's
aesthetically sensitive intelligentsia. When he could no longer get finance for his fiction films he
turned his attention to the non-fiction format – in his mind, they were all cinema – and directed a
series of brilliant genre-defining documentaries: Arrival (1980), Dhrupad (1982), Siddeshwari
(1989). The fiction films continued to be made: Satah Se Uthata Aadmi (1980), Nazar (1990),
Ahmaq (1992), Naukar Ki Kameez (1999). When he could not get finance for either he turned to
teaching and garnered a huge following of students and admirers. The genius of the man just
could not be contained till Death called a halt … The following is a humble attempt to capture an
iota of the man they called Mani Kaul …

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 3
 Mani Kaul will live through his students
By Udayan Vajpeyi

slow film. Seen from the perspectives

of the cuts or narrative events, etc. such
an observation seems to be not
incorrect. But perhaps this is a wrong
way of seeing or experiencing film.
Mani in this and in his later films too,
tried to invent various paces or what in
music is called layas to bring out the
nature or swabhav of his actors and
also of characters. He was more
interested in the nature rather than in
the natural. Natural acting or the so-
called natural pace of film depends
critically on a certain notion of the
nature. It is an idea about nature and not
the reality of nature.
Ritwik Ghatak … Mani Kaul's first guru. Mani in his text, Bound/Unbound
wrote: “Sensation as a material of pre-
1 mostly by people who do not want to
verbal perception follows a course of
question their own mode or paradigm
To write on Mani Kaul in the past tense perennially coming into form but never
of understanding when they are faced
is an impossible task. He was my guru reaching entirely formed state. This
with a unique work of art. I will, in my
in the traditional sense of the word. It unformed condition is a reason why the
own way, try to propose what Mani's
so happens that the Guru never dies. He in-describable workings of the pre-
films try to do. This will be my own
remains alive in the being of his verbal deeply reflect the spontaneous
attempt to understand his cinema as a
student. Mani, in this sense, is very nature of the subject/object they
lover of cinema and not as a critic of it.
much alive in the beings of his emanate from. It is inconceivable to
It may sound strange but let me confess
students. He will remain so as long as act-out this unformed spontaneous
that, from my childhood, I have a deep
the vision that he inculcated in his charge…”
love for cinema but have never wanted
students remains alive. He will go on
to make a film. To bring out the true nature of an actor
living in his students of cinema, in his
or the ambience of the film, or what
students of literature, in his students of Mani Kaul's films try to make the
Mani called the pre-verbal experience
music. In other words, he will continue viewer “feel” what can be called Time.
of the actor or the space, the director
to live in his students of life. His is not, what Roberto Rossellini
has to invent various ways of weaving
called, “the cinema of pretty images”.
He himself was somebody who always time or creating various configuration
It is, I repeat, the cinema of Time. But
held his teachers in very high esteem. of the temporalities in an attempt to
this is not the chronological time of
He would never forget to remember his free the cinematic image from the
history frozen in some idiomatic form
teachers like Zia Mohiuddin Dagar or burden of the linguistic formations. It
but the clay of which all the living and
Ritwik Ghatak in almost every is through these configurations of
non-living things are made of. It is
conversation that you would have with temporalities that the audience are able
through the fibers of this time that the
him. He felt extremely grateful to his to experience Time, the clay of which
entire existence has come into being.
teachers, something that his students this whole life is made of and not only
He always attempted to bring the
always felt and will always feel for life but death too. Is it a coincidence
substance of time into the arena of the
him. I write, whatever I do, feeling him that the other name for Time is Kaal
experience of his audience. His is the
somewhere inside me. which also means Death.
aesthetics of Time and not of space.
2 In other words, in Mani's films we
In a sense his was not the cinema of
Mani's films have a reputation of being experience our death, meaning thereby
spectacle of space but of the movement
difficult. A strange common perception that there we feel our mortality and
and experience of Time. Such an
is that his films are difficult to through it we come to realize that in us
aesthetics was in place in his very first
understand. Such claims are made which is immortal, which remains
film, Uski Roti. It is known to be a very
itself in all of us.

4 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 3
A deep understanding of India's
performing arts played a significant
role in Mani's life and in the making of
his films. He was not only a great
teacher of Dhrupad music but was, in
fact, a wonderful performer. He never
gave a public concert but those who
have heard him sing in private know
what a wonderful singer he was. He
learned Dhrupad from Zia Mohiuddin
Dagar who not only taught him to sing
and play the Veena but also taught him
to teach music. Mani took a lot from the
experience of his teacher and used it in
the making of his films.
I will cite an example. When he was Zia Mohiuudin Dagar (seen here in Dhrupad)
young, Zia Mohiuddin Dagar was a taught Mani an important lesson which he adapted to cinema
part of the orchestra for one of V influenced by his own philosophical
Shantaram's films. He used to visit the
4
There is significant place of the traditions. He would allow the random
studio where the film was being shot i.e. the unplanned in the shot to enter
and would often wonder why there random in Mani's practice of
cinematography. Random is what was the shot of its own accord. Such
were so many retakes in the shooting. accidents were of great significance to
And he was right – from the point of the not planned in the shot. Robert Bresson
would create a mechanism and, while his film making because perhaps they
music, particularly Dhrupad music, it allowed the unformed, non-idiomatic
is impossible to repeat there. When he he took a shot, he wanted this
mechanism to break open allowing the so called unuttered but utterable to
told this to Mani, he immediately enter the shot and make it vibrant, to
understood what Dagar Sahab was space for something to take place of its
own accord. In fact it was the breaking bring about that sensuous feeling that
saying and from then onwards he never we experience in almost all of his films
ever did the same shot in the same way of the mechanism that he had created
for the shot was what he considered to whether it is Siddheshwari or
twice. Then there were no so-called Dhrupad, whether it is Duvidha or
NG (“Not Good”) shots in Mani's be the grace.
Idiot, whether it is Satah Se Uthata
shooting. All shots were potentially Mani found his own unique way of Adami or Naukar Ki Kameez.
OK shots. NG shot went out of the allowing the divine to make its
lexicon of his film making. appearance in his shots. His way was 5
He was very fond of Van Gogh's
paintings. He would see them for hours
together. In fact, it was he who asked
me to go and visit the Van Gogh
museum in Amsterdam a few years ago
when I had gone to Rotterdam to stay
with him. “You must see his works! He
is not only a wonderful painter but has
brought something unique to the
tradition of painting!”
A few days later I went to the Van Gogh
museum with one of his Dhrupad
students (my Gurubhai) Dilip
Ramanath and spent almost one whole
day looking at Van Gogh's marvellous
paintings. When I returned home, I was
full of Van Gogh's electrifying brush-
strokes. What I loved most was the
manner in which Van Gogh applied his
Van Gogh's Harvest … Seeing the “fieldness” of the fields brush-strokes. It is because of such

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 5
 the other to be able to create such
music. It is truly, what in the tradition is
called margi art.
This word was first used by a tenth
century musicologist Matang. He saw
all arts-forms as either margi or deshi.
Later margi forms were called classical
and deshi were called folk. But if one
goes into the etymology of margi, it
seems to be more appropriate than
'classical'. Margi, this word has come
from mrigaya which means hunting.
Marg means the way or ways one takes
for hunting (mrigaya). Now for
hunting to take place, one has to invent
new ways for hunting. Accordingly the
margi art-forms are those which are
incessantly inventive.
From this point of view Paul Klee is as
much a margi artist as Kavalm Narayan
Panikkar, Cezanne was as much margi
as Nasir Aminuddin Dagar. Mani's
cinema is a truly margi cinema because
it always tries to find new ways of
arriving at its form. Perhaps this is also
one of the reasons why there are no
fixed clues to understand such a kind of
Nasir Aminuddin Dagar … another margi talent. cinema. The viewer has to engage
himself with the art all the time to be
brush-strokes that he ends up painting Gogh, I thought! There, too, the able to enjoy it deeply. Such a cinema is
not the tree but treeness, not the sky but painting lies between the materiality of margi in another sense. It proposes new
skyness, not the field but fieldness. Van the colours and the images that they forms of temporalities in its texture.
Gogh saw the world as made only of give rise to. Once one makes the DVDs
I have a feeling that Mani got this sense
various processes and not of objects. I of works of filmmakers like Mani
from his understanding of Dhrupad. In
told Mani all this and he heard me with Kaul, the essence of the cinematic
Dhrupad also various forms of the
great interest as he usually did “Did experience seems to be lost. Or at least
temporalities surface. There is no fixed
you see the painting with Almond gets diminished. This vision is in
direction in which it moves. The
trees?” he asked. complete consonance with the relation
musician has to go on inventing
of the earthly and the divine in Indian
Many years later, I once told him that I various modes of its movement. In the
philosophical tradition, particularly in
had acquired DVDs of some of his similar way Mani's films do not have
Adwaid Vedant where the materiality
films. Would he be interested in having predestined notion of temporality in
of the world is never discarded, as in
copies of the films? “No!” He retorted them. Therefore their form is usually
Plato, because it is through this
bluntly. I was taken aback. I knew well quite fluid – like Dhrupad. You feel as
materiality, maya that the divine is
that he had no DVDs or prints of any of if you, too, are participating in their
incessantly making its presence felt.
his films. There was a silence for about making.
thirty seconds on the phone and then he 6 He never ever presented a completely
spoke. He told me that for his kind of
The Dhrupad musician in Mani played made cinematic object to his audience.
films, the materiality of the films is as
more than one role in the making of the Instead his style of filmmaking was
important as the illusion of film itself.
kind of films that Mani is known for. such that the audience was the integral
It is between the materiality of the
He was able to understand that the part of their being. And to my mind,
celluloid and the illusion that is carries
deeper form of Dhrupad can, to a great this is a quality of a truly great artist.
that the film lies. For him the material
extent, help in inventing new ways of He/she create spaces in his/her works
on which the illusion is created is as
making cinema. Dhrupad is an so that his/her audience is able to
important as the illusion.
endlessly inventive musical form. One participate in its creation. Instead of
I immediately understood. Like Van has to go on inventing one chhand after presenting a complete form such artists

6 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
are able present 'potential forms', forms Shastra is somehow quite different precisely because of this: he, too, wrote
which seem be to arriving at their from theory. Theory, in an extremely in a way that the narrative did not
whole. broad sense, tries to explain a work of converge on a certain end. Thus
art, tries to find the philosophical basis, Dostoyevsky and Mani were able to
Take for example Siddheshwari. It if any, of the art whereas shastra tries to undo the fixed notion of hope in their
moves freely into the life and find the possibility of a new practice of works. Their works are neither full of
imagination and mythology of and art. hope nor are with it. They are
a r o u n d t h e t h u m a r i s i n g e r, indifferent to the notion of hope.
Siddheshwari Devi. It does not propose Shastra has two levels. One is highly Instead of formatting their works in
any rigid form to that life. Instead, it philosophical where it envisages the such a way that they gave rise to a
allows that life to flow freely in the deeper philosophical connotations of certain hope which, in turn, would
cinematic space of the film. This art. There is other level too. This is the redeem all, their works attempted to
allows the audience the freedom to level where it tries to propose a new underline the presence of the totality
weave his or her own Siddheshwari. It way or ways of practicing art. of universe in each of their
is amazing to see how many Whatever Mani has written on cinema actors/characters. From their point of
temporalities float freely in that film, is more of a shastra and less of a theory. view each person lives in a time and
creating as many chhandas as possible All his discussions of art and cinema space of his/her own as Yogavashishta
and thereby allowing various kinds of were attempts to arrive at a newer envisages. Mani's work only
insights to emerge. What is presented practice of cinematic art. Somehow I illuminates such a truth.
here is not exactly the Siddheshwari as think that there were two great
she was but Siddheshawari as she shastrakaar of cinema in last fifty 9
could be. It is not the fixed past of years. One was Robert Bresson and Mani was a great teacher as we have
Siddheshwari that the Mani's film is other was Mani Kaul. Their films and already noticed. This was so to my
proposing, it is the fluid future that it is writings on films open new ways of mind because he could evoke
allowing to unfold. getting engaged with cinema as an art- enrichment in his students. Enrichment
form. or better still samriddhi, coincidently,
7
is not transactional; it can neither be
It is often said that Mani Kaul was 8
given nor be taken. It cannot be found
some kind of theoretician of cinema. Mani's filmmaking was such that it in capital markets. It can only be
Or that he loved theory. I do not think never lead to any kind of convergence evoked. Mani could and did evoke
so. He was not a theoretician in the (and therefore to any kind of climax) – such an enrichment in his students and
European (or call it, modern) sense of neither in the way the image was in all those people who met him. His
the word. He was, what in Sanskrit is formed nor in the composition of the films did the same with their
called, a practitioner of shastra. I am sound track nor in the way the narrative audiences. They evoked enrichment,
using this word in the same way as it is of the film unfolded. His liking for samriddhi of being in them.
used in Kaamshastra or Arthshastra. Russian novelist Dostoyevsky was
I feel that this enrichment is actually
the presence of prakriti that we all
carry in us. When we are faced with a
great presence or a wonderful work of
art, we start experiencing this prakriti
in us, which means that we start
experiencing that we are not only
individual selves but the totality of the
self which creates and experience the
pleasure of creation, which is present
in each particle of dust and irrigates
each and every thing that exists or
seems to exists.
(Udayan Vajpeyi is a noted Hindi poet,
essayist, short fiction and script writer
whose extended conversation with
Mani Kaul was published under the
title of Abhed Akash. An English
translation of the monograph An
Undivided Sky is under print.)
Robert Bresson … a great “shastrakaar” of cinema.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 7
 Master of the visual
By Partha Chatterjee

MANI KAUL passed away on July 6,

an hour past midnight. Cancer claimed
him. He was a film-maker who swam
against the (main)stream ever since he
made his debut in 1969 with Uski Roti,
based on a Hindi short story by
Mohan Rakesh. It was splendidly
photographed in black and white by
K.K. Mahajan, a fellow student from
the Film and Television Institute of
India (FTII), Pune.
Uski Roti was an idiosyncratic work
but touched by passages of originality.
The actors spoke in a monotone and in
the eyes of many, used to the tempo of
'conventional' films, the pace was too Uski Roti reveals an innate understanding of lenses and lensing.
slow and wholly inappropriate
considering it was about the life of a photography, with a 32mm (probably other elements in the frame, like light,
truck driver and his wife. When first Kinoptik) lens, and rendered all the choice of the lens, other visible objects,
screened at the Regal Cinema in New more beautiful because of it, revealed not to forget incidental sound, the
Delhi in 1972, as part of a film festival an innate understanding of lenses and space thereby created through this
featuring the government-run Film lensing, that is, the ability to capture on harmony or the lack of it, were what
Finance Corporation's productions, it film the image seen in the mind's eye made it so eloquent. He did not like
puzzled and even irritated many of the by the choice of an appropriate lens on loud acting, and when he did allow
viewers. the camera. actors to 'perform', as he did in his
warm, witty, touching comedy Naukar
Seen through the mists of time, one Kaul had the gift of creating emotion Ki Kameez (1998), his last film, he got
remembers its emotion-laden images, on screen simply by choosing the right them to find a balance between
for instance, that of the truck driver's lens and the right kind of light, natural spontaneity and subtlety. He always
beautiful young wife waiting with his and artificial. He would, in his wanted the actor to integrate into the
food in the shade of a tree. The close-up charming manner, say that actors mise-en-scene.
of her enigmatic face, photographed always tried to do too much in front of
against all the norms of classical cine the camera because they forgot that Kaul could, despite his wariness of
Hindi commercial cinema actors,
appreciate those who were good. Long
ago, sipping tea at the terrace café in
Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi, he had
expressed his admiration for Geeta
Bali, an actress from the Hindi cinema
of the 1950s whose acting struck an
effortless balance between pathos and
humour. He thought she had an
incandescent presence on screen.
He had a particular vision of the
cinema, and one remembers him
observing in Hindi, more than a decade
ago, film tees aur chalees ke beech
banti hai (a film acquires its visual
authority when it is shot between the
optical range of 30mm and 40mm in
Naukar Ki Kameez strikes a balance between spontaneity and subtlety. 35mm or the 1:1:33 aspect ratio).

8 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
French film-maker Eric Rohmer, who underlying seriousness. very low. Unfazed, he went through
passed away at 89 in Paris earlier this the shooting with unbelievable
year, had expressed similar sentiments The making of Duvidha also marked confidence. He told Navroze Contr-
regarding the kind of visual language Kaul's parting of ways with Mahajan. actor, who had done projects for the
he liked to use in his films. Mahajan, who had won the National Ford Foundation and was a stringer for
Award for Best Cinematographer in Life magazine, that motion picture
Was Mani Kaul only a visual stylist or a 1969 for Uski Roti, had declined to photography was but an extension of
master craftsman? One remembers photograph the film because it was still photography and that there was
being deeply moved by certain scenes being shot on a Bolex and under nothing to worry about.
in Ashad Ka Ek Din, based on Mohan amateur conditions. Kaul, stung to the
Rakesh's play on the Sanskrit poet quick, decided never to work with Kaul turned every hurdle into an
Kalidas' life and his love for Mallika. him again. It was perhaps then that advantage. There was no money to do
This black-and-white film, eloquently Kaul supposedly made the acid sound, so he reduced dialogue to a bare
photographed by K.K. Mahajan, had a remark, Mai toh kisi paanwale ko minimum and used the aesthetics of
moving scene showing Mallika cameraman bana sakta hoon (I can the silent cinema to great effect. He
feeding milk to a deer. Even more make a cameraman out of any old cast Akbar Padamsee's half-French
moving was a scene towards the end paanwala). Vain as this remark daughter, who knew no Hindi, as the
when Kalidas, in late-ish middle - age, sounded then, it was not far from the silent bride. He managed to complete
tells Mallika, who wants to “turn back truth. He caught hold of Navroze the shooting and practically shamed
the clock” that it was impossible do so Contractor, a fine stills photographer the National Film Development
because life was too immense to come who happened to be passing under his Corporation into releasing Rs.
in their grasp (Jeevan bahut bada hai, window one morning. The making of 2,50,000 to complete the film.
Mallika). The camera, caressing the Duvidha is a saga in itself.
faces of the lovers, moves up to the sky L.V. Prasad, a self-made man and
with scattered clouds adorning it. After Kaul and his tiny unit landed up in owner of Prasad Productions and
all these years, another image also Rajasthan with practically no money. Prasad Film Laboratories in Chennai,
comes to mind, that of a horse seen Financial stringency forced him to was so impressed that he set up an
from the top, through a small window, improvise for all he was worth; he did Oxberry animation film stand for Kaul,
cantering away into the distance. The so, brilliantly. He had four Sunguns, who then proceeded to copy the 16mm
heart is wrenched at the thought of lights of 1,000 watts each, usually used Kodachrome footage frame by frame
Mallika waiting in vain for news of her for newsreel coverage. The reflectors onto 35mm negative film himself and
Kalidas, now a court poet of the king of were home-made and he taught make a beautiful 16/35mm blow-up
Ujjain. villagers to hold them. The brightness copy possible. Apart from its quiet,
of his lights was often affected because subtle narrative, Duvidha was widely
Neither Uski Roti nor Ashad Ka Ek Din the voltage in rural Rajasthan was appreciated for its visual quality.
were commercially released. By then
(1972), Kaul was a married man and a
father and was desperate to work.
Distinguished painter Akbar Padamsee
came forward to help. He loaned him
his 16mm Bolex camera with a
16/86mm Switar zoom lens and gave
him just enough rolls of Kodachrome
film, a very slow emulsion rated at 25
ASA (daylight) and 40 ASA (tungsten),
to shoot Duvidha, his third feature film
and his first in colour.
It was based on a story by Vijay Daan
Deta, a Rajasthani folklorist and writer.
Duvidha, which came out in 1974, was
one of the early feminist works in
Indian cinema. It was about the young
wife of a young merchant, who is away
on his travels, sharing her home and
bed with a ghost who is the spitting
image of her husband. Kaul told his
story with humour, elegance and an Raisa Padamsee played the silent bride in Duvidha.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 9
Kaul had been a favourite pupil of the Documentaries formed an important singer from Benaras, Siddheshswari
stormy petrel of Indian cinema, Ritwik part of his oeuvre. For the Films Devi, did not work for this writer. It
Ghatak, when the latter was the Vice Division he made Arrival, a film on was too pretentious to be effective; it
Principal at FTII. Perhaps Ghatak migrant labourers from villages was neither biography nor fiction but
saw something of his own idealistic arriving in Bombay like so many sacks Kaul's peregrinations into her life and
youth in the impetuous young of potatoes. Those who accuse him of music that led to a labyrinth.
Mani Kaul. Kaul once said: “Humne being apolitical ought to see it. Arrival
unki seva usi tarah se ki thi, jaise ek startled many people who thought of He made a most impressive comeback
chela apne guru ki karta hai ” him as a decadent aesthete. Its in 1998 with Naukar Ki Kameez, based
(I served Ritwik Ghatak with the same powerful visuals proved that he could on Vinod Kumar Shukla's novel. It was
devotion as a disciple serves his indeed inspire the most cynical of a comedy with serious undertones that
master). hacks to rise to the occasion. The film's had the drollery of the early Chekhov
came rawork was done by a Films stories enlivened by a pinch of
He recalled going to Bombay (now Division employee who kept calling Dostoyevskian humiliation of the
Mumbai) once with Ghatak to meet Kaul for years after the film was made, recently married protagonist, a minor
Ravi Shankar, the great sitarist who to express his admiration. Chitrakathi, functionary in a provincial government
was to compose the music for a another Films Division production, is office. It is a great pity that the film was
Bhojpuri film that the former was to remembered with affection after so not released commercially for it would
direct and which later fell through. many years. have had a fairly large audience in
Ravi Shankar was oiling his luxurious India and abroad.
locks when Ghatak and Kaul arrived at Some of his later shorts and
his flat unannounced. Ghatak asked documentaries had brilliant patches He was rueful about the way he, and
him to stop being so effete and virtually but were too idiosyncratic to attract other serious film-makers in India,
commanded him to play, which he did a wide audience. Mati Manas on including the stalwart Kumar Shahani,
exquisitely for the next 45 minutes, terracottas had several poetic were treated by the establishment.
until he broke a string. moments, including a tracking shot of Shaadi ho gayi, bacche ho gaye,
terracottas standing on the ground bacche badey ho gaye, lekin hum ko ye
From Ritwik Ghatak, Kaul imbibed a filmed in reverse. Before My Eyes, log abhi bhi young filmmakers kehte
mulish streak of stubbornness which made for the Jammu and Kashmir hain (We got married, we've had
became his greatest strength. He government well before things children, the children have grown up, yet
disowned a documentary on women collapsed in the State, for promoting they still call us young film-makers), he
that he was directing for the Films tourism, became in Kaul's hands a used to say.
Division of India because a voice-over delightful visual poem both personal
on a shot of women breaking stones by With time, a certain mellowness had set
and abstract in intent. in. Kaul taught cinema at Brown
the wayside had been added without
his knowledge. Siddheshswari, on the light classical University in the United States in the
1990s and was very happy with his
interactions with students, most of whom
were from other academic disciplines
and were pursuing film-making as an
additional pleasure. He loved music and
was a pupil of the rudraveena maestro
Zia Mohiuddin Dagar, who lived in
Bombay. He learned Dhrupad from
the master of Dagarvani. A skin
allergy prevented him from playing
the veena, so he learned to sing Dhrupads
tunefully. He made a long documentary
on Dhrupad in the early 1980s.
Mani Kaul is survived by his two
former wives Lalitha Iyer and Miriam
Van Lier, daughter Shambhavi and son
Ribhu from his first marriage and son
Rumi and daughter Neisha from his
second marriage.
(Originally published in Frontline
Arrival … its powerful visuals startled the audience. dated July 16, 2011)

10 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 The Invisible Man of Indian Cinema
By Srikanth Srinivas

you. The position is its meaning,” he

says.
He has, time and again, spoken
elaborately on the systematization of
fine art by European Renaissance and
the need to find out alternate modes of
expression free from its constraints.
Convergence, be it in the perspective
compositions of painting, the three-act
structure of literature, or the climaxing
of motifs in music, has always been
an area of concern and investigation
for him. (He admires Hum Aapke Hain
Kaun (1994) for its insistence on
spending a quarter hour fretting about a
pair of shoes, at the expense of plot.)
Consequently, fragmentation becomes
the central organizing principle of his
Too “Indian” for Europeans and too “foreign” for Indians … Mani Kaul (right) aesthetic.
at the Berlin Film Festival. Behind on left is the
German filmmaker Reinhard Hauff. Like Robert Bresson, one of his
greatest influences, Kaul prefers
I guess Mani Kaul could be called, with poetry (Siddheshwari) and music filming parts of the body – hands, feet
qualifications of course, the invisible (Dhrupad). Right from his early and head – and positions his actors
man of Indian cinema. The home documentary Forms and Design such that they are facing away from the
audience might find his films too (1968), which sets up an opposition camera or are in profile, thereby
'European', too alien, and too cryptic, between functional forms of industrial disregarding the convention that the
and might prefer instead the realist- age and decorative ones from Indian face is the centre of one's body.
humanist works of an artist like Ray. tradition, Kaul makes it, more or less, (Kaul's sketches, in that sense, are
Foreign viewers, on the other hand, apparent that is he is interested in direct antithesis to the portraits of
might complain that they are too the possibilities of a form itself more Renaissance.) Accordingly, because
culturally-rooted, too alien and too than the question if it can convey a the face is tied to the notion of a unique
cryptic, and instead opt for a 'universal' preconceived thesis. Like Godard, identity, Kaul's actors are stripped off
filmmaker like Ray. Indeed, neither Kaul starts with the image and works all natural expression and behaviour
Kaul nor his pictures make any claim to his way into the text, if any. and de-identified. Many of his shots
'universality'. They are, undoubtedly, are 'flat', without any depth cues or
steeped in Indian classical art forms Perhaps it is classical music, and
perspectival lines. (He traces this to
like how the Nouvelle Vague films specific strains of it, that exhibits
'perspectiveless' Mughal miniature
were, with respect to the European strongest affinity with Kaul's cinema.
paintings and cites Cézanne as
classical tradition. The director has mentioned that the
another major influence.) None of
trait that attracts him to it the most is
the characters are Enlightenment
Many of these films are adapted from that there are elements that just don't fit
heroes having a firm hold on their
literary works in Hindi, have a into a system, notes that slip away and
world. The narratives are decentered
profound relationship with Hindustani could find themselves elsewhere
and distributed across multiple
music and exhibit an influence of in the composition. Similarly, Kaul,
perspectives.
representational forms from the admittedly, edits his films like
country. In fact, his cinema, if not much composing music, moving a shot along This resistance to convergence
else, is about these very forms, both the time line, beyond logic, meaning or principles of Renaissance has also
in terms of subject matter and chronology, till it finds its right place, led him to radically reformulate his
their construction. These films, to in terms of mood, rhythm or whatever relationship to the spaces he films. He
varying degrees, are literature (The parameter the director has in mind. believes that filmic and social spaces
Cloud Door), painting (Duvidha), “And I know that when the shot finds have been conventionally divided into
architecture (Satah Se Uthata Aadmi), its place, it has a quality of holding 'the sacred' – the perfect realization of

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 11
 Made when he was 25, Mani Kaul's
first feature Uski Roti (1969) is what
one might call a poetic film about
waiting. Kaul takes a simple premise
for the film – a woman who goes to the
highway everyday to give lunch to her
husband, whom she, oddly enough,
addresses using his full name – and
strips it down to its skeleton, diverting
our attention from what is represented
to how it is represented. (Kaul likens
this process to a painter emphasizing
his brush strokes.)
Bresson's influence is palpable in many
aspects of filmmaking here: the delayed
editing of shots that parenthesizes
action, the de-dramatization of
scenario, the atonal, unaccented line
delivery by actors without forced
expressions, the emphasis on objects
rather than concepts, the numerous
Bresson's attention to close-ups inspired Mani Kaul … a shot from Pickpocket
shots of hands and faces that have a
grace of their own and, of course, the
an ideal, carefully framed and chiselled, shots. Likewise, none of his “stories”
central, suffering woman. There is even
with all the undesired elements out – converge, or even have a linear
a direct homage to Pickpocket (1959).
and 'the profane' – accidental progression, and, in fact, keep
intrusions, random fluctuations and diffusing and opening up new Additionally, Kaul's own training in
irreligious interruptions; that the possibilities. short documentaries seems to have
moment a filmmaker looks through the made its mark here, given how keen the
viewfinder, he 'appropriates' the The following are short notes on a few
film is on documenting purely physical
hitherto 'neutral' space to compose of Mani Kaul's films. Ashad Ka Ek Din
activities such as kneading dough,
based a set of principles, polishes it and is missing because I haven't seen the
which becomes the central gesture.
turns it into a 'sacred' space. Kaul, on film. Also missing are his shorter
(This would be elaborated upon in
the other hand, has increasingly been documentaries, too numerous to be
the short A Historical Sketch Of
resistant to 'perfecting' an image or included. So then here goes …Uski
IndianWomen (1975)). Utilizing a
space, instead, treating space as Roti (A Day's Bread, 1969)
plethora of Ghatak - influenced wide
something neutral and unclassifiable in
itself and concentrating on the tone,
feeling and emotion of a shot. (This is
also what Godard does in his latest
work, where spaces and images of all
kind are given equal importance.)
In his later films, he has asked his
cameraman not to look through the
viewfinder while filming. (This does
not mean that one shoots blindly. The
director has elaborated in his writings
on how this could be practically
implemented. “What needs to be
determined by the director and the
cameraman is the act of making the
shot: attention being that aspect of time
that deeply colours the emergent
feeling in a shot.”) He has, admittedly,
been open to intrusions and one can see
stray elements, like cat mews
appearing unexpectedly, in some of his The face as landscape … Gurdip Singh in Uski Roti.

12 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Bewitchingly shot like a Dovzhenko
film (and composed like Cézanne's still
lifes), and impressively designed, with
a simple yet striking interplay of red
and white, Duvidha builds on both
Kaul's feminist leanings and highly
personalized aesthetic.
Satah Se Uthata Aadmi (Arising
From The Surface, 1980)
Satah Se Uthata Aadmi (1980) begins
with a shot of a serene lakeside
landscape being abruptly shut off from
view by a closing window, following
which camera gradually withdraws
deeper into the eerily empty rooms of a
dilapidating house where the central
character of the film – a poet – resides.
This notion of the artist being far
removed from reality, and retreating
Duvidha ... a Godardian image of a woman in a red saree against a white wall. further into himself, resonates
throughout the film.
angle shots, in high-contrast central notion of temporal and Based on the deeply personal texts of
monochrome (if only the film had used geographical dislocation (and save on Gajanan Mukthibodh, Satah Se Uthata
European film stock, Pedro Costa the budget) and manipulating time Aadmi presents a world where the
would applaud), a hyperreal sound mix like an accordion player, Kaul weaves revolution has failed, idealism has died
and a highly idiosyncratic grammar a narrative where the past, the out in the name of practicality and the
(horizontal asymmetry, characters present and the future are always in role of intellectuals and artists
facing away from camera, no reaction conversation. (The ghost is simply has been vehemently questioned.
shots), Kaul makes an arresting if not referred to as 'Bhoot' (ghost), which is, Rekindling the question of theory
totally underivative debut. of course, the word for 'past' as well). versus practice, the film attempts to
The predicament of the title, then, examine if residing is certain social
Duvidha (In Two Minds, 1973) involves a choice between the spiritual frameworks to make a living amounts
Kaul's most acclaimed film Duvidha and the material, the bride's past and to a sellout of oneself. (Like Godard-
(1973) opens with a rather flat, future, her childhood and adulthood, Truffaut, Ghatak-Ray, does Kaul have
Godardian image of a woman in a red her freedom and honour and her love anyone in mind?). This fragmented,
saree standing in front of a white wall, and security.
staring determinedly into the camera,
as high-pitched Rajasthani ethnic
vocals grace the audio. Like the
frozen image of Truffaut's juvenile
delinquent, it suggests a predicament
addressed to the audience. Based on a
folk tale, Duvidha speaks of a love that
is beyond time and space. The presence
of the ghost, which falls in love with
the new bride, is not an exotic delicacy
served to us but a given. And so is the
'story', which is read out verbatim to us
by the narrator, freeing the film from
the burden of storytelling, so to speak,
instead allowing it to experiment with
the imagery.
Employing a number of photographs,
freeze frames, jump cuts and
replays, which illustrate the film's Satah Se UthataAadmi withdraws deeper into eerily empty rooms.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 13
 by Films Division) on its head. Not
only does it eschew straightforward
documentation of the titular singer's
artistry, but it almost completely
does away with basic biographical
details to arrive at something more
exhilarating and revelatory. Instead of
presenting music, the film presents the
idea and experience of music. A
bona fide avant-garde feature that
amalgamates multiple timelines,
geographies, realities and narrative
modes, Siddheshwari brings together
various art forms like literature (the
chapterized film opens with a table of
contents!), music (shifts in ragas,
Nazar has the same stylisation as Bresson's Une Femme Douce … reflected in the filmmaking with hue
Shekhar Kapur and Shambhavi Kaul in Nazar
and rhythm changes) and theatre (both
post-socialist state of society that the no instrument can aspire to emulate its in its production design and its
film depicts – through its vignettes of timbre.) emphasis on role-laying throughout).
urban Indian individuals – is reflected The camera is perpetually moving –
in the Malick-like disunited voiceover This trait of not conforming to the dollies and cranes galore – as if reading
which spans three characters and systematized models of Renaissance is an ancient scroll and acts like a force of
which conversely, unites the narrative of special interest to Kaul, who time that moves Siddheshwari Devi
together. has long been aware of the need to through landscapes and times. The
discover non-reductive, discursive soundtrack, similarly, is a dense
A remarkably sustained tone poem, modes of expression. Likewise, network of speech, whispers, vocal and
with brooding surreal passages Dhrupad, like many of the director's instrumental music ad recited poetry.
(including a hypnotic documentary pictures, eludes categorization or Siddheswari Devi is portrayed by a
sequence inside a factory and an compartmentalization. Part historical number of women, including some
unabashedly allegorical finale) and study, part religious documentation of who enact her biography, some who
minor experiments (sections from performances, part experiment with depict her sensorial experiences and
Muktibodh's texts displayed on cinematic time (the sublime shot that Devi herself. This is only one of
screen), reminiscent of Godard's work spans a sunrise invokes contemporary the reasons I'm reminded of Hou's The
of the 90s, rife with strong verticals and 'landscape filmmakers' like Benning) Puppet master (1994). One of them is
perspective compositions (which is and part exercise in thematically Mita Vasisht, whom we see at an
odd, given Kaul's resistance to it), conglomerating classical Indian art archive, at the end, watching tapes of
Satah Se Uthata Aadmi is both Kaul's forms – music, sculpture, architecture, Devi singing, possibly to prepare
most stringent and most affecting painting and cinema – the self- herself for the role. Like The Taste of
work. referential film gives a vivid picture of Cherry (1997), fiction and reality bid
what makes Dhrupad so striking, with adieu, with Kaul restoring things back
Dhrupad (1982) its numerous mise en abymes and to their original places, as though
Dhrupad (1982) finds Kaul studying fractals. returning what he borrowed to create
the eponymous classical music form, his greatest work.
Like in the films of Resnais, with
specifically the Dagarvani variation whom Kaul shares an affinity for Nazar (The Gaze, 1989)
of it practiced by the Dagar family, 'fragmentation', the camera glides Adapted from Fyodor Dostoevsky's
with whom the director has close through the Mughal style corridors and short story, Nazar (1989) bears natural
associations. Apparently, the music courtyards, in which the veteran resemblance to Robert Bresson's
the film examines is one without any artistes of the Dagar family perform shining adaptation of the same, A
form of notation since, reportedly, and teach – while the soundtrack takes Gentle Creature (1969) in its
many of the tones don't fit into off on its own – evoking a sense of characteristically stylized direction of
existing notational systems and the history that is living and breathing. actors and the sacrificing drama for
transmission of tradition is done purely rhythm, mood and an intensity of
orally. (The vocal performances that Siddheshwari (1989) observation. Kaul replaces the
we hear exhibit such malleability of generally bright interiors of Bresson's
human voice that one is convinced that With Siddheshwari (1989), Kaul turns
the typical artist-profile film (produced version of the couple's high-rise
housing, which cordons them off from

14 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
the rest of the world and which is Naukar Ki Kameez (1999), as it other, yet casually oppresses his wife,
emphasized continuously in the appears, is a 'conventional' narrative whom he genuinely loves as well. Like
film, with a low-lit (barely any film, by the director's standards, Aravindan'sOridathu (1986), it
artificial light) semi-dungeon marked with that generally-revered gives us a nation with an identity
dominated by black-blue and brown 'naturalistic' acting and speech, its crisis: one caught between extreme
shades, suggestive of the moral relatively generous use of musical Westernization and dreams of a
malaise that marks both the psyche of score and a general willingness to revolution – between tradition and
the male character and the space the present a string of events, if not a plot. modernity – posing a question to itself:
pair lives in. However,it is also one of Kaul's most To wear or to tear?
The ever-wandering camera hovers experimental features (Kaul couldn't Een Aaps Regenjas (A Monkey's
over characters who appear to be ideally be classified as an experimental Raincoat, 2005)
stationed in space – with barely any filmmaker) and employs a fragmented More fascinating than the fact that A
movement – as if frozen in time. Kaul's narrative structure (which keeps Monkey's Raincoat (2005) revitalizes
ultra-minimal chamber drama, too, spreading out to new directions) with the age-old question of purpose of art
starts off with the suicide of a woman constant chronological jumps back and and its relationship to the real world is
(Kaul's daughter Shambhavi, an avant- forth, an absurd, magic realist tone that low-end handheld DV, which the
garde filmmaker herself), although it (which reveals a tenderness towards film is shot on, helps put nearly all of
is only alluded to by her husband his characters and his geography) and a Kaul's theoretical principles and
(noted director Shekhar Kapur), who potpourri of filmmaking modes inclinations into practice: the idea of
tries to recollect to us what might have (including canned laughter of sitcoms not looking through the viewfinder
moved her to commit this act. Kapur's and internal monologues of low-end while shooting, the rejection of the
stream-of-consciousness delivery of TV dramas). dichotomy between “sacred” and
lines is exceptionally fragmented, as if Set at the fag end of the 60s, Naukar Ki “profane” spaces, the notion of camera
he's trying to wrestle information Kameez, which centres on a lower- as an extension of one's body and
from deep recesses of 'actual and middle class clerk, Santu, in a movement and a deep-seated interest in
convenient' memories. This narrative government office, and his wife, for the experience of filming over filming
within the narrative is the man's way of most part, is a simple metaphorical tale itself.
vindicating himself; of blinding of upward class mobility and its Adopting a loose, instinctive and
himself to the fact that 'ownership' is psychological and social impediments. continuous mode of shooting, Kaul
what that mattered to him all along and Santu is a bundle of contradictions; he inquisitively records an assortment
that he is, like the antiques that he sells, is conscious of class divisions and of young painters at work at two places
a man stuck in time. the need for revolution and yet – Biennale, Venice and at their
Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant's harbours hope for social-climbing, he residency in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Shirt, 1999) recognizes the need to respect the – often interacting with them as he
works. We see that Amsterdam is
something of a dream destination for
budding artists, a melting pot of
cultures, where they can at least hope to
find an audience.
Though never taking potshots at art or
its reception, Kaul's film gently mocks
an art scene where artists seem to be
fond of 'playing' artists, with a set of
personalized eccentricities and self-
imposed clichés. As he samples their
creations, he wonders in the voiceover
if there is any purpose to art at all, given
that it has been able to solve not one of
the world's problems. Kaul realizes
that the question is moot and questions
if art for humans is what a raincoat is
for the monkey: it might not stop the
rain but at least it helps you to
recognize it and shield yourself from it.
EenAapsRegenjas (A Monkey's Raincoat) revitalises the age-old
question of the purpose of art and its relation to the real world. (Originally published in his blog The
Seventh Art/June 2011)

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 15
 Mani Kaul at Flaherty

Seven Days In August

Four of Mani Kaul's films were shown at the Robert Flaherty Seminar between August 6
and 12, 1994 thus making him the second Indian to be presented at the prestigious
seminar – the first being Satyajit Ray in 1956. L.SOMI ROY, who curated the films at the
seminar, recalls the seven days he spent in Mani Kaul's company. Pages from his diary …

Mani Kaul photographed with students

at the 1994 Robert Flaherty Seminar.

Saturday, August 6, 1994 good, I tell myself, before breaking to Ray. The program brings together Eric
him that Federal Express has not been Barnouw and Patricia Zimmerman's
I see Mani Kaul across the room. It is able to trace the prints of his films retrospective of films from the 40 years
the hospitality lounge of the 40th Dhrupad and Siddeshwari, which were of the Flaherty and my program on
Flaherty Film Seminar held at Wells coming in by from India. I cannot films and videos from Asia and the
College in Aurora, upstate New York. gauge his reaction. I realize I do not Asian Diaspora. I am touched by Eric's
We exchange pleasantries: I inquire know him very well. I had met him a recollections of the 1956 Flaherty
about his room, talk about cashing couple of time before, the last in New when a young Satyajit Ray created a
travelers checks, tell him about Go York in the Fall of 1992 when I asked stir by screening his first film Pather
Takamine, an Okinawan filmmaker him if he would attend the Flaherty Panchali (1955) and, for the first time,
from Japan, another guest at this Film Seminar I had been asked to his latest film Aparajito (The
Flaherty, I thought he would like. I tell program. Unvanquished, 1956). Sadgati comes
him Flaherty has no screening on. One of Ray's two short films he
schedule. All 130 participants see There are speeches at the opening night made for television, it is rarely seen. It
every film screened, in three sessions program, and in the Flaherty tradition is about an Untouchable who dies after
starting at 9 in the morning and ending of paying tribute to past guests who being forced to do some back-breaking
around midnight. There are lengthy have passed away in recent years, we chores for a Brahmin. The film is
and sometimes impassioned discu- screen Marlon Riggs' Tongues Untied powerful, showing a more engaged
ssions after each film. Pleasantries are and Sadgati (Deliverance) by Satyajit Ray. Mani leaves the auditorium. He

16 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
has seen the film, I think. It is also a
completely different kind of Indian
cinema, I tell myself, recalling Ray's
negative reaction to Mani's films.
Later, Mani tells me he does not feel
very well. He has not been taking his
medication for the last few days. I am
alarmed. Will he want to go back? I tell
him to rest and get an early night's
sleep, but not to miss Go Takamine's
film in the morning.
Sunday, August 7, 1994
One package has arrived in Memphis.
The papers for US customs are not in
this package and it cannot be cleared.
We don't even know how many other
packages there are. Films Division,
the producers of both films and Federal
Express in India have given different The Cloud Door … part of the Erotic Tales series.
answers. And the computers are down
in India. exclaims when he learns that Okinawa Sandeep Ray, Listen to what my
I am glad that the Flaherty does not isn't at all like in the film and Takamine teacher told me: Mani Kaul, Kumar
publish a schedule. I want to introduce had made it all up. He is feeling much Shahani... How can you make great
Mani's films with the music film better. Film seems to have restored films with timid, weak names like
Siddeshwari. I schedule it for Tuesday, him. But still anxious about his health, those? Hear my name -- RIT-WICK
together with his latest The Cloud Door I tell him he doesn't have to attend all GHA-TAK! Take my advice and use
(1994) a short film from the German the films, but that he should see your middle name, Mani goes on. From
series Erotic Tales to give more time Leaving Bakul Bagan in my first now on you will be Sandeep BHU-
for the shipping to be worked out. Asian Diaspora program evening, a SHAN Ray! And you will not be
video by Sandeep Ray, a young Indian confused with the other Sandeep Ray,
I start my program with Takamine's American. Mani seems to trust my the filmmaker-son of Satyajit Ray, I
Untama Giru (1989). Mani is elated by recommendation. He loves it. See what add referring to the filmmaker-son of
it. A real filmmaker, he says of Go our young people can do, he says to me. Satyajit Ray.
Takamine. What a gift to his people, he Listen to an older man, he later tells
Most people seem to like my program
so far. But I wonder about the people
who withhold their comment. I wonder
about their silence.
Monday, August 8, 1994
Federal Express confirms there are
only two packages in the shipment. At
least one film is here. I hope it is
Siddeshwari. But they still cannot get it
through customs. How about opening
with Uski Roti? Mani is uncertain. I
made it twenty-five years ago; I was
only 26 then! he cries. To make matters
worse, the print has no English
subtitles.
Uski Roti (A Day's Bread, 1970) was
extremely controversial when it was
first seen in India. A complete
departure from anything in Indian
Uski Roti … indulgent and irrelevant?
cinema, it is a non-narrative,

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 17
 discussion, One must work with one's
instincts. But he is not entirely
convinced by video. An art form must
ultimately be about itself, he says. I tell
him to wait until he sees the videos by
MakoIdemitsu from Japan, to be
shown later in the program.
In the cafeteria, hallways, by the lake,
I start getting some critical comments
about my program. Most seem
to like the program but are missing
that Flaherty experience of critical
discourse leading to a group
intellectual catharsis. I am too formal; I
am not directing the discourse enough;
the Asian Diaspora artists selected are
too young and unformed; what did I
understand by the term "Diaspora";
there aren't any second or third
generation Asian Diaspora artists;
The real life Siddeshwari … there are too many gay and lesbian
works.
experimental first film made by a I tell him, rather hopefully, that
25-year-old Mani Kaul. The film was Siddeshwari might still make it in time. I say the choices are very personal. I
almost universally denounced as self- Mani would rather wait another day, till say that I am not trying to document the
indulgent and irrelevant. I myself Wednesday, rather than start with Uski Asian Diaspora but to express it
remember it as rather boring when I Roti. I consider it. I can change the through these filmmakers. I say I am
saw it in college twenty years ago. Did schedule as I go along. trying to give younger artists a chance
such a film have a place in Indian to attend the Seminar that I am not
cinema? I show some more work by young
interesting in regurgitating a "Golden
Asian artists in the US and Canada.
Hits" of Asian or Asian American film
Another new cinema was emerging Mani likes ShaniMootoo's tapes and I
and video. I remember deliberately and
in India, led by Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Blink ... Three Times and The Island
consciously programming new and
Shome (1969), Girish Karnad's with the Striped Sky by the young
relatively unknown Asian American
Samskara (1972) and Ankur (1973) by Korean video artist Seungho Cho. I
and Asian Canadian artists alongside
Shyam Benegal. Largely inspired by agree with him, Mani says after the
the realism of the great masterworks by
Satyajit Ray in the 1950s and early
1960s, and reacting to the formulaic
commercial Hindi film from Bombay,
these films aspired to social relevance,
artistic integrity and commercial
viability. Uski Roti was the complete
antithesis to this New Indian Cinema.
Even Ray, whose films always broke
even or made some money, came down
on the side of commercial viability as a
benchmark of relevance. Would not the
taxpayer's money spent on Uski Roti
been better used bringing electricity to
even one village in India? Mani had
been asked at one point. It was a cruel
and hurtful question, Mani says to me,
As if I did not want the people of India
to have better lives. I haven't seen Uski
Roti in ten years, Mani says, I cannot
go through that again. … and the one recreated on celluloid by Mita Vashiht.

18 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
more mature and established Asian
filmmakers. I don't quite remember
why.
I join Mani and a group of filmmakers
in the lounge that night. We talk into the
night. At 3 in the morning, I call
Federal Express, pleading, threatening
and cajoling, for them to bend the rules
and release the package they have. I
rejoin the group. Someone in the group
has brought down a boom box. A
cassette of tanpura music emerges
from somewhere. The drone from the
Indian instrument fills the room and
Mani begins to sing. It is beautiful; I
feel I am one with a moment of pure
creation.
Mani pauses. A young Asian American
filmmaker asks if he is singing for
himself or for the group. Mani is
stunned. We are all stunned. You won't
even allow me my little fantasy? Mani Dhrupad … capturing the moment of creation.
asks. I am only trying to deconstruct it,
says the filmmaker, a recent graduate young heroine of film as she waited by One young writer approaches me,
of an American film school. I realize he the roadside for her husband to pick up furious at Mani's joke. It was
does not know Mani Kaul. All the his lunch as he drives by in his bus. I unnecessary, the film was beautiful, he
filmmaker guests have screened at enter her mind as the film folds and says, defending Uski Roti from its
least one film, except for him. I decide unfolds upon itself. Reality, imag- creator.
I cannot wait until Wednesday. I will ination and memory fuse. I do not hear
Mani come into the auditorium. He sits In the lounge that night, I see Mani
screen Uski Roti the next day. surrounded by young filmmakers,
behind me. That's John Abraham, the
Tuesday, August 9, 1994 director, as the beggar, he whispers. artists, teachers. I do not know what
He was my first assistant. I took that they talked about.
Good news, bad news. The package is
shot. That's my voice in this shot; I I call the shipper at 2 a.m. The second
here. It is Siddeshwari. But the last reel
dubbed it. It is the excitement of a package will be here in the morning.
is in the other package. We consider
twenty-five -year- old.
our options. Show the last reel on tape?
Show it incomplete? We decide to stick The film ends. The audience applauds. Wednesday, August 10, 1994
with Uski Roti. At least it will be Mani stands up and says he would like Both Dhrupad and Siddeshwari are
chronological. to discuss the film later. Questions start here. I decide to screen Dhrupad
anyway. I give in. This, after all, is the next and close the seminar with
As we walk up the hill to the
Flaherty Film Seminar. What was the Siddeshwari. We screen more work by
auditorium, Mani does not want to talk
story about, shoots George Stoney. He Go Takamine and Mako Idemitsu. My
about the film after the screening. I tell
is pacified with a written synopsis. program has begun to take a shape, an
him the audience here has seen a great
Then the other comments start: I didn't organic character as a whole. The
deal of experimental film and video.
understand a word of it but I felt I Flaherty catharsis has not happened
He is still unsure.
understood it. I don't care if I did not yet.I feel I am not delivering. According
I introduce Uski Roti. I give a brief understand it, it was so beautiful. I was to Flaherty folklore, a film or video
story line and describe the film's mesmerized by the film. It was like maker cries about this time after
innovations in flashbacks, the use of poetry. Mani is still apologetic. He presenting a work. Maybe the
lenses and the stretching of time. Mani recounts the negative reception the programmer will weep at this seminar, I
is up in the projection booth. The print film received in India twenty-five say. That will be a first, says Kathy
is gorgeous. K.K. Mahajan's black and years ago. He notes that his film did High.
white photography glowed in hues of not make it into Eric's book on Indian
black and silver. One or two people cinema. He even ends with a self- I decide to move The Cloud Door to a
leave in the first ten minutes. The rest deprecating joke. Mani leaves amid late night screening by itself. It is
stay. I watch, rapt, waiting with the applause. short, but I can't believe it took a year to

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 19
 now young artists know more than they
do. A young filmmaker says, I know I
will not make your films. They are very
different from the work I do, but there
is something beautiful, something in
your work that I want very much. She
trails off, unable to find the words. You
don't need my permission, Mani says to
her. If you feel you need it, you have it.
Later, I go up to the filmmaker who had
asked that question and she bursts into
tears. So, a filmmaker did cry after all,
I say to myself, but from inspiration,
not from having her work savaged in
critical discourse. And I remembered
why I had programmed young
emerging filmmakers with great
experienced artists.
I would like to repeat something Mani
told me earlier this morning, I begin to
Music echoes through the ancient fort of Gwalior … a still from Dhrupad.
say. But Mani jumps in. My films have
make, says Mani. through the deserted halls of the been shown in almost all major film
Gwalior, expressing the curves of the festivals. But today, after twenty-five
There has been some comment that the architecture of the ancient fort of years, he says, I feel I have finally
retrospective and the Asian programs Gwalior. Mani discussed his camera found my audience for my films. But I
are working like two different techniques and colour theories. He am a little frightened, he adds hastily,
programs. Patty, Eric and I move films sings for the audience, illustrating the for it is good for a filmmaker to have a
and videos to form a new program music he has tried to capture on film. little bad reputation. Mani gets a
drawn from the retrospective, Asian One person points out the resonance of standing ovation.
Diaspora and Asian short works. If the receding pillars with the scales of
some issues need to be discussed still, Only two Indian filmmakers have been
Indian music. so honored and received at the Flaherty
we decide this will be the chance. This
will be for Thursday night. Friday, August 12, 1994 Film Seminar. One was Satyajit Ray,
the other is Mani Kaul. In India,
I talk with all the filmmakers. Nick I am about to introduce Siddeshwari. Mani's films have been criticized by
Deocampo advises me that I should Eric motions me over and asks about many people including Ray, all these
direct the discussion and elicit Mani's earlier comment about being years. Ray came to Flaherty in 1956,
responses with a defined goal in mind. I excluded from his book on Indian the year this Flaherty programmer was
go to bed early, convinced. cinema. I point out that the book was born. It seems fitting yet ironic that the
written in 1963 before Mani made his 1994 Flaherty Film Seminar opened
Thursday, August 11, 1994 film. But I did mention him in the with a tribute to Satyajit Ray and ended
I wake up, sure that this was not what I revised version, he says. Later in New with a standing ovation for Mani Kaul.
wanted to do. I felt films had too much York, I look it up and discover it is in a But I still wonder what happened to
mystery for me to try to fit them into an footnote. Siddeshwari unfolds quietly. film discourse in those 38 years?
intellectual discourse with an objective Watching this film about Siddeshwari a
legendary singer of thumari I recall (Son of the noted Manipuri litterateur
that I was very unclear about. I also
Mani's earlier comment and realize it is M.K.Binodini, L. Somi Roy is a New
learn at breakfast the Flaherty
also a film about film. It is perfect. York based arts producer working on
experience had happened the night
transnational media projects on
before, much like a birth after very long
The audience loves the film. Mani regional cultures. As a film and
labor. It was during one of the
discusses his film. (Bresson?) I media curator, he specializes in
retrospective programs. I feel a burden
remember Spottiswoodes's textbook international filmmakers exchanges
lift from me. And I had slept through it.
on cinema from my student days, now and Asian, Asian-American and non-
terribly outdated, he says. But I fiction film. He divides his time
We screen Dhrupad. No subtitles again
remember something from the preface, between New York City and Imphal,
but it is even less of a problem. The
he continues, and that is: An artist does where he runs IMASI, the trust in
music of the Dagar Brothers enthralls
more than he knows. It seems to me honour of his mother.)
the audience. The camera sweeps

20 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 A Requiem for Mani 'Mama'
By Tanuja Chaturvedi

Track in zoom out, zoom in track with his band of chelas/ admirers. And his endless repertoire of self-digs and
out… he sets eyes on me and rumbles, flashes of his observation about life.
Mani Mama, Mani Mama, Mani “Jaipur ki ladki. Kaisi hai tu?”(The tu
Mama… being an acknowledgement of our To use words about a Man who only
common muluk). spoke the language of visuals is rather
This ditty sung to the tune of a then daunting and tough.
popular Hindi film song from a Later it would turn to aap now in
Subhash Ghai film by all FTII students. acknowledgment of my typical-film In my little koop-mandook (the frog's
It amused Mani no end. We were school-student-duh question. His well), the name of Mani Kaul first
celebrating just one of the shots in voice sonorous, deep. The large, filtered from Fateh Singh Rathor, the
Mani's vast oeuvre. patrician nose. The handsome, Tiger man. Fattaji, as I called him,
powerful profile, the drawl,“Main nursing an unconcealed crush on him
Images jumble and leap… spoke and spoke about his school
swaant sukh ke liye film banata
hoon.” Then turns full face and gazes friend from Jodhpur who 'makes
Leaping orange flames from a log fire,
into my eyes, “Swaant sukh samajhti movies.' When I look back now, his
the high-pitch tremolo of the crickets,
hain aap? Tulsidas kahte hain jis school friend Mani and he shared a lot
the speaking silence of the wilderness.
sukh ka ant swayam mein hi ho.” And in common. A vitality, stylishness, both
Sitting smack in the middle of the
there would be a silent ripple. He turns performers, both passionate. Mani
Ranthamabor forests where I lay my
back to profile shot, slinging one arm about his Cinema. Fateh Singh about
eyes on this large man with big deep
carelessly on a vacant chair. Large, saving his Tigers. Both these adbhut
eyes for the first time.
muscular arm.Big hands.The perfect men have been felled by cancer. Fateh
Dental Dilemma, a silent exercise we pose.Charisma oozing. I suspected he Singh went before him.
cut on pic-synch. Tall actor performing was a bit of an actor still. My Father was posted as Collector
toothache.
Mani wearing a tomato red shirt post Sawai Madhopur and after his office
Walking to the girl's hostel in FTII and his Amsterdam life, sitting cross- hours we would drive down 6-8
this tall, striking, vital man walking legged at our house, regaling us with kilometers and be in the deep jungles of

The fount of all cinematic knowledge … the Wisdom Tree on the FTII campus.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 21
 would be fine. What clinched going to
FTII was their supreme confidence as
they assuaged the fears of my Father.
Film Institute is a nice place, nobody
will eat her up. And then Bhaiya is
there to keep an eye on her. Imagine!
Mani Kaul keeping an eye on the latest
Jaipur export! But Maa ke gaaonwala
Mama hi hua na? 'Mama' Mani
became and that's how he stays for me.
At FTII, Mani Kaul was GOD. Or the
next best thing to God.If Ritwik
Ghatak is the presiding deity of FTII,
then Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani his
most guni disciples. That he kept an
eye on me I am not sure. But the tu and
Shooting films is a tedious job … Mita Vashisht in Mati Manas. the Jaipur link which he would state
kind of made me feel watched over.
Ranthamabor. I was studying for my expressed it. “Bhaiyya stares at a place,
12th boards, having recently lost my location these people call it, for long. Years later when he had come down
Mother. Papa and I couldn't stick being Then the camerawala puts the camera. from Amsterdam, I made full
inside a house in evenings. Fattaji felt Then Bhaiyya goes and looks through shameless use of this link to invite him
there was no future in studies and I the view-finder. Then he goes back and over for dinner. Rajasthani garlic sukha
should go into movies like Mani Kaul. stares for long. Very long. Then he chicken and gatte ki sabzi for dinner.
And one evening Mani was there. Mani shows with his hands where he exactly Gurpal gleefully told me what clinched
was very wan, distant, aloof. Fattaji wants the camera. Then he shows with the invite was 'gatte ki sabzi.'
told me later that he was having a lot of his fingers a bit down, a bit up… And
Mani enters in a tomato red shirt.
trouble putting together a movie…. then we have no patience and we go to
Niranjan, who has been his
which later got made: Duvidha. But have lunch.” Years later when I
Cinematographer team for Mati Manas
once the daaru started flowing, Mani recounted this to Mani he gurgled with
with Venu, is calming me as I check my
and Fateh Singh sang their childhood laughter and said, “Poor things! But
dishes, the booze. We are thrilled but
songs, limericks, ditties. The orange after that they never asked me to come
don't know where the night would go.
flames leaping, the long shadows of the for a shooting.”
Initially it's all sober, formal. Then
trees dancing.
His sisters told me films were dull seeing my little baby boy crawling
Calling Mani 'Mama' is a very personal affairs but seeing me set they assured Maniasks “Ise kahaan sulati hai tu?”
feeling for me. We came from the same me that if I wouldn't die of boredom, I Between both of us. Mani rumbles with
state. The same city, Jaipur. The city till
then had sent 2 people into the haloed
doors of the Film & Television Institute
of India. Mani Kaul and Asrani, they
would say with huge pride. My Father
was getting good bad-vibes from all
our relatives at my decision to join
FTII. Then one day Papa told me his
buddies, two ladies, were coming to
check out whether I would make the
grade and also to assure him that I was
not going to wolf-land. They were
Mani Mama's sisters. On that
sweltering afternoon, the older one
drove down on her bike with the
younger one.
They had gone for the Rajasthan spell
of his new film, Mati Manas. They
confessed they were clueless about Shah Rukh Khan … kuchh to baat hain usme. Woh star ban gaya.
how films are made. That's how they

22 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
amusement. “Kadwe tel se maalish
karti hai tu?” Now I am uncertain
where this is going. Yup, I say
sheepish. Mani is delighted. He is a
new Father. So he details how his
western wife tried to put a cot, a video
camera and alarm which goes off if the
kid has peed in the nursery. Mani told
her, let the baby sleep between the two
of us. That is how we do it in India. And
our babies carry the feeling of
safety and security all their life. Did
your wife agree, I ask? Mani nods,
“Aankhein khul gayi!” The ice
melts. We discuss techniques of
bathing babies, massaging them with
oil…vehement that Indian system is far
too good.
Of course we talk of Cinema. We pester Johny Mera Naam … its precise compositions and cinematography impressed Mani.
him to take the post of Director FTII
but his only response is: “If they will let narrative and Narrative cinema was The image from out-of-focus coming
me pursue my own film-making. I am fought every day between the “arty” to sharp clarity moved me. It was Mani
not a clerk yaar. I need my freedom. and the “commercial” crowd in FTII. Mama's experience which touched the
Freedom…” Mani at that stage was someone the souls of all of us, even the hardened
'narrativewalas' loved to hate. baiters. The best, most honest, no
Mani hums some dhrupad as he pats phony interview of the book we
my baby to sleep. Cracks jokes about Then one day, the biggest votary of declared.
how the late L.V. Prasad in whose lab Mainstream cinema, my pal comes and
he was developing his picture negative reads a passage from a book with a Later, I heard Mani comes to teach
told him, “You are such an interesting guess-who-said it. The book is Indian at FTII and sees Johny Mera Naam.
man. You talk such sense. So deep, so Cinema Superbazaar. (Malls had not Changes his teaching plan and
fine. Why do you make such boring come till then). He reads and I quote:“I shows it to the students pointing
films?” And Mani cracks up and we all was a very quiet child and my eyesight outits precise compositions, it's
high are giggling. He is rather proud of was weak… I never complained about cinematography.
directing Shah Rukh in Idiot. “Wo star that to my father. If I couldn't see a
thing I would go very close to it. I Mani, as I grasp, never had a theory of
ban gaya na? Hai us ladke mein Cinema that he tried to push to fit one
kuchh.” remember very clearly that if I went to
a film, it looked practically hazy. I saw single viewpoint. He grew, shared,
The myth and folk-lore of Mani is part life also like that… I remember that lived, learnt.
of what we lived and breathed. year, it was Mount Abu. By chance we So tonight when I write my requiem to
were standing on the mountain top and him I say with complete surety…
Raaj Kumar, an actor and a fellow
my sister said, “look at the road. It runs Agree or disagree with his Cinema.
Kashmiri, tells him at a party, “Kya
like a ribbon”. There is nobody… NOBODY from
uski roti iski roti? Hamare saath
aa jao jaani. Mil ke Paratha “Probably because of my weak FTII, who has not been affected by
banayenge!” eyesight I lacked concentration. I was a Mani's cinema. His vitality, his deep
lost child. My Mother seriously questions, his search for the 'image', his
Rauf Ahmed, a film journalist wants humour, his seeking, his showing.
thought that … there might be some
to do a face-to-face with Mani Kaul, Niranjan always says that as a
problem..retardation or something…
Manmohan Desai and an Art cinematographer he opened our eyes.
suddenly it occurs to my Father and he
filmmaker, who makes films about No box or definition could contain
takes off his specs… powerful in terms
social causes and issues. Mani and him. Mani Mama is Free at last.
of lenses. I wore the specs and it was
Manmohan Desai are damn keen to
like a shock… I saw trees, leaves, Mani at last your going puts me in
meet eachother. To do the interview.
rocks, mountains. It was too much for courage to say what I could never say to
Both object to the Art filmmaker.
me…. After that I saw a film called you: I know that Mani knew that we all
They don't want him. Delicately or
Helen of Troy…and after that I could knew that he was a very-very 'sexy'
deliciously they say it.
not think of anything else in my life man.
The trench field battles between Non- except films.”

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 23
 The Magic of Mani Kaul
By Sudipto Chattopadhyay

When I was a student at FTII, the academic debate and dissection about nature that is innate in us as an
community was sharply divided Mani's work now that he has passed amorphous mass. He taught us to give
between those who ardently followed away to become a legend. I will not that amorphous mass shape and form.
Mani and Kumar and those who made dwell on that.
fun of their cinema. But as a raconteur Today, I recall that precious pearl of
Mani had the undivided attention of the I still vividly recall the most important wisdom that Mani shared with us while
entire student community. lesson Mani had taught us as our talking to us about the tradition of
Master. He emphasised the need to Dhrupad. That was Mani Kaul for me.
Kumar was more taciturn and sage- identify our own Swabhaba which That will always be a rare gift that I
like. Mani was the exact opposite: loosely translated and correctly shall hold close to my heart till my
always melodramatic and larger than understood meant identifying the truth dying day. That is precisely how I
life. Almost like a flamboyant film star. that is essentially our own, or the nature remember him as flames consume his
that is innate to each individual. mortal remains.
It was said that even the likes
of Manmohan Desai would be It is this distinct individuality I trust no flame can destroy the legacy
entertained by hearing Mani speak. that separates us, our thoughts and he passed on to us.
our expressions from others and
Those of us who were die-hard Mani creates our individual and unique (Sudipto Chattopadhyay is a FTII
acolytes would often joke about consciousness. He helped us evoke graduate.)
whether cinema was Money Making or
Mani Making. That was the extent of
Mani's charm.
He strode like a colossus and shaped
our cinematic consciousness. Whether
or not you liked his brand of cinema,
you could not but be charmed by the
effervescent spirit of the man. The
witticisms, the twist in the phrase, the
innate ability to scoff at his own brand
of cinema. He taught us to throw
caution to the winds and be self
deprecatory, a trait that most Indians
lack.
The then Mohican of Indian art house
cinema, Satyajit Ray, had rubbished
Mani Kaul's brand of cinema calling it
anaemic in his famous book Our Films,
Their Films. Ray belonged to a certain
tradition of narrative cinema from
which Mani's work was a distinct
departure.
With all due respect to Ray's brilliance,
I suspect the apathy to Mani's
work stemmed from the fact that
Mani was the favourite student of
Ritwik Ghatak, possibly Ray's biggest
rival. I think Mani inherited his
irreverent spirit from Ghatak who
showed him life from the gutters to
gloss.
There will undoubtedly be much Satyajit Ray rubbished Mani Kaul's brand of cinema.

24 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Mani at Osian

His Last Assignment

Ms Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi, presents the Lifetime Achievement Award to poet-filmmaker Gulzar,
at the 11thOsian Cinefan Film Festival watched by Vishal Bharadwaj and Mani Kaul on the right.
At extreme left is Neville Tuli.

In April 2009 Mani Kaul took over as Creative Director of Osian's Cinefan Film
Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, succeeding film critic Aruna Vasudev whose
brainchild it was and who had retired after the 10th edition of the festival in
2008.Characteristically, he changed the structure of the festival and re-defined his
new assignment in a press statement issued on the eve of the festival,"Irrespective of
its independent or mainstream origin, we will strive for a dispassionate portrayal of
new and bold cinema. Our programme will range from uncompromising
experimentation in films, to an archival kind of cross reference between cinemas of
the world, to an articulation of an emerging, thinking new stream cinema in India."
The 11th edition of the festival was held from July 17 to 26, 2009 at the Siri Fort
Complex in New Delhi and Mani was diagnosed with prostate cancer soon after.
Though he began treatment immediately to spread the cancer's spread, not many
people in the Mumbai film industry were to privy to this information since he had
moved to Gurgaon in order to be close to Osian. Even the grief-stricken Aruna
Vasudev who had in the preceding months worked alongside him wailed, “I knew him
for 40 years. I still cannot fathom how this happened.”
In the following articles Aruna Vasudev and Neville Tuli, his colleagues at Osian,
remember the man that he was …

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 25
 The Solitary Artist
By ArunaVasudev
into a highly original form of
documentary. In his view, the line
between fiction and documentary was
non-existent. In Dhrupad, for instance,
he shows the similarity between music
and architecture in the organisation of
volume and space.
With a wonderfully self-deprecating
sense of humour, he reveled in the good
things of life, but could be — and was
— extremely ascetic in the way he
lived. Painter and musician in addition
to filmmaker, he was happy singing
his beloved dhrupad, or painting
his abstract canvases or teaching
enraptured students about cinema,
Mani Kaul, Neville Tuli and Aruna Vasudev at an Osian event, about life and — more and more in
recent times — music. His most avid
Mani Kaul to the end remained capacity of wanting to understand. It audience was of young people not yet
the iconoclastic, uncompromising, feeds you… as if you have no capacity corrupted by market forces. Many
individualistic creator he had been for chewing … What food is to the years ago he came to give a lecture at
from the start. It was variously said of stomach, thought is to the mind.” What the Film Appreciation course we held
him that he was deeply influenced by would he have to say about the world in Delhi. Four hours later, he was
Bresson, Tarkovsky, Ritwik Ghatak. today and the information overload still talking, still exchanging ideas,
Influences yes, to some extent, but that leaves no time for boredom, responding to his young audience's
what he created was a singular idiom boredom out of which imagination thirst for understanding the unique
which was neither imitative nor takes wing? ideas being thrown at them by this
imitable. “Cinema for me is a plastic, charismatic figure.
not a performing art,” he said. “It He won awards and accolades, he
should be direct sculpting in time”. became an iconic figure nationally and But deep down he was a loner. Cinema
These were notions of cinema that internationally, but the possibility of demands collective effort, and all who
awed people but didn't bring in making films remained restricted. The worked with him became his chelas for
audiences. Audiences remained Film Finance Corporation, as it was life. But music and painting are solitary
flummoxed, critics spoke of him with then known, was the saviour for the acts and the very fact that he found joy
reverence. graduates of the film institute — he and fulfillment in both shows the
was one of the first Film and Television essential quality of Mani Kaul the
The reaction to his first film Uski Roti Institute of India graduates — but with individual artist, immersed in the
in 1970 was one of shock. That shock no chain of smaller theatres to thoughts and images and sounds and
remained unchanged to the end — even exhibit the films they made, funds that arose within him and for which he
with Idiot, which had Shah Rukh Khan slowly began to dry up. He made found the highest forms of artistic
in his first film role. It was made as a some of the most memorable films in expression.
four-part series for Doordarshan and the history of Indian cinema — after
edited down to three hours for Uski Roti came Ashad Ka Ek Din, The irony is that now, 15 years after the
theatrical release, but was too far ahead Satah Se Uthata Admi, Duvidha, making of Naukar Ki Kameez, he was
of its time for audiences to be able to Idiot, and much later, his last about to start shooting a feature an
grasp. “A new thought — that is the film, Naukar Ki Kameez. In between Indian-Italian co-production Under
purpose of my films,” he said. “If the came the documentaries: Dhrupad, Her Spell, about Rossellini in India
film is to show you something that is Siddheshwari, Mati Manas. He did based on Dileep Padgaonkar's book.
already known, not only by the not believe in structure, narrative, This was not the time for Mani Kaul to
filmmaker but also by the audience, characterisation — even for feature go.
where will it lead us?” Television for films. For him each shot was treated as (Aruna Vasudev is founder of
him was anathema. “The world we are a whole, complete in itself. The Cinemaya, the Asian film quarterly.)
exposed to on television is killing the shelving of plot and drama took him

26 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 To Mani with love
by Neville Tuli

I cannot say whether our relationship standards of history themselves are no original thinker can avoid. I was
with the death of others, loved ones or being manipulated so as to allow introduced to Mani with much laughter
distant, has fundamentally changed ourselves greater comfort and and in those moments the deepest of
over the past decades. On one level, our complacency with our current beliefs is intellectual burdens appeared graceful
eternal stranger who comes knocking another ongoing deceit in motion. as a result of existentialist humor. Thus
once has now gained such extensive Human institutions are re-calibrating his humor, wit and jokes remain
media coverage that a certain our standards of excellence so low, that clearest in my mind. Mani was a master
immunity feels to be setting into the the aspirations and idealism essential on telling his own jokes on himself.
collective human consciousness in every young mind are being choked Unless you have heard one of the great
regarding the passing on of others. before given a chance to breathe, let Mani Kaul film jokes, narrated by him,
alone live. you have not tasted the best of self-
Once upon a time to read about a car deprecating humor.
accident killing a family of three would Mani loved nurturing and sharing ideas
demand us to think, reflect and maybe with young minds, trying to make them One classic goes like this: Mani's new
care. Today, even the passing away of question in that ancient philosophic landlords, an elderly couple invited
hundreds elicits minor mind-space. sense which today few teachers even him upstairs to dinner one night. The
Unless a loved one is involved we are bother to explore. He seemed lost in his husband was very keen to introduce
becoming immune. Maybe a 'celebrity' world of ideas and like with most Mani to his wife, proud of having such
linkage creates a few tears of thinkers found it difficult to come to an iconoclastic film-maker as his
endearment and a sense of loss, but terms with the harshness of the systems tenant. During conversation the
even then the inner dialogues are we are creating on our daily binge of husband told his wife “Did you know
superficial. action. His journey of nurturing one's that Mr Kaul's new film is about this
freedom so as to continue to ideate and man waiting at the bus-stop…” “No,
To some extent we all dream to live not having to find any acceptance from no, please do not tell me the story and
a long life and recent genetic the general public was an inspiration to spoil my joy.” she immediately tells her
manipulations will probably give us many. husband. Mani calmly smiles at both
extra decades in years to come. Yet, and says “I am sorry he has already told
sooner or later we all also yearn for Generations of filmmakers during the you the story.” How we both laughed
death to visit, especially when the 1960s to the 1980s considered Mani when he first told me this anecdote as
physical pain reach unbearable highs this iconic director, who did it his way an introduction to his work.
or the monotony of existence wishes to and implicitly scorned the mediocre
see no hope. majority. That the popularity and Another nugget suddenly emerged,
adulation of the majority path was seeing my receptiveness to the black
The passing away of Mani Kaul this somewhat missed, was a hiccup which humor. Mani begins: “My uncle used to
morning, eminent filmmaker and a
dear friend, again brings to boil one's
daily dialogue with Death and its
joyous inevitability. Mani was in pain
not only because of the cancer, but also
because of the general public apathy
towards certain values. That this
material world does not sufficiently
respect intellect, integrity, creativity
and honesty with anything tangible
had made his life, as with most
intellectuals, a continually joyous
struggle in many ways.
It is obvious that we are creating a
world which is by and large respectful
of the popular and mediocre, the
superficially glamorous and the inane
far in excess of what history will feel
just in years to come. That the Mani Kaul and Neville Tuli at the 11thOsian Cinefan Film Festival.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 27
 What is Creativity?
By SaurabhM.Vanzara
My Diploma film was in International
Competition at Oberhaussen. One of
the organisers of the festival, Werner
Kobe liked my film immensely and
invited me over with my film to
Frieburg Film Fetival of which he was
the organiser, and was taking place the
next week. When I went there I got to
know that they were also having a
retrospective of Mani's films.
When Werner told Mani that I was
there and that my film was to be
screened Mani apparently was very
happy and told him that I was his
student. And the next thing I know is
my stature was elevated in leaps and
Mani Kaul among the paintings before an Osian auction. bounds in everyone's eyes. Here was
Mani's student with his diploma, the
be this famous actor Raaj Kumar, and If we genuinely feel their pain, our pain, student showcasing his work with his
one day we met at some filmi party. He we will find purpose to move forward, master. And when the screening of my
shouts out from across the room and even if it becomes a most selfish and film took placed, squeezed in between
calls me to him and his friends: “Hey lonely journey. For in sustaining that his films since it was a last minute
Jaani, Mani, what is this I am hearing? journey compassion does emerge, and inclusion, the hall was jam packed.
You want to join films and that you are death indeed becomes our long lost There were people in the aisle,
making a film, and that it is called Uski friend found knocking the door besides blocking the entry, all over. And the
Roti. What is this? A film on roti, woh and so happily invited to visit us post film discussion had almost
bhi uski roti, no one will see it. Come tomorrow or whenever convenient. everyone attending for more then half
with me, join me, we will make a film Maybe the dispassion which is entering an hour. Such was the respect that he
together, we will call it Apna Halwa. humanity has selfish roots, and maybe commanded out there.
What do you say?” Mani mimicked our inability to feel for too long the loss
the famous Raaj Kumar voice so of strangers transforms itself into a And then he took me for dinner, and
beautifully you forgot about all the deeper love for our loved ones. discussed about what he had told me
subtle tones, all the art cinema and Constantly we all search for such when I had taken him to Studio 1 (at
mainstream differences, the choice to resolutions. That the search is no longer FTII) where I had 'put up' a set for my
pursue happiness or wisdom, the lone feverish enough is a bit sad. The Dialogue Exercise. One look at the set
struggle or the group orgies, the triumph distractions of life are doing their job and my basic thought of the script and
of success or integrity, on and on you well. he said: “Your thinking is symetrical,
could read meaning in the mundane. very clinical, structured.”
We believe that there will be plenty of
In a way these two anecdotes best time to think of death in later years, and I asked him if it was bad since creativity
summed up the essence of the great yet that is so untrue. Death should be should flow, take its own form, discover
intellectual. His ability to create our daily companion, our friend with itself, not fall into a pattern. He just
something from nothing, to dwell on whom we dialogue on all matters, so smiled and said, “When you honestly
the simple act of waiting, like many dissolving any fear of meeting this dear express what you have a desperate urge
before, to concoct a creative energy tourist. In those moments there is to express, and if that is in sync with
from just understanding the moment: nothing but love with all around and all your soul, you are truly creative.”
why are we here, what is our purpose? within, there is a deep sense to share and
Its been twenty odd years since that
That it is all within us; that nothing of communicate, there is that unity that we
interaction and every time I try to
consequence lies beyond, that the outer all are here only to elucidate that eternal
evaluate my thought process, I realise
are but minor triggers to dig deep into inner spirit, omnipresent for centuries,
he had summed me up in that one
one's infinite inner angst which can be and will continue to be, and is trying to
sentence. RIP Mani.
as joyous as destructive. Yet it can extricate itself with daily joy, with
liberate if it possesses a deep empathy humor, for humor alone must outlast all (Saurabh Vanzara is a FTII
with humanity. else. Humor alone takes integrity home. graduate.)

28 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Ode to a guru
By Bina Paul

July 6 and we woke up to the Columbia and lived for a while in Mani acknowledged Robert Bresson as
distressing news that Mani Kaul had Holland. Some thought we had lost an the guru of his cinema. Mani's intense
passed away after a prolonged battle artiste. Mani was unapologetic. engagement with music, particularly
with cancer. Mani was a fighter; his Dhrupad, was the abstraction that he
films reflect the lonely journey of an John Abraham who worked on extended to cinema. It was not story
artiste who created works that were Uski Roti as an assistant director telling but experiencing with patience
never popular. We grew up in a cinema, jokingly called him 'Public Money and concentration that Mani sought.
where Mani Kaul was considered a Kaul.' He made most of his films He worked with a variety of talented
dirty word but for all who knew him, for Government agencies such as actors and technicians and each one of
Mani was truly a guru. FFC (now called National Film them acknowledge that it is the Mani
Development Corporation) and Films Kaul film that taught them more about
One could sit at his feet and listen to Division since no private producer was cinema than any film school. The late
him hold forth on music, literature, and willing to back him. This is also a great Bharat Gopi who was cast in Sateh Se
cinema. His sense of humour and that reflection of the 70's when the Uthata Aadmi always spoke about the
twinkle in his eye have touched Government still backed good cinema experience of actually acting by not
everyone who has ever known him. without an eye on the box office. Films acting.
such as Uski Roti, Ashad Ka Ek Din,
Mani has been a figure of veneration Duvidha, Sateh Se Uthata Aadmi, Mati Mani's films are not easy to watch and
for many reasons; his last avatar was as Manas and Dhrupad were all made the last time we spoke he laughed and
Festival Director at Osian. He is the because of public funding. Today these said “Bina Yaar…I'm suddenly very
first, or perhaps the only film festival films are cinematic experiences that popular…because nobody's seen my
director, who organised a Dhrupad are almost unparalleled in Indian films!” Indeed the tragedy is also that
concert at 4 a.m. for visiting cinema history. many of the films cannot be seen. In his
filmmakers and festival guests. They last days he was also engaged in trying
all arrived bleary eyed, not wanting to Beginning from his first film Uski Roti, to restore and get new prints of these
displease their host, to listen to this Mani made a huge departure from the almost lost works.
concert while Mani chuckled and said Indian Cinema “tradition” both in
jhelene do (let them put up with it). The terms of narrative and form. Mani died, cared for in his last days by
selection of films was criticised but a group of students. Through those
Mani believed that as festival director, Uski Roti was the start of a body of dark days they tell me, it was still music
the films he liked were the films to be work which was truly Indian in and cinema that was on his mind. Mani
shown! inspiration but with an aesthetic that is no more but apart from his films he
was not till then seen in Indian cinema. has left behind a bunch of inspired
In 2009, a few of us shared an 'Duvidha,' based on a Rajasthani short students.
apartment in Cannes. One afternoon story, with its stunning imagery and
we went for a walk and bumped into style captured the essence of the (The author is Artistic Director of the
Subhash Ghai. He and Mani were dilemma of the lonely bride. The International Film Festival of
classmates at the Film and Television traditional narrative was transformed Kerala.)
Institute of India. It was a hilarious to be a cinematic exploration.
meeting in the middle of the road in
Cannes. Truly a meeting of art and
commerce! Bina Paul

In Thiruvananthapuram, we all
remember the Aravindan Memorial
lecture where just listening to him
speak with so much passion was such a
pleasure. A born teacher, whether it was
cinema or music, he had this knack of
inspiring and stirring up the intellect.
In the nineties, Mani went through
personal experiences that took him
away from India. He taught at

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 29
 Remembering Mani
Mani's “Tamil Teacher” Lalitha as his Tamil teacher!
By RamchandraBabu Ravi Menon who was my batch mate at the Institute had done
the lead role in Mani's Hindi film Duvidha before he made
his debut in Malayalam films with M.T Vasudevan Nair's
National Award winning Nirmalyam for which I was the
cinematographer. Ravi used tell me a number of interesting
incidents from his shooting experience with Mani Kaul's
team. I lost touch with Mani for a number of years after I
relocated to Thiruvananthapuram. A few years back I
happened to meet him during the International Film Festival
of Kerala and that was our last meeting. He passed away on 6
th July 2011.
I have lost an old friend and great soul and Indian Film
Industry had lost a Master Film maker!
(RamchandraBabu is a FTII-trained cinematographer.)
Camera practicals at the FTII … the girl with the umbrella
is Jaya Bhaduri and the boy holding the reflector
is Ramchandra Babu. The Magic of Ashad Ka Ek Din
Arun Khopkar
While many Film makers made compromises for their
existence, Mani Kaul till the very last breath remained an During the shooting of Mani Kaul's Ashad Ka Ek Din, I was
uncompromising, individualistic creator of films. His films an outsider to cinema -- though I was interested in other arts.
were far ahead of their times which will be always cherished The youthful unit that worked on the film had Vishnu
by connoisseurs of good cinema. Mathur, Surinder Dheer as Mani's assistants for direction.
Hemanto Bose, the editor was also present during the shoot.
I was a student at the Poona Film Institute when he had come
Narinder Singh was the sound recordist and K. K. Mahajan
there to screen his debut film Uski Roti in 1970. The film was
was the cameraman.
really something we have not seen before on the Indian
screen, consisting of lengthy static camera shots and used The shoot was in Kasauli in winter. The budget was really
only one 28 mm lens for the whole film. Many of us didn't low, rooms small and shared. One Ambassador car at times
like it at all in the first viewing , because of the static lengthy carried about 8 to 10 persons. If you could breath
shots and slow pace of the film. But a repeated viewing made comfortably, it meant someone was left out. The cold of the
us to study the film more deeply, made us to think and not Himalayan winter made an adequate consumption of the
remain as passive viewers. Holy Water necessary and it formed spiritual basis for new
friendships. Hemanto Bose had taken it upon himself to
The carefully composed images of light and shade created by
initiate me into the mysteries of filmmaking with everyone
K.K.Mahajan in Black and White was another factor that
else chipping in.
contributed much to the film. I got introduced to him after the
screenings and soon became a friend. During his visits to the In the film, the relationship of the framing was to be
Institute, which were quite frequent we used to meet along maintained with the Ajanta frescoes. Framing was done very
with K.G.George and other friends under the Wisdom tree or carefully and actors moved through previously defined
at the canteen. You are sure to find him always surrounded by distances, marked like musical scales. Shot after shot Mani
admiring students. Such was his magnetic personality. used to get excited and shout, 'Hit ho gaye', sometimes once,
most times again and again. Then would come KK's
At that time he was having a love interest with a Tamilian girl
characteristic drawl, “Hit hi hote jaoge ya dusra shot bhi
Lalitha, (whom he later on married) and he asked me to teach
loge?” Then, laughing, we would move onto another shot.
him a few words in Tamil so as to impress her. He used to
write down words like " Naanunnaikadhalikkeren " ( "I I was utterly fascinated by the bounce boards which KK was
love you ") on a piece of paper and memorize it with proper using and tried to observe what they did. Then one day I
pronunciation. Later on I have also visited his house "Janaki witnessed the Miracle of Light. The shot was a mid-shot of
Kutir" at Mumbai and enjoyed his and Lalitha's hospitality. RekhaSabnis, the heroine of the film. It was to be taken to
Though he was my senior, he introduced me to his wife precisely synchronise with the setting sun, so that one part of

30 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
it would be with the sun setting in the background and the problems. Anyway, those days we had very little means and
remaining part with the engulfing darkness. so had to make do with very little, too. It is from these
evenings and showing him locations for his film that he
Rekha was my classmate at the Elphinstone College and I promised I would shoot, if he ever made a color film. He
had seen her face hundreds of times. It was a pretty and stuck by his word. That's how I got to be on Duvidha. It was
familiar face. But as I watched the shot being taken, the ever- my first ever film.
changing light of the dying sun and the glow of KK's
bounceboards that made the face assume a different life The first thing I noticed was that he never had a script. It was
under the constantly increasing darkness. Rekha was almost all in his head. Most he had was the short story that he would
immobile but the changing light animated her into a privately consult when in doubt. Mani had studied
thousand images. This was no longer the Rekha of everyday Rajasthani miniature paintings so he had selected such
life that I knew. It was someone revealed to me in a divine, locations and we made them as flat as we could, to get that
magical light. If man is made in God's own image, this was it. perspective. Mani is also a very serious student of Indian
classical music. I too have studied classical music but not as
I was captivated, almost impaled to the ground, with my eyes much as him, so often when a camera movement had to be
almost unblinking, devoured the magical transformation that made he would sing in my ear, that was my speed, rhythm of
happened under my very eyes. It was masterminded by Mani the shot. This was real fun, as no one else except the two of us
and K. K. All our evenings together and all the bonhomie had knew what was going on with the camera.
made me suspect the magician in K. K. but here was a proof.
I'll remember this moment as long as I live. Like a flash of I remember the night scenes well. We shot Duvidha on
lightning reveals the whole landscape in one instant, K. K. Kodachrome Reversal film. Daylight was 25 ASA and
revealed to me the wonderland of cinema. From the location, artificial was 40 ASA. Today no one can imagine such slow
I applied to FTII and decided to spend the rest of my life stock. The village in which we shot could not take the load of
chasing this rainbow called cinema. lights. So all the sequences were shot only with two sun guns
and oil lamps. The film was so slow we had to place the lights
(Arun Khopkar played the lead role of Kalidas in Ashad Ka very close to the actors, often so close we thought the clothes
Ek Din. He graduated from the FTII, Pune in Film would catch fire. Whatever we did, the results were
Direction in 1974.) beautiful.
Oh yes, he said he was influenced by Bresson but I think
except for working the actors, I didn't notice anything else.
Mani is a cinema genius
By Navroze Contractor (Navroze Contractor spoke to Oorvazi Irani in an interview
published by Dear Cinema, 24th February 2010)
Mani is a cinema genius. He stands alone. Strong words but
true. His style of functioning depends entirely on what Mani's Humane Qualities
subject he is tackling. Mani had seen a lot of my still work
done in Punjab when he was scouting locations of Uski Roti. By G.S.Bhatia
We would have long discussions about B&W, lenses,
movements, light and concepts. Very little technical stuff. During the course of working with him there were many
More of ideas and things like that. I am not a technical geek, incidents.I will touch upon two of them.One describes the
nor is he. Technical stuff can be solved as and when we faced quality of embracing anything that was helping the film that
he made and the other touches upon his humane qualities.He
wanted to share things with his unit members.
Navroze Contractor
When I was at B.R.Sound & Music and had the privilage to
mix his film Sateh Se Uthata Aadmi. I was supposed to
transfer the title music of the film from Nagra tape recorder.
The original recording was at 7.5? per second. By mistake I
played it at 3.75 ” per second. It was obvious that the music
was playing very slow. He did not react but listened to it very
intentively. When I realised my mistake and wanted to play
the same at the right speed he said, “No. Don't do that. The
slower speed sounds good and goes very well with the
visuals.” I thought he was joking. No he was not. We
recorded the music with the slower speed and everybody
appreciated it. This shows that he had a very open mind.
On another occasion I was mixing a documentary which he
made for a German television channel. He had a reasonably

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 31
good budget for the job we were doing. After the mixing job 'Ayub, don't worry, you'll get the dialogues,' Mani reassured
was satisfactorily done he said to me, “Yaar Bhatia ek me. It felt completely chaotic. But it seemed amongst this
gadbad ho gayee.” I asked him what was it. He said, “You tornado was the calm Mani. He seemed to thrive on it. He
have finished the job too quickly. What do I do with the would constantly be thinking of things to do with the film. I
money that is left “I told him “Share it with your unit remember one very long tracking shot. He decided that
members”.He smiled and he sure did share the money with rather than go back to start the scene again, we would start
his unit members. This brings out the humane part of the man the camera at the top position and work back.
called Mani. Mani was never greedy about money.I will
forever miss him and his beautiful smile and his hearty (From an interview by SubhashJha.)
laughter. May his soul rest in peace. (Ayub Khan-Din is a British-Pakistani actor-playwright,
(G.S. Bhatia is a FTII graduate of sound recording of the who is best known for his performance as Sami in Sami &
1962-1965 batch.) Rosie Get Laid and as the writer of East Is East and West Is
West. Two-time winner of the Laurence Olivier Award,
Ayub has also shared screen space with Shah Rukh Khan
A Bizarre Introduction in Mani Kaul'scelebrated adaptation of Fyodor
Dostoevsky's The Idiot in 1992.
By Ayub Khan-Din
It was a very bizarre introduction to the way Mani thought
and worked. He'd just been in New York where he'd seen me
Mani & SRK: The Seventh Wave
in a film and decided that I was to be his Idiot. He was so By Karan Anshuman
enthusiastic about his idea that he stopped off in London to
Mani Kaul was a man with a sense of humor. In that, his
meet me. I was performing in a play at the National Theatre
exterior was little like the films he made. Inside the mind,
when I was given a note and an address to go and see a
however, lurked a genius, sensitive and sympathetic to the
director from Mumbai who wanted to meet me.
world. Of all the memorable talk when I met him the one
Of course, I had immediate visions of singing, dancing and time, there was one question I had to ask him on behalf of all
running around trees. That is, until I met Mani. He told me followers of contemporary mainstream Hindi films:
about the project and seemed totally unfazed by the fact that I “Shahrukh Khan has gone on about you asking him to 'act'
spoke not a word of Hindi or Urdu, Punjabi - nothing! Again like the seventh wave while shooting a scene on the beach in
another great insight into how Mani worked. He said, 'I don't Idiot. He wasn't very amused, and later claimed that even
care about that, I saw your film and you're my Idiot. We'll though he had no idea what was expected of him, he only
worry about the dialogues later. We'll make sure you have the took such instructions because it was early days in his career.
script months before.' So what exactly was expected of him? Why particularly the
'seventh' wave?”
So I ended up in Mumbai three months later, still without a
script, filming Idiot. It was one of the most exciting acting Mani Kaul laughed. He'd heard about it and that it was even
experiences I've had. So different to the way I'd worked mentioned it in his biography. It was nothing like that, he
before. It was disciplined yet casual at the same time. said, no deep philosophy about the 'seventh wave'. He just
wanted his actor to hold an expression of anticipation long
Mani has a wonderful way with actors. He knew how to get enough. With the sun behind the camera and over the sea, it
the best from them without telling them exactly what to do. It was only a matter of quantifying time as SRK counted the
was unlike any filming experience I had ever had. number of waves in his head. The camera rolled. And Kaul
Particularly as I would normally have had a script. got the look he wanted. Mystery solved!
Ayub Khan-Din
He was a hero to all of us
By Rajat Kapoor
The first time I met Mani Kaul was when I was a student at
FTII. He used to come very often and take random classes for
us. It's impossible to convey the joy that Mani used to bring
with him every time one met him. He was constantly making
jokes about himself and his films; he never took himself
seriously.
I'm missing him very much. He made Siddeshwari when we
were still studying, a film that blew my mind, and later a film
called Nazar in which I assisted him. RafeyMehmood
assisted the acclaimed cinematographer Piyush Shah and we

32 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
worked together for a year. Those were our first lessons in
filmmaking. We learnt immensely from him. We worshipped
him, he was a hero to all of us. There was something so
macho about him. And so much love that always came from
him.
The thing that astounded me about him was his total lack of
bitterness. Here was a genius of a man who couldn't find
producers for his films or get his films released. He was the
butt of jokes for all the 'successful' mainstream filmmakers
who joked about how the best punishment was repeated
screenings of Uski Roti. He even joked about it. It makes me
terribly sad that we keep talking about new cinema and new
India and on the other hand we have filmmakers like Mani
and Kumar Shahani who are not allowed to make films. Yet, Vinod Kumar Shukla
once they die, we call them geniuses and organise
retrospectives of their films, but when they are alive we do
not allow them to make films. There is no one who is ready to 4 months back, he called to inform that he was severely ill
invest even Rs. 10 lakh to allow them to make a film. and would not be able to make the film. The last words I
spoke to him were—“I'm sure you will be able to make the
Mani had not made a film in eight years and Kumar hasn't film”. And this morning I heard about his demise!
made one in over five years. It's something we should all be
ashamed of. After all, the only way we know filmmakers like (Vinod Kumar Shukla is a noted Hindi novelist.)
Mani is through their work. And the best thing we can do for
them is allow them to work.
He was an institution to me
(RajatKapoor is a noted actor and director whose first film
as a director starred Mani's daughter Shambhavi. He is a By Pankaj Sudhir Mishra
graduate from the FTII and Mani Kaul's student and
I was born and brought up in the town of Bhilai in
assistant.)
Chattisgarh. The first time I came to Mumbai was with Mani
(Interviewed by NirmalaRavindran and published in India Kaul for the shooting of Naukar Ki Kameez.
Today dated July 18, 2011.)
I stayed with him during the one year that Naukar Ki Kameez
was filmed. During the course of the film, I told him that I
He wanted to film my novel was not interested in acting and that I wanted to learn
By Vinod Kumar Shukla filmmaking. He told me that I was free to learn whatever I
wanted to. He had realized that my interest lay in filmmaking
I met Mani Kaul for the first time when he had come to and then he asked me to be a part of the editing process of the
Bhopal for the launch of Satah Se Uthata Aadmi which was film. He has been my only teacher in filmmaking. More than
based on Muktibodh's novel. When my book Naukar Ki a director, he was always a teacher to me. I feel I was too
Kameez was published, he wanted to make a film on it and young at that time to understand a person like him and his
would communicate this to me every time we met. But to passion for cinema. He was an institution to me. This is a
make a film is difficult, and he eventually made it. He was a mail that he once wrote me:
learned filmmaker; he had invented a creative language
which could not let a habitual viewer be. The viewer was “Are you now Dheeraj, Pankaj or Sudheer? Mishra is certain.
transformed and transported into another world with his Is there anything to a name? I wonder if I ever told you a story
films. about Shatrughan Sinha. Like you, Shatrughan had no work,
freshly out of FTII (or FTI as it was called then) he used to
He, like Ghatak had set off on a different road with his spend his time running between studios. He was a little
creativity. That road appears empty to me now. He uncertain about his name too. He thought he would become a
experimented with the medium of cinema to express himself. villain in the film industry and following the tradition of a
His aim was neither to make money nor to earn fame through then popular villain K.N. Singh, imagined that his own name
his films. He persevered despite all the criticism; but never should be S.P. Sinha (Shatrughna Prasad Sinha). I
got the kind of success he deserved. immediately told him, drop Prasad from your name and
Mani Kaul wanted to make a film on my story Deewar Mein make the Sanskrit Shatrughna into Shatrughan and call
Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi . Few months before he was yourself Shatrughan Sinha. He told me that was a long name,
diagnosed with cancer, he had sent me the script based on the difficult to pronounce. I said, try for a few months, if it works
film and I had mailed him back the Hindi translation of it. He good, if it does not drop it. Somehow my suggestion stuck in
told me that he was getting the team for this film ready. But 3- his mind and he began to call himself Shatrughan Sinha in

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 33
 Pankaj Sudhir Mishra. He was not against
commercial cinema
By Gurwinder Singh

I was Mani Kaul's teaching assistant when he took a

workshop for Direction students at the FTII in 2005. I have
recently made my first feature film funded by NFDC and was
asked to pick a mentor which naturally happened to be Mani
Kaul. I chose him as my mentor and I shared my script with
him. But it all happened at a time when he was bed-ridden. I
visited him with my entire crew and spent a couple of days
with him at his Delhi residence. I showed him my rushes.
This was about a month back.

studios he began to visit from the next day. Within a week he It was afternoon, and he started playing some music which
got a single shot assignment. He had to enter a room and say a one of his students had composed. I was listening to it and
line. That's all. That little part was a total success. He never felt that it would go beautifully with my film. When he
looked back. finished, I told him that I thought I was listening to the
soundtrack of my film. That's exactly what I thought you
A rosy story! Difficult to repeat. But there is something to a would say, he said. That was him; he would open up things
name even if Shakespeare disagrees with us. Nothing for you, he really valued your individuality. He never wanted
superstitious – just practical. It is a sound. Not a meaning. his students to make films like him. He wanted them to
And that sound carries a reverb. It seems like a long discover themselves, and make films their own way. It is
suggestion for something quite small. wrongly understood that he was against commercial cinema.
You could be his student and yet want to be an ad filmmaker.
Things take their own time. When time appears to bring
He would tell you how you could do that better. He really
about change there will be a hundred intimations from the
understood the pulse of his students.
void within your being. Have courage and continue!”
(Gurwinder Singh was a teaching assistant to Mani Kaul
(Pankaj Sudhir Mishra acted in Naukar Ki Kameez and
and a filmmaker in his own right.)
now works as a creative director in television.)

Mani Kaul was executive producer of Anhey Ghore Da Daan, the Punjabi film directed by Gurwinder Singh.

34 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 The determined outsider
By Khalid Mohamed

He was the uncompromising outsider.

He refused to genuflect to commercial
diktats, sticking stubbornly to his
individualistic — frequently non-
linear — form of filmmaking. Down
four decades, he was identified with
what is variously termed as “art”, “new
wave” and “parallel” cinema. To know
Mani Kaul, who passed away at the age
of 67 after battling a terminal illness,
was to know a mercurial, larger-than-
life man.
As a film director, he discussed
the status of women (Uski Roti,
Duvidha), crafted visually seductive
documentaries (Arrival, Before My
Eyes, A Desert of a Thousand Lines)
and went through a spell of interpreting Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul … Ideologically bonded.
(Photo by KV Srinivasan/The Hindu)
Fyodor Dostoevsky's masterworks.
The Russian writer's short story A
Gentle Creature inspired Nazar, shot in The apartment belonged to his wife, during the mid '60s, Kaul had a healthy
low, chiaroscuro lighting. Lalitha, who doted on him as if he was disrespect for middle-of-the-road
her third kid after Shambhavi and cinema. Kumar Shahani, a fellow
Dostoevsky's classic novel Idiot was Ribu. traveller in filmmaking, was one of his
grafted to an Indian milieu with closest friends.
Ahmaq, which incidentally featured If his temper was provoked, there
Shah Rukh Khan in a key role. Khan could be storm and thunder. Once, a Despite an ideological argument over
has recalled the experience of working Delhi ministry bureaucrat, over the which they came to blows at a cafe, the
with Kaul fondly, albeit with the rider phone, was bamboozling him to fly to bond between Shahani and Kaul
that he could never understand what an international festival in economy persisted. Both had a tough time
the film was all about. class. Kaul reasoned that he wasn't securing finance from the National
interested in going anyway. Yet the Film Development Corporation
As a knee-high child, Mani Kaul, bureaucrat persisted. Crrrrrrash! The (NFDC), for which they had
nephew of prominent B-town director reluctant traveller pounded his fist into directed the most-treasured films in its
Mohan Kaul, saw the world through a glass-topped coffee table. End of repertory. As it turned out, it was a
foggy eyes. His eyesight was weak but phone call. losing battle with the NFDC changing
he thought that's the way landscapes its priorities to market-friendly
and faces look: blurred. It was only A graduate of the Pune film institute, cinema.
when he was around 12 that he wore circa 1969, he went on to become a
spectacles and saw life in focus. “After cult figure in the campus. Students Shahani moved to New Delhi to teach.
that, I refused to change my vision,” he down the years have been intensely Kaul set anchor in Amsterdam, where
would laugh, bemused. influenced by him. Others, obsessive he remarried, had two more children,
about Bollywood cinema, have been before returning to Mumbai. His last
Although his cinema was serious, dismissive about Kaul, saying, “But film was A Monkey's Raincoat and his
groundbreaking and contemptuous of who sees his Uski Rotis?” The rest of last job was as the creative director of
amassing profits, he did not take the world did — practically every one films at the Osean's. The mercurial
himself seriously. His booming of the 25 documentaries and features filmmaker shifted eventually to New
laughter and a saturnine smile a la Jack he made were showcased and saluted at Delhi. Once he had phoned to inquire if
Nicholson were his calling card. In Berlin, Venice and Locarno. M.F. Hussain would allow him to shoot
person, he would captivate an ever- a documentary on his art and life. That
enlarging group of admirers with his He painted abstract canvases and had was not to be. Mani Kaul had become
bagatelles, and impromptu Hindustani acted in Basu Chatterjee's Sara Akash. near-reclusive but his pair of spectacles
classical music soirees, at his home on Deeply influenced by Ritwik Ghatak, were always in place. His vision never
Mumbai's swishy Altamount Road. who helmed the Pune Film Institute altered.
DOCUMENTARY TODAY 35
 Shoot First, Mumble Later
By Girish Shahane

Mani Kaul was the closest thing India Mani Kaul confronted a similar situation found incomprehensible and tedious.
has had to an avant-garde film-maker. with his first film Uski Roti, made when The formal experiments in Kaul's work
Let me explain what I mean by that he was 26. The film is a straight-out left even the leading lights of parallel
term. The great age of the avant- masterpiece. I have no hesitation in cinema befuddled and angry.
garde in visual art occurred in placing it among the great debuts of all
Europe between 1900 AD and the time alongside the likes of Citizen Kane It is amusing, today, to witness
outbreak of the First World War. A and Pather Panchali. It also holds a ShyamBenegal and GovindNihalani
bewildering number of experimental secure place in my list of the ten greatest being asked to eulogise Mani Kaul.
movements flourished at that time: Indian films ever made. On a sadder The media groups all these directors in
Fauvism, Cubism, Expressionism, note, I categorise it as the last truly the category of "1970s and 80s art film
Futurism, Cubo - Futurism, Vorticism, great film produced in India. Movies makers". The fact is, though, that they
Constructivism, Suprematism and so have come close since then: some of belonged to two separate camps --
on. Around 1905, Henri Matisse and Adoor Gopalkrishnan's films, and social realists and aesthetes if you will -
his colleagues began painting in bright Aravindan's, and the early Ketan - with no love lost between them. Mani
hues that bore little resemblance to the Mehta's; and also Mani Kaul's Duvidha, Kaul and his colleague Kumar Shahani
real colours of their subjects. A French made two years after Uski Roti, and his treated Benegal and Nihalani's work
critic dismissed them as Fauves, or last film Naukar Ki Kameez from 1999. with something close to contempt;
wild beasts. But Uski Roti has a clarity and command and, while I'm not aware of what
of medium that sets it apart. ShyamBenegal thought of the Kaul /
Two years later, the 26 year old Pablo Shahani style, I know Govind Nihalani
Picasso painted his seminal canvas, Les The film was so different from the despised it.
Demoiselles D'Avignon. Henri Matisse cinema being produced at the time
ridiculed the painting, calling it a hoax; that even directors outside the sphere Uski Roti doesn't have much of a plot to
and his fellow-Fauve André Derain said of commercial cinema couldn't grasp occupy its 110 minutes. A woman
that one day Picasso would hang its achievement. Satyajit Ray detected travels from her home regularly to give
himself behind that canvas. Their a "pernicious anaemia" in Kaul's work, her trucker husband his lunch. One day
response to Picasso mirrored the a "wayward, fragile aestheticism" that she is delayed and he gets upset.
outrage of the traditionalist French had "led him to the sick bed". Ray was Afterwards, they reconcile. The film's
critic when faced with their own work. in the position of Matisse and Derain affect is determined by its pace and
That's a feature of the best avant-garde faced with Les Demoiselles D'Avignon. framing, which is as controlled and
art: it feels very unlike what has hitherto His own cinema had been criticised unwavering as that of the first two
been defined as art, and can't adequately for its supposed incomprehensibility Godfather films. I like to say that, had
be judged by established standards and tediousness, but here was a The Godfather Part II run for thirty
associated with a given art form. director whose work Ray himself minutes less than it did, it would have
seemed too long. Luckily it runs for
over three hours, which is just right.
When I first saw Uski Roti, I was
completely drawn in; I found its
rhythm mesmeric. However, for those
who can't feel the power and
inexorableness of the near-stasis, a
screening of Uski Roti probably feels
like watching paint dry.
To go back to what Satyajit Ray said
about Mani Kaul and Kumar Shahani, I
was a bit unfair to the Bengali master.
He mentions Uski Roti only in passing,
and concentrates his ire on Duvidha,
Kaul's third film. Ray observes that
Kaul and Shahani have reduced acting
to certain minimalistic gestures,
Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'Avignon faced the same criticism as Uski Roti. eschewing dramatic cliches, but the

36 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
gestures they favour, such as the slow
turn of head from one profile to the
other, become cliches themselves, as
MANI KAUL SPEAKS
do the lavish colours they utilise. This
is absolutely on the spot, and became a
significant drawback in Mani Kaul's
films of the 1980s and 1990s.
In cinema, particularly experimental
cinema, there's no such thing as a good
habit. All habits are bad habits. Kaul's
over-reliance on particular gestures
and modes of expression was
exacerbated by an incursion of
symbols in his work. An element of
self-parody crept into films like
MatiManas, Siddheshwari, Nazar and
Idiot. There's plenty to admire in
each of them, but they are a long way
from Uski Roti and Duvidha. The
beauty in their frames frequently
comes across as a form of prettiness Communication is not necessarily the raison d'etre of a work of art. I am not
rather than an exploration of new preoccupied with communication while making a film. What interests me is
visual possibilities. involvement. With involvement, you arrive at newer concepts. If finally the film
The low point in Kaul's career was The communicates, nothing could be a happier situation.
Cloud Door, part of a series titled Time in cinema for me must necessarily correspond to time in life. In its
Erotic Tales. An actress named juxtaposition of segments, however, cinema has a right to shatter our normal
AnuAgarwal, popular at the time, perception of time. Which is why I claim that in Uski Roti there are no flashbacks
played the central character. Since or flash forwards. I was concerned with the actuality of this woman Balo and
her role involved nudity, the film what we may call her mind life. What happens in her life is not memory, nor is it
became something of a media anticipation. It is also an actuality.
sensation. The Cloud Door is a disaster
from beginning to end; a risible Not looking through the camera' is more of a metaphor than a technical
interpretation of an old myth about a device – the objective is that the camera must be freed from the eye. In human
parrot who tells bawdy tales; a princess body there is nothing more culturally trained than the eye. It can create instant
who saves it from the king's wrath; and organization out of any chaotic material and there lies the problem. The notion of
a lover led by the parrot to the order turns out to be nothing more than visual obsession.
princess's bedroom.
Rather than try to define what is fact and what is fiction and divide films into
Kaul found top form once more with documentary and fiction categories, I find it more useful to first debate the nature
his final film, Naukar Ki Kameez. of the cinematic idiom itself. A statement that Jean-Luc Godard made years back
Hardly screened at all in India, the film seems appropriate to cite here: cinema is not representation of reality but reality
marked a return to a fluid, less stilted of representation. If once we understand that the truth and untruth of reality lies
style. Its easy humour and discernible first in how it is represented by the filmmaker, we can take the second step: we
everyday narrative were refreshing can know that in certain cases (that I call re-presentational) where a thing or a
after all those films involving myth being stands for another thing or another being, like a real human being (an actor,
piled on legend piled on symbol; and for instance) re-presents another (imagined) human being called a character,
Mani Kaul's old control over pace and well, that will be often characterised as fiction. Whereas in certain other cases
framing was evident from beginning to (that I call presentational) where a thing or a being stands for itself and not
end. In person Mani Kaul was a great another and then presents a reality, the work will be mostly thought of as
raconteur, full of energy and humour. documentary.
Somehow that side of his personality
Artists who compromise lose depth. They don't want to extend into
was absent in the films he made in the
metaphor, or ellipses that spark thought, vision. From the unknowable,
1980s and early '90s. He directed no
unnameable, indescribable they come to the surface, as all commodities in the
films in the last decade of his life, but
market must be superficial, reduced to an unthinking sensation. By naming the
Naukar Ki Kameez proved a wonderful
unnameable they merchandise it.
final act.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 37
 The Infinite Possibilities of Cinema
By Ashish Avikunthak

Mani Kaul began his career as a

bespectacled 27-year-old graduate
from the Film and Television Institute
of India (FTII) in 1969 with Uski Roti,
arguably one of the most cerebral
debuts in the history of cinema. It is a
placid, minimalist and profoundly
composed film, making it Indian
cinema's most rigorous experiment
with the representation of moving
images.
Uski Roti gave birth to a cinematic
expression that invoked the structural
elements of cinema to collapse the
dichotomy of time and space. It not
only challenged the obscene spectacle
of commercial cinema but also was a
scathing critique of Satyajit Ray's neo- Duvidha dexterously pushed the bounds of representation.
realist idiom.
Jodhpur in 1942, he went to the (1988), Siddeshwari (1989) and others -
Based on a short story by Mohan FTII when Ritwik Ghatak was the - emerged from this painstaking
Rakesh, it became the radical vice principal (1966-67). Greatly engagement with pre-modern Sanskritic
cinematic text of the Indian New Wave. influenced by the non-conformist epistemic universe and his disciplined
Soon Kaul made Ashad Ka Ek Din epistemology of Ghatak that challenged training in dhrupad under Ustad Zia
(1971), followed by Duvidha (1973), the celebratory exuberance of a Mohiyuddin Dagar.
both of which dexterously pushed the partitioned nation, Mani Kaul delved
into the world of traditional Indian Mani Kaul's cinema is spectacularly
bounds of representation and were an
philosophy, thought and practice. complex and enormously intuitive and
erudite articulation of cinema's infinite
therefore requires a disciplined and
possibilities of making meaning.
His later films – Satah Se Uthata Admi rigorous practice of viewing. Kaul's
Born in a middle-class family in (1981), Dhrupad (1984), Mati Manas films demand an exemplary audience,
one that is as meticulously attentive
to the moment in the frame as the
scrupulous impulse of the director who
made that moment.
It is very easy to affect an audience
with jocular emotional histrionics and
vulgar poignancy – the staple diet of
Indian cinema. Instead, Mani Kaul had
perfected the art of deeply moving his
audience cerebrally by meticulous
philosophical exposition.
His films effortlessly employed
temporality to create a deep spatial
landscape in which human emotions
oscillated with an incendiary
provocation. This cinematic gesture was
so subtle that if one were not attentive
the meaning would be lost.

Satah Se Uthata Aadmi … his later films emerged from a painstaking engagement That happened with even the most
with pre-modern Sanskritic epistemic universe. astute of Indian filmmakers, Satyajit

38 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
Ray, who after a rather gross
misreading of Duvidha blurted:
"Kaul's wayward, fragile aestheticism
MANI KAUL
has led him to the sick-bed." FILMS
Mani Kaul was born with myopia and 1965: Shraddha (15 minutes)
saw the world as a blurred haze until he 1966: Yatrik (20 minutes)
was advised to wear spectacles. Yet as a 1967: Homage to the Teacher
filmmaker he was a master of lensing.
1967: 6:40 pm
Kaul's demise marks an end of a 1968: Forms and Designs
fecund period in Indian film history, 1969: Uski Roti (A Day's Bread, 110 minutes)
where inventive genius of aspiring
1970: During and After the Air Raid
filmmakers was patronised by the state
(however grudgingly). 1971: Ashad Ka Ek Din (A Monsoon Day, 143 minutes)
1973: Duvidha (In Two Minds, 82 minutes)
With the opening up of the economy in
1974: The Nomad Puppeteers (18 minutes)
1991 state support for cinema was
crushed. So in sharp contrast to the 1975: A Historical Sketch of Indian Women
productivity of the first twenty years of 1977: Chitrakathi (18 minutes)
his career, Kaul was only able to make 1979: Ghashiram Kotwal
one feature film in the last twenty years 1980: Satah se Uthata Aadmi (Arising from the Surface, 114
of his life. minutes)
The sadness of his death is exacerbated 1980: Arrival (20 minutes)
by the insipid state of a self- 1982: Dhrupad (72 minutes)
congratulatory Indian film industry, 1985: Mati Manas (Mind of Clay, 92 minutes)
which spends crores producing
a dim-witted circus but cannot spend
1986: The Desert of a Thousand Lines
few lakhs on cinema that transforms 1988: Before My Eyes (23 minutes)
souls. 1989: Siddheshwari (90 minutes)
Mani Kaul's death also marks the 1990: Nazar (The Gaze, 124 mins)
distressing state of film archiving in 1992: Ahmaq (Idiot, 184 minutes)
our country. Kaul spend the last few 1994: Die Himmelspforte (The Cloud Door, 26 minutes) in Tales
years of his life trying to orchestrate of Erotica
support to preserve his films. He was 1996: Lette Gevandter (Light Apparel, 5 minutes 23 seconds) in
greatly disenchanted with the National Danske Piger Viser Alt (Danish Girls Show Everything)
Film Archive of India run by apathetic
bureaucrats rather than by film 1999: Naukar Ki Kameez (The Servant's Shirt)
archivists. 2002: Ik Ben Geen Ander (I Am No Other) (Netherland)
2005: Een Aaps Regenjas (A Monkey's Raincoat) (Netherland)
In my last meeting with him he
poignantly informed me that that
negatives of his landmark films WRITINGS
likeUski Roti and Duvidha were lost Exploration in New Film Techniques, in NCPA Quarterly vol 2, no 1,
forever. 1974
However, the legacy of Mani Communication, in a symposium on The Cinema Situation no 74,
Kaul's cinematic metaphysics is 1977
not dead. Contemporary filmmakers Towards a Cinematic Object, in Indian Cinema Superbazaar, Vikas
like Amit Dutta, Kabir Mohanty, Publishing, 1983
Vipin Vijay, Arghya Basu and myself Seen from Nowhere, in Concepts of Space: Ancient and Modern,
continue to keep it alive.
Indira Gandhi National Centre for Art, Abhinav Publications, New
(Hindustan Times, July 06, 2011) Delhi, 1991.
An Approach to Naukar Ki Kameez, Cinemaya, Winter 1996
(Ashish Avikunthak is a filmmaker
and teaches films at the University of Beneath the Surface : Cinematography and Time (Indian Horizons,
Rhode Island ) 2008)

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 39
 Mani Took The Hard Road
By Derek Malcolm

Those who think of Indian cinema as

the glitz of Bollywood on the one hand
and the eloquent classicism of Satyajit
Ray on the other miss a third important
strand, manifested best by the radical
director Mani Kaul, who has died from
cancer aged 66. Kaul was a totally
uncompromising film-maker who
never sought popularity but pursued
his own concerns, influenced by
RitwikGhatak, his Bengali teacher
and a great director in his own right,
and by Robert Bresson and Andrei
Tarkovsky among the foreign giants of
the cinema. Watching Bresson's
Pickpocket (1959), he once said, was
one of the formative experiences of his
life.
He was, however, entirely his own
man, who understood Indian art,
music, literature and theatre as much as
Bresson's Pickpocket was a formative experience for Mani Kaul.
film. He was a stern critic of orthodox
storytelling and especially the modern
critics and often adored by the film visit to India in the 1950s. The
gyrations of Bollywood. "If film shows
students he taught, but largely ignored screenplay was to be based on
you something you already know," he
by the public. Recently, opportunities DileepPadgaonkar's book Under Her
once said, "where will it lead us?"
were few and far between. In his last Spell, but Kaul was too ill to start the
His own version of true cinema led to year, when he was fighting illness, he shoot.
Kaul being admired by the more had a chance to direct a film about the
Italian director Roberto Rossellini's He was born in Jodhpur, in Rajasthan,
adventurous Indian and European
to a Kashmiri family. His uncle was the
actor-director Mahesh Kaul. Mani
studied at film school first as an actor
and then as a director. His first feature,
Uski Roti (Our Daily Bread, 1970),
became one of the key films of the new
Indian cinema of the time. It tells the
story of a woman who waits for her
truck-driver husband every day with
his food. When he doesn't appear, she
begins to doubt his loyalty and finds
out that he has a mistress in another
town. The film is not an orthodox
narrative, dealing instead with silence,
mood and imagery. It caused a huge
stir, even being lambasted in the Indian
parliament by a member who said it
was so boring she would never forget
it. Kaul took the intended insult as high
praise.
His most famous film was Duvidha (In
Duvidha copied the Rajasthani miniature style of painting. Two Minds, 1975), an adaptation of a

40 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
folktale from Rajasthan that visually some 2,000 years, from tribal music “One of the pioneers of the new wave
copied the Rajasthani miniature style and the celebration of nature and in Indian cinema who explored new
of painting. The story is simple. A the cycles of life. In the last shot, language and expression in his films,
merchant's son returns to his village which extends for some six minutes, Kaul, through his innovative imagery,
with his bride but has to go away on the camera pans eloquently over vocabulary and experimentation
business. She is left alone and a the skyline of Mumbai, looking started a new movement in Indian
"ghost", possibly the product of her at the slums and skyscrapers, cinema. His untimely death has
fertile imagination, assumes the form accompanied by the Dhrupad form, to left a void in the film industry,
of her husband. When the real husband bring pattern and meaning to the which would be very difficult to
returns, the ghost is tied up in a leather chaotic existence of the sprawling city. fill."
bag, much to the woman's distress.
Although Kaul's body of work was Ambika Soni, Minister for
The film, beautifully shot, was shown considerable – he made two films, Information & Broadcasting, India.
widely in European arthouses. But Nazar and Idiot (both 1991), based on
India had and has no such cinemas, one the work of Dostoevsky – his inability I first come to know Mani when I
of the main reasons why the films of to finance the films he wanted led him received a call in 1978 about making a
Kaul, his fellow radical Kumar to teaching film in India, Europe and film on the work of Muktibodh. Mani
Shahani and many other talented film- America, and also to studying the tried to free situations from the proverb
makers could never make a real mark. Indian music he loved. He became an of cinema and do his own thing. His
Though funded by the Indian accomplished singer in the process. search was for purity in cinema. He
government's Film Finance Cor- always made classical cinema without
poration (FFC) and given the promise Although he took the hard road as a caring for what people felt, and often
of a screening on national television, filmmaker, achieving, at least latterly, told jokes about this at his own
the films of the Indian new wave were far less than he deserved, his influence expense. He made films based on
essentially on a hiding to nothing. was considerable. It was once said of classic writings and made them
They could not be shown in the Kaul that he refused to be a passive watchable. He stuck to his own style,
huge cinemas where Bollywood's carrier of the national artistic tradition giving cinema the kind of sanctity that
successful epics attracted full houses, and, with equal vehemence, was a classical art deserved. He was not a
and were often considered abstruse and unconcerned with importing into India popular filmmaker, but a successful
uncommercial. the western avant-garde experiment. one.
Now that he has died, as is often the case
Kaul's group of documentaries, very in India, his work may well be studied Ashok Vajpayi, Chairman, Lalit Kala
unlike those put out by the FFC with with added appreciation. But not by the Akademi
sonorous, often English voiceovers, famous Bollywood director who once Mani Kaul was truly a pioneer of new
were as distinctive as his features. The met him and said afterwards: "I simply Indian cinema and we deeply mourn
best known is probably Dhrupad didn't know what to talk to him about." his loss. He was a legend whose loss
(1982), in which he examines one of will be mourned by all film
the purest forms of Indian classical (The Guardian, UK, dated Thursday
14 July 2011) connoisseurs and students of cinema.
music. The film argues that both folk We at NFDC have had the privilege of
and classical idioms were derived, over closely working with him in Ashad Ka
Ek Din and Duvidha where he was the
producer and Uski Roti and Nazar,
both of which he directed for us.
His bond with NFDC grew stronger
over the years and he was in the
forefront of encouraging young
talented filmmakers. He was a
mentor and creative producer for
Anhey Ghorhey Da Daan, which is in
post-production. We were truly
looking forward to our involvement as
co-producers in his new directorial
venture. With his demise NFDC has
lost a guiding force and the country has
lost an iconic filmmaker.
Nina Lath Gupta, Managing
Importing the Western avant garde … Shambhavi Kaul in Nazar. Director, National Film Development
Corporation
DOCUMENTARY TODAY 41
 I carried his films in my heart
By Rada Sesic

director named Mani Kaul.

Soon after that, at the London film
festival, I saw Idiot. I did not know who
Shah Rukh Khan was. I had also
forgotten Nazar. I was totally taken by
the film and was overwhelmed by its
intensity. Only much later did I read
that it was made by the same director:
Mani Kaul. Idiot became a film that I
carried with me, in my heart, for a long
time.
Coming from Eastern Europe,
Dostoevsky's work is known and
important to most of us. We respect
The minimalist kammerspiel … Shekhar Kapur and Shambhavi Kaul in Nazar. his ability to paint the psychological
nuances of the characters, especially
My first encounter with India way. I felt deeply disturbed and of the problematic ones. However,
determined, in a way, my whole life. I overwhelmed by the relationship in the Mani's characters were something
had come to India with a very small film; it was all so painfully strong that I very different, very fresh – they
crew from Sarajevo, Bosnia and couldn't live through it. had a new dimension from the
Herzegovina – at that time Yugoslavia ones Dostoevsky wrote of. Mani's
– to make a film on Satya Sai Baba, or This minimalist kammerspiel, had such characters were enriched by their
more precisely, on people who need Sai a claustrophobic set-up that the Indian-ness. I haven't noticed that the
Baba in their life. Instead of one month psychology of the main characters in film was long (by European standards).
we stayed for four months and instead the film was overflowing onto the It didn't feel that way at all, Once again
of one film we ended up making three spectators' reality with great intensity, I remember my own experience while
films. like cooked milk boiling over on a hot experiencing it.
stove. I still remember the mood of the
While preparing for this new film and my personal feeling so well About the same time, and again at the
documentary, we were camping in but the story of the film faded away. London Film Festival, I discovered
Chennai, then called Madras. It was That was the day I first heard of the another Indian director that spoke to
1991 and the International Film
Festival of India was being held there.
At the international festival, I had the
chance to see many Indian films and
discovered for myself a new, different,
magical, inspiring world of cinema.
The great maestro Aravindan was there
as well – attending what would
probably be his last international
festival. I watched his movies,
remembered them well and got
extremely uplifted by their style.
At the same festival I saw Mani Kaul's
film Nazar and after an hour or so
walked out of the film. I couldn't take it
anymore. The characters and intensity
were penetrating my body and soul so
much that I couldn't bear it. I was in
love with someone at the time and
things didn't fall together in a positive Mani Kaul came to terms with his adopted country with I Am No Other.

42 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
my soul so closely. Kumar Shahani.
Danske Piger Viser Alt.
His Khayal Gatha won my heart and
mind over. These two directors were
somehow always able to disturb my
intellect and even more, my soul. I
deeply believe that cinema is much
more a matter of emotional strength
than intellectual. However, the films of
these two directors have the ability to
stimulate both with the same intensity
– as in the case of Sokurov's films
Other Circle and Mother and Son.
But even more than his films, it was
Mani Kaul's personal presence which
impressed me the most. I had the relations, with a flavour of self irony, enter the cinema as one person but I
privilege of knowing him while he this film hit me hard. want to leave it as another.” Many of us
was living in The Netherlands. His are “another” person after watching his
I felt somewhat similar, though Siddheshwari, Uski Roti, The Idiot,
calmness, his smiling face while differently. My family situation and
talking to young students of music, Nazar or The Servant's Shirt.
reason for moving out of my country
who were all the time with him during was different, but the alienation was To mention another great director –
the International Film Festival of similar. I believe that all dislocated and Peter Greenaway – who ponders on
Rotterdam, made me understand how displaced people, have something in why cinema is the only art that we
much a real guru cared for his pupils. common. Some very strong bond is consider it sufficient to be experienced
We would meet regularly at the established. After that, mostly during only once. When we listen to some
Rotterdam Festival, discussing films, my programme of “Hinglish” films music, we listen to it many times in our
often Indian. We never got to talking that I put together for IFFRotterdam, life over and over, we watch the same
about how he felt in The Netherlands, we met again and again but never painting, we read the same book in
how he managed his life under talked about our common experience different stages of our life. Why is it
different circumstances, in a country of being “the other”. that for a film that we know, we simple
with lots of rain and little sun. That's say, I watched that one already? Mani's
Somehow, Mani had exorcised this films are certainly those which many of
why I sort of re-discovered Mani again feeling much earlier, before moving to
in his documentary Ik Ben Geen Ander us want to watch over and over again.
Holland, by creating a very strong
(I Am No Other) (2002). In this character of a boy in his fiction film I watched Siddeshwari during many
documentary he surprisingly spoke on The Servant's Shirt. There, the young stages of my life and when I was thirty I
his own feelings, his Dutch family, the employee belongs to the office, to his understood it very differently than at
way of Dutch life and place in society. house and his lovely wife. He is my last screening a few years ago
This time, his private side, however devoted and passionate about all and in Kolkata. I also watched The
intimate, shaped within an intriguing yet, he has difficulties to truly feel Servant's Shirt many times – each time
cinematic approach. To that, I could being part of it. My understanding of with similar excitement, each time
relate myself very well – also being The Servant's Shirt was a given outfit experiencing it in a more complex way.
foreign in spite of having a Dutch that one was expected to wear no I wish I could watch Nazar and Idiot
passport. matter how one feels having it on. again. I am curious to know how I
After living in The Netherlands for would now understand the complexity
Mani returned to India, talking of the human relationships in Nazar or
some five-six years, I had also made a passionately about the upcoming film
film that concerns my private feelings the performances in The Idiot – after
academy in Mumbai, film screenings being brainwashed from seeing many
towards myself within the society, of independent films, films that
questioning whether someone could masala films starring Shah Rukh Khan.
stimulate viewers mind and soul. He I remember that there, in Mani's film,
be the same person after changing was planning to work on all fronts at
almost everything in his/her life he was remarkably strong.
the same time and to bring about a
conditions, including surroundings, change. Mani left, but Mani stays with us too.
friends and family. After watching
Mani's intriguing, almost painfully He did bring about a change – for many (Rada Sesic is a filmmaker, lecturer,
honest, personal documentary, I felt and for me as well. His films matter. curator and a film critic from
connected. Serious and funny at the They are etched in our minds and souls. Croatia/Bosnia and Herzegovina,
same time, witty in arranging himself His films leave an imprint on their now settled in The Netherlands.)
within the Dutch landscape, society, audience. As Wim Wenders says, “I

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 43
 luminous mind who pioneered the
parallel cinema movement in India.
His films explored a new language and
expression. Innovative imagery,
vocabulary and experimentation were
his forte. His debut film Uski Roti was
a landmark film in Indian cinema. He
was deeply influenced by Robert
Bresson, Andrei Tarkovsky and
RitwikGhatak, though he made a mark
“He was one of the finest film makers
of his own.” -Arin Paul
in India; He shouldn't have died so full of humour. At FTII, despite
early. His thought process, as far as getting a nominal honorarium, he
film making goes, was quite never refused to take classes and
remarkable.” - Mrinal Sen. workshops.” - Kundan Shah.

“Indian cinema will never get another

director like Mani Kaul. I had once
asked him how he teaches cinema to his
students and he had said: "It's simple. I
"Immediately after Ray, Ghatak and “Though the film industry respected
just ask them to buy eight Ritwik
Sen, a crop of different film makers hit him for his genius, there used to be a
Ghatak movies." That was Mani
the scene. Mani was surely one of clear divide between him and
Kaul.It's rare for a director to remain
them. While living in Mumbai, there commercial filmmakers. If one
untouched by Bollywood and continue
were so many producers around him. met at a public space, one didn't know
with his own style of film-making.”-
But, he was never allured by the how to communicate with him.”
Bappaditya Bandopadhyay.
commercial kind of films. That was - Mahesh Bhatt.
unique about him. There were also
people like ShyamBenegal and Kumar
Shahani. Together with them, Mani
refused to compromise with the
system." - Buddhadeb Dasgupta.

"The passing away of friends reminds

“Mani was not only a filmmaker, but you of the value of this moment. RIP
also a film academic. He taught Mani Kaul. Friend.Director. A life
films in Duke University and Harvard passionately dedicated to exploring the
University. His films were not as outer edges of the art of film. Will be
“He was one of the last mohicans of recognised by Indians as much as they missed." - Shekhar Kapur
Indian creative cinema. This is a were appreciated among international
“The first time Mani Kaul called me I
great loss in these days of flat one- viewers.” - Shyam Benegal.
was in Berlin. I was so excited n
dimensional Indian cinema.” -Goutam
“One of India's great filmmakers; nervous that I couldn't talk. Our last
Ghose.
Unfortunately Europeans are more meeting when I showed him I Am at
“Mani Kaul was one of the greatest familiar with his work than are Anurag's office and he told me warmly
auteurs of New Wave Indian Cinema. Indians." - Anurag Kashyap. that he was happy to see a few of us
His films reflected his personal making different films.” - Onir
creative vision. Kaul was a man with a “He was great friend, giver, serious, yet

44 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Chris Marker at 90
By Samuel Douhaire and Annick Rivoire

The legendary French filmmaker and photographer, Chris Marker, turned 90 in July this
year, but he shows no signs of slowing down. He has just completed two years in the trains
of the Paris Métro to shoot Passengers, a marvellous photo-essay of more than 200 colour
photographs of people in transit. Using a concealed camera, Marker captured intimate
moments between couples and family members, as well as a diverse mix of individuals in
periods of reverie in a public place — occasionally digitally altering the images to make
comparisons between the random passengers and classic subjects from the history of art.
The writer and director of such influential films as 1962's La Jetée, which Terry Gilliam
remade as 12 Monkeys, and 1982's Sans Soleil, a meditative film about travel and
memory, Chris Marker is one of the great cineastes of our time as well as one of the most
private. He hates publicity and there are countless occasions on which he has not turned
up after promising to make an appearance. He also does not allow himself to be
photographed, preferring to allow his filmed images, rather than his image as a
filmmaker, to speak for him. Less than a dozen photographs of Marker exist, and his
interviews are even more rare.
Eight years ago, the reclusive director agreed to an interview with the French newspaper
Libération via an email do-it-yourself kit: four topics, with ten questions each. He did not
respond to every question, but these "frankly Dostoevskian" answers should sum up his
work.

Chris Marker (Photo by Lars-OlofLöthwall)

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 45
 but it isn't always cinema. Godard
nailed it once and for all: at the cinema,
you raise your eyes to the screen; in
front of the television, you lower them.
Then there is the role of the shutter. Out
of the two hours you spend in a movie
theater, you spend one of them in the
dark. It's this nocturnal portion that
stays with us, that fixes our memory of
a film in a different way than the same
film seen on television or on a monitor.
But having said that, let's be honest.
I've just watched the ballet from An
American in Paris on the screen of my I
Book, and I very nearly rediscovered
the lightness that we felt in London in
1952, when I was there with
Sans Soliel is an all-time Marker classic. (Alain)Resnais and (Ghislain) Cloquet
during the filming of Statues Also Die,
Cinema, photo-novels, CD-roms, same subject 20 years later, Marker has when we started every day by seeing
video installations - is there any overcome death by prayer." When you the 10 a.m. show of An American in
medium you haven't tried? read that, written by someone you don't Paris at a the atre in Leicester Square. I
know, who knows nothing of how the thought I'd lost that lightness forever
Yes, gouache. films came to be, you feel a certain till I saw it on cassette.
Why have you agreed to the release of emotion. "Something" has happened.
Does the democratization of the
some of your films on DVD, and how When your CD-ROM Immemory was means of filmmaking (DV, digital
did you make the choice? released in 1999 you said that you had editing, distribution via the Internet)
Twenty years separate La Jetée from found the ideal medium. What do you seduce the socially engaged
Sans Soleil. And another 20 years think of DVD? filmmaker that you are?
separate Sans Soleil from the present. With the CD-ROM, it's not so much the Here's a good opportunity to get rid of a
Under the circumstances, if I were to technology that's important as the label that's been stuck on me. For many
speak in the name of the person who architecture, the tree-like branching, people, "engaged" means "political",
made these movies it would no longer the play. We'll make DVD-ROMs. The and politics, the art of compromise
be an interview but a séance. In fact, I DVD technology is obviously superb, (which is as it should be because if
don't think I either chose or accepted:
somebody talked about it, and it got
done. That there was a certain
relationship between these two films
was something I was aware of but
didn't think I needed to explain -- until I
found a small anonymous note
published in a programme in Tokyo
that said, "Soon the voyage will be at an
end. It's only then that we will know if
the juxtaposition of images makes any
sense. We will understand that we have
prayed with film, as one must on a
pilgrimage, each time we have been in
the presence of death: in the cat
cemetery, standing in front of the dead
giraffe, with the kamikazes at the
moment of take-off, in front of the
guerillas killed in the war for
independence. In La Jetée, the
foolhardy experiment to look into the Une journée d'Andrei Arsenevitch was a tribute to his long-time friend Andrei
Tarkovsky and documented his last year when he was dying of cancer.
future ends in death. By treating the

46 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
there is no compromise there is only
brute force, of which we're seeing an
example right now) bores me deeply.
What interests me is history, and
politics interests me only to the degree
that it represents the mark history
makes on the present.
With an obsessive curiosity (if I
identify with any of Kipling's
characters, it's the Elephant Boy of the
Just-So Stories, because of his
"insatiable curiosity") I keep asking:
How do people manage to live in such a
world? And that's where my mania
comes from, to see "how things are
going" in this place or that. For a long
time, those who were best placed to see
"how it's going" didn't have access to
the tools to give form to their The film on Alexander Medvedkin was a homage to the
perceptions - and perception without Russian filmmaker's cinematic genius.
form is tiring. And now, suddenly,
these tools exist. It's true that for people now right inside a little case saw them on the road, bloody and
like me it's a dream come true. I wrote that fits in your hand. A little lesson sobbing, people lost interest in them.
about it, in a small text in the booklet of in modesty for the spoiled children To my great surprise, I once found
the DVD. of today, just like the spoiled myself explaining the editing of
children of 1970 got their lesson in Battleship Potemkin to a group of
A necessary caution: the modesty by putting themselves aspiring filmmakers in Guinea-Bissau,
"democratization of tools" entails under the patronage of Alexander using an old print on rusty reels; now
many financial and technical Ivanovitch Medvedkin and his ciné- those filmmakers are having their films
constraints, and does not save us from train. selected for competition in Venice. I
the necessity of work. Owning a DV found the Medvedkin syndrome again
camera does not magically confer For the benefit of the younger in a Bosnian refugee camp in 1993 -- a
talent on someone who doesn't have generation, Medvedkin was a Russian bunch of kids who had learned all
any or who is too lazy to ask himself if filmmaker who, in 1936 and with the the techniques of television, with
he has any. You can miniaturize as means that were proper to his time newsreaders and captions, by pirating
much as you want, but a film will (35mm film, editing table, and film lab satellite TV and using equipment
always require a great deal of work -- installed in the train), essentially supplied by an NGO. But they didn't
and a reason to do it. That was the invented television: shoot during the copy the dominant language -- they just
whole story of the Medvedkin groups, day, print and edit at night, show it the used the codes in order to establish
the young workers who, in the post-'68 next day to the people you filmed (and credibility and reclaim the news for
era, tried to make short films about who often participated in the editing). I other refugees. An exemplary
their own lives, and whom we tried to think that it's this fabled and long experience. They had the tools and
help on the technical level, with the forgotten bit of history (Medvedkin they had the necessity. Both are
means of the time. isn't even mentioned in Georges indispensable.
Sadoul's book, considered in its day the
How they complained! "We come Soviet Cinema bible) that underlies a Do you prefer television, movies on a
home from work and you ask us to large part of my work -- in the end, big screen, or surfing the Internet?
work some more. . . ." But they stuck perhaps, the only coherent part. To try
with it, and you have to believe to give the power of speech to people I have a completely schizophrenic
that something happened there, who don't have it, and, when it's relationship with television. When I'm
because 30 years later we saw them possible, to help them find their own feeling lonely, I adore it, particularly
present their films at the Belfort means of expression. since there's been cable. It's curious
festival, in front of an attentive how cable offers an entire catalogue of
audience. The means of the time was The workers I filmed in 1967 in antidotes to the poisons of standard TV.
16mm silent, which meant three- Rhodesia, just like the Kosovars I If one network shows a ridiculous TV
minute camera rolls, a laboratory, an filmed in 2000, had never been heard movie about Napoleon, you can flip
editing table, some way of adding on television: everyone was speaking over to the History Channel to hear
sound -- everything that you have on their behalf, but once you no longer Henri Guillermin's brilliantly mean

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 47
 only those by friends, or curiosities that
an American acquaintance tapes for me
on TCM. There is too much to see on
the news, on the music channels or on
the indispensable Animal Channel.
And I feed my hunger for fiction with
what is by far the most accomplished
source: those great American TV
series, like The Practice. There is a
knowledge in them, a sense of story
and economy, of ellipsis, a science of
framing and of cutting, a dramaturgy
and an acting style that has no equal
anywhere, and certainly not in
Hollywood.
La Jetée inspired a video by David
Bowie and a film by Terry Gilliam.
Marker's all-time science fiction classic La Jetee was the inspiration for … And there's also a bar called "La
Jetée," in Japan. How do you feel
commentary on it. If a literary But cynics always betray themselves, about this cult? Does Terry Gilliam's
programme makes us submit to a and there is a small consolation in the imagination intersect with yours?
parade of currently fashionable female industry's own terminology: they stop
Terry's imagination is rich enough that
monsters, we can change over to short of calling themselves "creators,"
there's no need to play with
Mezzo to contemplate the luminous so they call themselves "creatives."
comparisons. Certainly, for me 12
face of Hélène Grimaud surrounded by
And the movies in all this? For the Monkeys is a magnificent film. There
her wolves, and it's as if the others
reasons mentioned above, and under are people who think they are flattering
never existed. Now there are moments
the orders of Jean-Luc, I've said for a me by saying otherwise, that La Jetée is
when I remember I am not alone, and
long time that films should be seen first much better. The world is a strange
that's when I fall apart.
in theatres, and that television and place. It's just one of the happy signs,
The exponential growth of stupidity video are only there to refresh your like Bowie's video, like the bar in
and vulgarity is something that memory. Now that I no longer have any Shinjuku (Hello, Tomoyo! To know
everyone has noticed, but it's not just a time at all to go to the cinema, I've that for almost 40 years, a group of
vague sense of disgust -- it's a concrete started seeing films by lowering my Japanese are getting slightly drunk
quantifiable fact (you can measure it by eyes, with an ever increasing sense of beneath my images every night -- that's
the volume of the cheers that greet the sinfulness (this interview is indeed worth more to me than any number of
talk-show hosts, which have grown by becoming Dostoevskian). But to tell Oscars!), that have accompanied the
an alarming number of decibels in the the truth I no longer watch many films, strange destiny of this particular film.
last five years) and a crime against
humanity. Not to mention the
permanent aggressions against the
French language. And since you are
exploiting my Russian penchant for
confession, I must say the worst: I am
allergic to commercials. In the early
Sixties, making commercials was
perfectly acceptable; now, it's
something that no one will own up to. I
can do nothing about it.
This manner of placing the mechanism
of the lie in the service of praise has
always irritated me, even if I have to
admit that this diabolical patron has
occasionally given us some of the most
beautiful images you can see on the
small screen (have you seen the David ...Terry Gilliam's 12 Monkeys, starring Bruce Willis.
Lynch commercial with the blue lips?).

48 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
The film was made like a piece of
automatic writing. I was filming Le
Jolimai, completely immersed in the
reality of Paris 1962, and the euphoric
discovery of "direct cinema" (you
will never make me say "cinema
verité") and on the crew's day off, I
photographed a story I didn't
completely understand. It was in the
editing that the pieces of the puzzle
came together, and it wasn't me who
designed the puzzle. I'd have a hard
time taking credit for it. It just
happened, that's all. The cat has been Marker's favourite alter ego who he calls Guillaume.
He has also made a film called The Case of the Grinning Cat.
You are a witness of history. Are you
still interested in world affairs? What simply to get it talked about. But no, supermarkets force out the corner
makes you jump to your feet, react, there were too many books during that stores. That the unknown writer and the
shout? season. Except for Maspero, there brilliant musician have the right to the
Right now there are some very obvious wasn't a word in the press. And so -- same consideration as the corner store
reasons to jump, and we know them all failure. keeper may be too much to ask.
so well that I have very little desire to Was that reaction too personal? By Have your travels made you
talk more about them. What remains chance, it was paired with a similar suspicious of dogmatism?
are the small, personal resentments. event, to which no line of friendship
For me, 2002 will be the year of a attached me. The same year, Capriccio I think I was already suspicious when I
failure that will never pass. It begins Records released a new recording by was born. I must have travelled a lot
with a flashback, as in The Barefoot Viktor Ullman. Under his name alone, before then!
Contessa. Among our circle in the this time. Previously, he and Gideon You generally use the symbol of the
Forties, the one we all considered to be Klein had been recorded as "There cat to represent yourself. You have
a future great writer was François sienstadt composers". For those not in even made a film called The Case of
Vernet. He had already published three the know, There sienstadt was the the Grinning Cat. What relationship
books, and the fourth was to be a model concentration camp designed to do you maintain with Guillaume, your
collection of short stories that he had be visited by the Red Cross -- the Nazis feline alter-ego?
written during the Occupation, with a even made a film about it called The
vigor and an insolence that obviously Führer Gives a City to the Jews. Guillaume was a real cat who adopted
left him little hope with the censors. me. He was my advisor, my confidant,
The book wasn't published until 1945. This record is astounding: it contains my friend, my other halfand the only
lieder based on texts by Holerlin and person I accepted near me when I was
Meanwhile, François had died in Rilke, and one is struck by the editing. I could tell by the direction his
Dachau. I don't mean to label him as a vertiginous thought that, at that ears pointed if he agreed with what I
martyr -- that's not my style. Even if particular time, no one was glorifying was doing or not. And then he went to
this death puts a kind of symbolic seal the true German culture more than this cat heaven. Some time after, he
on a destiny that was already quite Jewish musician who was soon to die at reappeared before me as ghost. He
singular, the texts themselves are of Auschwitz. This time, there wasn't really wanted to get involved, and he
such a rare quality that there is no need total silence -- just a few flattering lines had ideas about practically everything.
for reasons other than literary in order on the arts pages. Wasn't it worth a bit While I was listening to the news in the
to love them and introduce them to more? morning, he arrived with a comic
others. François Maspero wasn't wrong
What makes me mad isn't that what we strip bubble, and that's how he
when he said in an article that they
call "media coverage" is generally connected with actuality. I am only the
"transverse time with only an extreme
reserved for people I personally find medium. Like Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde,
lightness of being as ballast." Because
rather mediocre -- that's a matter of Guillaume is everything I am not: he's a
last year a courageous publisher,
opinion and I wish them no ill. It's that show-off, an interventionist, an
Michel Reynaud (Tirésias), fell in love
the noise, in the electronic sense, just exhibitionist, he just loves to be the talk
with the book and took the risk of
gets louder and louder and ends up of the town -- we complete each other
reprinting it. I did everything I could to
drowning out everything, until it perfectly.
mobilize people I knew, not in order to
(Originally published in Libération,
make it the event of the season but becomes a monopoly just like the way
March 5, 2003.)

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 49
 NEWS
A Scholar and a Filmmaker
film, Storm Over Kashmir (1948), with
a hand-held camera and using leftover
newsreel raw stock. (A copy of the
film is available with the National
Film Archive of India in Pune.)
Simultaneously he made a reputation
as a Film Historian of repute writing
extensively on Indian Cinema in
magazines like The Illustrated Weekly
of India, Filmfare, Seminar and other
journals.
In 1953 Garga's practical and scholarly
interest in the cinema took him to
Britain, where he worked at a variety
of jobs: voicing commentary for
the Hindi/Urdu section of BBC,
occasional jobs for film units and
B.D.Garga receives the V. Shantaram Lifetime Achievement Award from writing articles for film journals.He
filmmaker Mrinal Sen at MIFF 1996. At extreme left is Pramod Navalkar,
became involved with British Film
then Maharashtra Minister for Cultural Affairs.
Institute and frequently visited Ealing
studios to watch directors at work.
Noted film historian, documentary the influence of K.A. Abbas, a left-
filmmaker and winner of the first wing journalist and one of India's best He also travelled to France and struck
V.Shantaram Award for Lifetime informed film critics, who was then co- up lasting friendships with Georges
Achievement Bhagwan Das Garga scripting Shantaram's biographical Sadoul and Henri Langlois, director of
died in Patiala in the wee hours of July classic Dr Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani. the famed archive Cinémathèque
18, 2011. The octogenarian was Abbas encouraged the young film française and clearly a man after his
suffering from general weakness enthusiast to begin writing a history of own heart. Writing in Filmfare after
followed by jaundice and had been Indian cinema for Abbas's recently Langlois' death in 1977, Bhagwan
admitted in a Patiala hospital four to founded Urdu-language journal referred to him as “world cinema's
five days before his death. He was 86 Sargam. greatest benefactor”.
years old and is survived by his wife
In 1946 he returned to Lahore to direct During his time in Europe Bhagwan
Donnabelle Garga and daughter Nicole
a feature film. There, when the once again met up with his mentor
O'Hara.
madness took over, a man clutching a Abbas and worked with him on Pardesi
Born in 1924 in Lehra in East Punjab knife that he had used and not bothered (1957), an Indo-Soviet co-production
(now in Pakistan), he was sent to an to clean, made a terrified Garga and his about Afansi Nikitin, a Russian
English medium school run by Muslim cook recite the kalma to prove traveller who discovered India a
Christian missionaries in Lahore. An they were not kafirs. Thanks to his decade before Vasco da Gama. This
early interest in photography earned fluency in Urdu, Garga passed the test, took him to the Soviet Union where –
him recognition from the Illustrated but it broke him. Days later, he too was his writings having been translated into
Weekly of India, which published some part of the caravan, getting on to a Russian – he was welcomed into the
of his photographs. His father's wish plane and flying to the safety of charmed circle of film historians and
that he attend medical school was soon Bombay. Many years later he recalled archivists. He was able to persuade the
undercut by Bhagwan's expulsion from the incident, "I was certain that I would authorities to arrange for a private
Lahore because of his political be able to return to Lahore one day. screening of the banned second half of
activities during the independence That this did not happen was heart- Eisenstein's Ivan the Terrible (1958),
movement. breaking. The sense of loss is hard to which he wrote about for Sight &
describe because it is associated with Sound on his return. While in Russia he
In 1943 Garga moved to Bombay and so many memories – of streets, trees, also wrote a book on Indian cinema,
completed a short course in the friends, food etc." Kino Indiski, which was published by a
photography department of St Russian publisher.
Xavier's College. In 1944 he joined Unable to make a headway in
V.Shantaram as a trainee and worked feature films he gravitated towards In spite of innumerable problems he
with him till 1946.He also fell under documentaries, shooting his first short and P.K.Nair, then Curator (later

50 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
Director), National Film Archive After many years of collecting, Celebrating Hussain
of India, organized the first making, researching and writing
comprehensive retrospective of Indian about films, Bhagwan and his wife
Cinema with over sixty films at the Donnabelle (a formidable film
Cinematheque Francaise's Musee De researcher in her own right) moved
Homme basement theatre in Paris in from Bombay to Goa in 1992. This was
1964. no retirement, however, and despite
failing health and eyesight he
Back in India he began to write on the
maintained a strict daily working
history of Indian cinema and make
regime.
documentary films with equal
passion. Garga's best-known films During this time he produced the
include Dance of Shiva, Sarojini beautiful So Many Cinemas: The
Naidu, Writing of the Raj and Road to Motion Picture in India (a history
Friendship. His most shown which used much of his own archive M.F.Hussain
documentaries today are his films on material), From Raj to Swaraj:The
film history: Glimpses of Indian Non-Fiction Film in India, The Art of Three films made by the legendary
Cinema and Satyajit Ray in the Cinema: An Insider's Journey through painter M.F.Hussain – Meenaxi: The
Creative Artists of India series. In the Fifty Years of Film History and a soon Tale of Three Cities, Through the Eyes
same series he made a film on Amrita to be published Pictorial History of of a Painter and a documentary on the
Sher-Gil. Indian Silent Cinema. True to form, artist Laurent Bregeant – were
Bhagwan put the final touches to screened alongside the Master's
In 1996, Garga received the first art, murals, toys, photographs,
the manuscript just days before he
V Shantaram Award for Lifetime drawings and archival documents at a
died.From Raj to Swaraj: The Non-
Achievement in the realm of retrospective which takes a holistic
fiction Film in India won the National
documentary films at the Mumbai look at Husain's legacy. The showcase,
Award for the Best Book on Cinema in
International Film Festival. In the same called Celebrating Husain, was
2009. His latest, 'Pictorial History of
year he published his magnum opus So created by the Delhi Art Gallery, a
Indian Silent Cinema' is due later this
Many Cinemas. Garga's book on prestigious art house with one of the
year.
documentary films, largest collections of the artist's works
dating back to the late 1940s.
B.D.Garga
"This is the first ever retrospective of
Husain in India since he left the
country in 2006. The art works we are
displaying cover nearly 60 years of his
career; from 1949 to his recent works.
After he stopped painting film posters,
Husain began to design and craft toys
as an employee of a children's furniture
company. We have brought out a large
collection of his toys, rarely seen
before," Kishor Singh, who is head of
the exhibitions and publications
department of the gallery.
Another Homage to Hussain was paid
by Gallerist Payal Kapoor, the owner
of Arushi Arts, who dedicated her third
annual showcase Harvest to Husain
with works by nearly 80 artists,
including those by Husain, his peers at
the Bombay Progressive Artists' Group
and several young contemporary
artists who were encouraged by
Husain. The attempt was “to show the
continuity of Husain's art into the
present”.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 51
 58th National Awards (Non Feature Films)
Campus films dominated the non-feature section of the National Awards in 2011 with Snehal
Nair's Germ (diploma film, SRFTII, Kolkata), Prateek Vats' Kal 15 August Dukan Band Rahegi
(diploma film, FTII, Pune) and Nagraj Manjule's Pistulya (made as part of a college project at
Ahmednagar New Arts College) bagging awards in the three top non-feature and short fiction
categories. The films were judged by a jury chaired by veteran cinematographer-director A.K.Bir.
FILM AWARDS and how it has affected their lives. The jury appreciates it for
the courageous, yet poetic exploration of the subject from the
Best Non-Feature Film (Swarna Kamal) ethnographic perspective.
Germ (Hindi)
Producer: Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Best Biographical Film (Rajat Kamal)
Director: Snehal R. Nair Nilama dhaba (English)
Citation: Through abstract visualization and endearing Producer: Films Division
black & white tones, the film depicts the human existence, Director: Dilip Patnaik
afflicted by cancer, in a very sublime and somber tone. Along Citation: An intimate portrayal of the inimitable Sunanda
with the perception and growth, from child to youth and by Pattanaik, whose life is inseparable from contemporary
the curious collection of thrown passport photographs, the Indian classical music. The film explores the inner spirit of
film maker presents the changing perspective of the vision of the artist through evocative moments, pregnant with visual
the modern growing world in a very engaging manner. passages.
Best Debut Film of A Director (Rajat Kamal) Best Arts / Cultural Film (Rajat Kamal)
Pistulya (Marathi & Telugu) Leaving Home (Hindi)
Producer and Director: Nagraj Manjule Producer and Director: JaideepVarma
Citation:It is a delightful exposition of the poignant life of a Citation:It is an emotive and enthralling exposition of the
poverty-stricken child, who nurtures a dream of embracing passion and dedication of a group, bound by the spirit of
the source of learning through education, with simplicity and music, who transcend the commercial boundary to embrace
fluency. The director portrays the spirit of adventure of the their original creative flair. Without compromising, the
child, through fine performances. group led to the adventure with courage and guts. The film
maker has journeyed through this adventure with dramatic
Best Anthropological/Ethnographic Film (Rajat Kamal) sensibility and compassion.
Songs of Mashangva (Tangkhul, Manipuri & English)
Producer and Director: Oinam Doren Best Environment Film (including Agriculture) (Rajat
Citation: An insightful foray into the complex and layered Kamal)
life of a 'song' and all that it carries within it for a community. Iron is Hot (English)
It inquires into the shared critical history of a community in Producer: Meghnath Bhattacharjee
the specific context of an overarching missionary presence Director: BijuToppo and Meghnath Bhattacharjee

At the National Awards ceremony held on September 12, 2011: Nagraj Manjule receives the award for the Best Debut Film of
a Director for Pistulya (left) and Meghnath Bhattacharjee receives the award for the Best Environment Film for Iron is Hot.

52 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Arunima Sharma was awarded the Swarna Kamal for Best Direction for Shyam Raat Seher (left)
while Tinna Mitra received the Rajat Kamal for Best Editing for Germ
Citation:The film is well documented with a forthright Citation:The pet detective in a reverse act, an emotive
exposition of the grievous impact of pollution due to sponge documentary exposing not only stories of cruel impact of
iron industry on the inhabitants dwelling around that area. pest control on human health but also arrests out attention to
With clarity and veracity, the film maker is able to express a more fundamental question – who is a pest ?
empathy and concern on the acute prevailing problem over
human existence. Best Science & Technology Film (Rajat Kamal)
Heart to Heart (Manipuri & English)
Best Educational/Motivational/Instructional Film Producer: Rotary Club of Imphal
( Rajat Kamal) Director: Bachaspatimayum Sunzu
Advaitham (Telugu)
Producer: K. Vijaypal Reddy Citation: A very well constructed reality with an engaging
Director: Pradeep Maadugula dramatic sensibility, that depicts the grimness of natural
health maladies. It guides the viewer through emotions and
Citation: The documentary exposes the human apathy of playful spirit of the child. With the help of medical science, it
class difference through casteism in a very evoking and enlightens the viewer with awareness of Congenital Heart
natural style. Through fun-filled situations and distressing Defect and its promising treatment.
moments, the director portrays the anguished and tragic
aspects of casteism effecting human value and Best Promotional Film (Rajat Kamal)
relationship. Ek Ropa Dhan (Hindi)
Producer: Meghnath Bhattacharjee
Best Exploration / Adventure Film (including Sports) Director: BijuToppo and Meghnath Bhattacharjee
(Rajat Kamal) Citation:A succinct and well researched film looking
Boxing Ladies (Hindi)
Producer: Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, closely at an innovation applied effectively in the farming of
Director: Anusha Nandakumar rice. The film engages successfully with the issue and makes
a strong case for the promotion of the practice called Ek
Citation: A sensitive portrayal of young aspiring talents in a Ropa Dhan.
country where sports as passion/ profession comes up
against heavy social odds and family biases. The jury Best Film on Social Issues (Rajat Kamal)
applauds the film for the restrained and elevating treatment Understanding Trafficking (Bengali, Hindi & English)
of a crucial subject underlining the silent dignity of the Producer: Cinemawoman
characters involved. Director: Ananya Chakraborti
Citation:To cross the line of limit, becomes an issue of
Best Investigative Film (Rajat Kamal) indifference. Along this line, the documentary projects the
A Pestering Journey (Malayalam, Punjabi, Hindi, English & serious social issue of human trafficking in a very thought
Tulu) provoking manner through stark and gravitating images. It
Producer: Ranjini Krishnan airs an intriguing atmosphere of concerns through
Director: K. R. Manoj dramatized and realistic imageries.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 53
Best Short Fiction Film (Rajat Kamal) Citation: Does one hear the cry of the pest? In between the
Kal 15 August Dukan Band Rahegi (Hindi) sound of the real and evoking music, the ensuing silence tells
Producer: Film and Television Institute of India us the stories beyond.
Director: Prateek Vats
Citation: With energy and vigour, the documentary records Best Editing (Rajat Kamal)
Tinna Mitra for Germ (Hindi)
very interesting images of a group of young students, who
are trying to relate, with ideology of freedom and the stifling Citation: The abstract visualization and endearing black
authoritarian reality. In the process, the life is entangled with &white tones are very effectively punctuated with fine
intrigues and doubts. editing, and in the process it maintains a very subtle and
flowing rhythm and pace to carry forward the cinematic
Best Film on Family Welfare (Rajat Kamal) work.
Love in India (Bengali & English)
Producer: Overdose Best Narration (Writing) (Rajat Kamal)
Director: Kaushik Mukherjee Nilanjan Bhattacharya for Johar : Welcome to Our World
(Hindi & English)
Citation: Explores and deconstructs the traditional and
orthodox landscapes of love, sexuality and conjugal Citation: A seamless powerful narrative about the
relationships and the dynamics of emerging sexual politics symbiotic intricate relationship, the tribals of Jharkhand
and value systems in contemporary India with clarity and have with their forests and their struggle for existence
insight laced with subtle humour. against mindless aggressive development and flawed
conservation policies, told with empathy and sincerity.
INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Special Jury Awards (RajatKamals)
Best Direction (Swarna Kamal) Shiny Jacob Benjamin (Director) for Ottayal (One Woman
Arunima Sharma for Shyam RaatSeher (Hindi) Alone) (Malayalam)
Citation: Intelligent articulation of a shared urban angst in a Citation: It is a heart-warming portrayal of the woman
powerful cinematic style and well constructedmise-en- Dayabai, who trades along a challenging path in quest of
scene. The maturity of the director is reflected in the truth. The director, delves into the spirit of the woman to
balanced approach to all the elements that blend to create an understand the theology of liberation, with sincerity and
impression in the viewers mind. intelligence.
Best Cinematography (Rajat Kamal) Ronel Haobam (Director) for The Zeliangrongs (Manipuri
Murali G. for Shyam Raat Seher (Hindi & English) & English)
Laboratory Processing: Film Lab
Citation: It is a well-researched endeavour to reflect a
Citation: Imaginative yet minimal, a balanced and composite group of ethnic communities of common origin
evocative cinematography creates a character out of a city and socio - cultural back-ground, which highlights the rich
night atmosphere, setting the space and mood for the living cultural heritage and the tribes' traditional way of life, which
characters in their journey beyond the real, nearing mythical. is on the brink of extinction.
Best Audiography (Rajat Kamal) Suraj Pawar (Child actor) for Pistulya (Marathi & Telugu)
Harikumar Madhavan Nair (Re-recordist of the Final Mixed
Track) Citation: Under distressing situation and harsh reality,
A Pestering Journey (Malayalam, Punjabi, Hindi, English & Pistulya, the child protagonist, displays the authenticity with
Tulu) vibrant and emotive expression.

Three talents were singled out by the jury for Special Jury Awards (from left) Ronel Haobam for his film The Zeliangrongs,
Suraj Pawar for his role in Pistulya, and Shiny Jacob Benjamin for her film Ottayal.

54 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 New film on Diana's death
contempt of court,” says Allen.
“I openly question the impartiality of a
coroner (Lord Justice Scott Baker) who
had sworn an oath of allegiance to the
Queen yet was sitting in the Royal
Courts of Justice, presiding over a case
which involved the monarchy.

“I also ask why he repeatedly refused

to call members of the Royal Family to
the inquest. Diana did write a note
alleging Prince Charles was planning
an accident to her car.
“Yet that note was not revealed by the
Metropolitan Police to the public and
press – or the French police who first
investigated the crash – for six years,”
he adds.
The film premiered at Cannes June and
Director Keith Allen poses a few pertinent questions regarding US distributors are lining up for the
Princess Diana's death. rights. Since the film cannot be shown
in Britain the producers will now
Producers of a new film that claims that Allen was not fully convinced but then release the film in Galway, Ireland,
Princess Diana was murdered on the he met barrister Michael Mansfield, which is outside Britain's legal
orders of the British Establishment who later represented Al Fayed at jurisdiction. The film has found
Unlawful Killing have been told that Diana's inquest. “He persuaded me that interested buyers across the world and
unless they cut 87 scenes from their there were suspicious circumstances deals are being worked out and it won't
hard-hitting documentary, it cannot surrounding the crash and signs of a be long before the film hits Indian
legally be screened in Britain – cover-up. My film is supposedly in shores.
prompting further speculations of a
possible cover-up.The film was
financed by Mohammed Al Fayed, the
former owner of Harrods, whose son
Dodi, 42, also died in the crash.
The film's director, actor Keith Allen,
however, insists that the British public
has a right to see the full version of his
90-minute film.
Keith Allen's ground breaking
documentary recreates key moments
from the inquest and demonstrates how
vital evidence of foul play was
hidden from public scrutiny, how the
Royal Family were exempted from
giving evidence and how journalists,
particularly those working for the
BBC, systematically misreported the
events and in particular, the verdict
itself.
“This is the story of how the world was
deceived,” says Allen. At first even Police examine the wreckage of the car in which Princess Diana and Dodi were killed.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 55
 SANAD Grants for 14 docus, 9 features
narrative or documentary projects.
SANAD supports films at two key
stages of the production process:
development (up to US$20,000 per
project) and post-production (up to
US$60,000 per project). Each year,
SANAD issues two open calls for
applications (one cycle closing on
February 15 and the other on July 1)
and awards a total of US$500,000 in
development and post-production
grants.
SANAD is an integral part of the Abu
Dhabi Film Festival's commitment to
independent, auteur and original
filmmaking in the Arab world. Much
more than just a film fund, SANAD is
dedicated to providing year-round
support and advice to grant recipients.
The SANADLab works closely with
SANAD-funded Death For Sale, directed by Faouzil Bensaidi (inset),
SANAD grantees, running workshops
will be premiered in Toronto. and panel discussions, and scheduling
meetings with film experts and
Fourteen documentaries and nine andMy Brother (Kamal El Mahouti, mentors for them during the Festival.
feature films have been selected to Morocco/France).
receive financial support from “We are proud that, by means of
SANAD, the Abu Dhabi Film Launched in April 2010 SANAD SANAD, we are able to lend a hand to
Festival's fund for filmmakers from (which means “support” or “help” in some of the region's most talented
the Arab world. Each year, SANAD Arabic) provides Arab filmmakers filmmakers, both newcomers and
awards a total of $500,000 in with support for their feature-length veterans. Independent Arab cinema
development and post-production
grants to feature-length narrative and
documentary projects.
Several films produced with the help of
SANAD have gone on to critical
acclaim at international festivals.
Leila Kilani's On the Plank (Morocco)
was selected for the 2011 Directors'
Fortnight in Cannes. Death for Sale by
Faouzi Bensaïdi (Morocco) and In My
Mother's Arms by Atia and Mohamed
Al-Daradji (Iraq) are both set to
celebrate premieres at the Toronto
International Film Festival next month.
Both films have also been selected
for ADFF's upcoming fifth edition
(October 13-22, 2011).
Other SANAD-funded films to be
released in 2011 include In the Last
Days of the City (Tamer El Said,
Egypt/UK); Mohammad Saved From SANAD-funded On The Plank, directed by Leila Kilani (inset) was
the Waters (Safaa Fathy, Egypt/France) in the 2011 Directors' Fortnight at Cannes.

56 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Here Comes the Rain, directed by
SANAD Winners 2011 BahijHojeij (Lebanon), won the
Festival's Black Pearl award for Best
DOCUMENTARY
Narrative Film from the Arab World as
Development well as the award for Best Director at
Iraqi Odyssey, by Samir, Switzerland/Iraq/Germany the Oran International Arab Film
Miss Hissa Hilal, by Stefanie Brockhaus, Saudi Arabia/Germany Festival 2010 in Algeria. OK, Enough,
Goodbye, directed by Rania Attieh and
My Love Awaits Me by the Sea, by Mais Darwazeh, Jordan
Daniel Garcia (Lebanon), won the
No Direction Home, by Guy Brooks and John Hollingsworth, Black Pearl award for Best Narrative
UAE / Palestine / Jordan Film by a New Director from the Arab
Woman in Mediterranean Sea (working title), by Jocelyne Saab, World.
Lebanon/France
Qarantina, directed by Oday
Yasmina and Mohammed, by Regine Abadia, Algeria/Lebanon/France Rasheed (Iraq-Germany), and Sun
The Pirates of Sale, by Merieme Addou and Rosa Rogers, Dress, directed by Saeed Salmeen
Morocco/United Kingdom (United Arab Emirates-Syria), were
The Wanted 18, by Amer Shomaly, Palestine/France/Canada both selected for the Festival's New
Post-Production Horizons / Afaq Jadida competition.
Qarantina received a Special Jury
As If We Were Catching a Cobra, by Hala Alabdalla, Syria/France Award at the Oran International Arab
El Gusto, by Safinez Bousbia, Algeria/Ireland/France Film Festival 2010. Mohamed Al-
In Search of Oil & Sand, by Philippe Laurent Dib, Egypt Daradji's new film In My Mother's
Arms (Iraq) was screened as a work-in-
After the Last Goal, by Mahdi Fleifel, Lebanon/United Kingdom
progress.
Lebanese Rocket Society: The Strange Tale of the Lebanese Space
Race, by Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Lebanon/France In 2009, prior to the launch of SANAD,
Tahrir Square 2011: The Good, The Bad & The Politician, by the Festival supported the post-
Amr Salama, Ayten Amin and Tamer Ezzat, Egypt production of three feature films: Son
of Babylon, We Were Communists and
NARRATIVE Port of Memory. After its world
Development premiere in Abu Dhabi, Son of
Babylon, by Iraqi director Mohamed
I Am Nojood, 10 Years Old and Divorced, by Khadija Al Salami,
Al-Daradji, won numerous awards at
Yemen
festivals around the world and was
Mettou, by Abderrahmane Sissako, Mauritania/France chosen as Iraq's official entry for the
Origins, by Malek Bensmaïl, Algeria Best Foreign Language Film Oscar.
Poisonous Roses, by Fawzi Saleh, Egypt Following the film's international
success, Al-Daradji returned to Abu
Nothing Doing in Baghdad, by Maysoon Pachachi, Iraq/United
Dhabi to pick up Variety's Middle East
Kingdom
Filmmaker of the Year Award at the
The Wall, by Faouzi Bensaïdi, Morocco Festival last October.
99, by Hicham Lasri, Morocco
We Were Communists, by Maher Abu
The Guest, by Naji Abu Nowar, Jordan Samra (Lebanon-France-United Arab
Post-Production Emirates), won the Festival's award for
When I Saw You, by Annemarie Jacir, Palestine/Jordan Best Documentary by an Arab
Director or Related to Arab Culture in
seems to be coming into its own and we In 2010, SANAD awarded 2010. In November 2010, Kamal
have been witnessing a remarkable development and post-production Aljafari's Port of Memory (Palestine-
transformation that has encouraged grants to 27 productions, 11 of which Germany-France-UAE) and We Were
filmmakers and audiences to move were debut features. Altogether, 20 Communists were screened at the
away from timeworn formulas to narrative and seven documentary films Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in
explore new directions. It's a trend we received SANAD grants. New York as part of Mapping
have been thrilled to come across and Subjectivity: Experimentation in Arab
share with audiences at the Festival,” Of these, five post-production Cinema from the 1960s to Now, a
said Peter Scarlet, the Festival's projects were shown at the Abu Dhabi special program on which the Festival
Executive Director. Film Festival 2010 (October 14-23). partnered with MoMa and ArteEast.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 57
 The Killing Fields of Sri Lanka
Devastating new evidence of alleged
war crimes in Sri Lanka was the focus
of a shocking new documentary
unveiled on the Channel4 in June 2011.
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields is an hour-
long investigation into the final weeks
of the bloody Sri Lankan civil war and
features damning new evidence of war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
Jon Snow presents a forensic
investigation into the final weeks of
the quarter-century-long civil war
between the government of Sri Lanka
and the secessionist rebels, the Tamil
Tigers. Captured on mobile phones,
both by Tamils under attack and
government soldiers as war trophies,
the disturbing footage shows some of
the most horrific footage Channel 4 has
ever broadcast. Are these horrifying scenes doctored? Scenes shot by mobile cameras in
Sri Lanka's Killing Fields, broadcast by Channel 4.
Disturbing footage in the film includes
the apparent extra-judicial massacre of
prisoners by government forces, the centre for the displaced. The film is made and broadcast as UN
aftermath of targeted shelling of Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon faces
A special show of the documentary was growing criticism for refusing to
civilian hospitals and the bodies of
held for the United Nations Human launch an investigation into 'credible
female Tamil fighters who appear to
Rights Council and was attended by a allegations' that Sri Lankan forces
have been sexually assaulted.
number of ambassadors from nations committed war crimes during the
Also examined in the film are atrocities including the US and UK. A Sri Lankan closing weeks of the bloody conflict
carried out by the Tamil Tigers, delegation also attended. It was the with the Tamil Tigers.
including the use of human shields, and first time they had seen the new alleged
footage depicting the aftermath of a evidence of war crimes and crimes In April 2011, Ban Ki-moon published
suicide bombing in a government against humanity. a report by a UN-appointed panel of
experts, which concluded that as many
as 40,000 people were killed in the
final weeks of the war between the
Tamil Tigers and government forces.
It called for the creation of an
international mechanism to investigate
alleged violations of international
humanitarian law and international
human rights law committed by
government forces and the Tamil
Tigers during that time.
This film provides powerful evidence
that will lend new urgency to the
panel's call for an international inquiry
to be mounted, including harrowing
interviews with eye-witnesses, new
photographic stills, official Sri Lankan
army video footage, and satellite
Mass scale ethnic killings were alleged by Sri Lanka's Killing Fields. imagery.

58 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
Channel 4 News has consistently
reported on the bloody denouement of
Exploring a relationship
Sri Lanka's civil war. Sri Lanka's It's never easy for a son to be talking with them in Dehradun, I know what
Killing Fields presents a further about his mother's liason with another this relationship meant. All his life, he
damning account of the actions of Sri man. It's certainly quite a difficult was very lonely and finally he found a
Lankan forces, in a war that the task for him to be co-directing a companion at the end. I want to explore
government still insists was conducted documentary that stars his daughter in the journey of Rathi jethu through the
with a policy of Zero Civilian a role where she is trying to explore eyes of an actor, who incidentally also
Casualties. The film raises serious what went in the mind of this married happens to be the grand-daughter of the
questions about the consequences if the man who indulged in a relationship person jethu was involved with. My
UN fails to act, not only with respect to with his mother. daughter, Sahana, will be playing this
Sri Lanka but also to future violations character in the documentary."
of international law. However, Jayabrato Chatterjee is
not afraid to take up this challenge. Jayabrato is, of course, aware of the
In the meantime the Sri Lankan He has already begun the research whisper campaigns against his mother
Government has claimed that the video his documentary on Rabindranath for having gone off to live in
footage obtained by Channel 4 is false Tagore's son, Rathindranath Tagore Dehradun with Rathindranath Tagore.
and that it had proof in the form of and his relationship with Jayabrato's "My mother was a favourite of
“original footage” that exposed the mother, MeeraChatterjee. The Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore himself
"malicious intentions" behind the filmmaker plans to complete his had directed her in RaktaKarabi and
British documentary. A spokesman for documentary by 2013, which also Notir Puja. But he never called her by
the Sri Lankan military said that the happens to coincide with the 125th the name Meera since his daughter also
"unaltered" video suggested that what birth anniversary of Rathindranath shared the same name. Instead, he
the documentary had presented as Tagore. addressed her as Rani Sudarshona.
soldiers executing Tamil rebel
prisoners actually showed rebels Says Jayabrato, "Nilanjan Banerjee The relationship my mother shared
dressed in Army fatigues. and I have begun to dig up material with Rathi jethu was not something
through letters that document the life that Tagore was aware of. He died in
Sri Lanka has persistently denied that of Rathindranath Tagore. Nilanjan 1941 while this relationship must have
there were any war crimes committed has written a book based on the continued between 1948 and 1961
by its troops while battling the letters titled Aapni Tumi Roile Dure. when Rathi jethu was deserted both by
Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam Rathi jethu, as I call him, was an his colleagues in Santiniketan and his
(LTTE) rebels, who were crushed in an extremely controversial figure. He was family members. There was a 30-year
offensive that ended in May 2009. accused by so many people around him age difference between them and I
It has also accused Channel 4 and for being in a relationship with my would describe their relationship as
Western nations of leading a campaign mother. But having seen Ma and Rathi being very tender."
to discredit its human rights record by jethu together and having grown up Priyanka Dasgupta
producing reports of alleged war
crimes and crimes against humanity.
In an e-mail to the BBC, Channel 4
spokesperson Marion Bentley insisted
that all the footage used in its
documentary, entitled Sri Lanka's
Killing Fields had been found to be
authentic. She said it had been
independently verified by experts in
forensic pathology and video analysis
and had twice been subjected to
months of tests by audio-visual experts
commissioned by the United Nations.
"We stand by this excellent journalism
and do not accept that the footage we
broadcast has been doctored in any
way," Bentley said.
The Tagore family: (L-R) Daughter Mira Devi, son Rathindranath, Tagore,
Daughter-in-law Pratima Devi and daughter Madhuri Lata

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 59
FESTIVAL NEWS

A Pestering Journey bags Kerala Fest Award

Jury which also comprised Ayesha
Kagal and Sofia Sivaraman. Eminent
director Shyamaprasad headed the jury
for Short Fiction, Animation, Music
Video and Campus Films.
A package comprising 19 films of
women directors from countries such
as Thailand, Afghanistan, Philippines,
Iran, Jordan and India was also
unspooled at the festival. The package
was selected by the India Chapter of
the IAWRT (International Association
of Women in Radio and Television).
Mani Kaul's Duvidha and Chintha
Ravi's Ente Keralam were screened as
a homage to the two recently departed
filmmakers. Arun Khopkar, the lead
of Ashad Ka Ek Din, and Navroze
Documentary filmmaker K.R.Manoj receives the award for the Best Long Contractor, cameraman of Duvidha,
Documentary from Kerala Chief Minster Oommen Chandy. Applauding are shared their memories of Mani Kaul
filmmaker Priyadarshan, chairman, Kerala Chalachithra Academy, and while Sasikumar spoke about his
V.S Sivakumar, Kerala Minister for Transport and Devaswom. closeness to Chintha Ravi.
A Pestering Journey directed by Academy. The festival also included panel
K.R.Manoj won the Best Long discussions in the Open Forum,
D o c u m e n t a r y w h i l e T h e re i s The Competition Section was
interviews with film makers,
Something in the Air directed by categorised into various sections: long
discussions and seminars on New
Iram Gufran won the Best Short and short documentary, animation,
Frontiers in Documentary Film
Documentary at the 4th International music video and campus films. Noted
Marketing/Distribution and the need to
Documentary and Short Film Festival documentary filmmaker Arun
popularize science on television
of Kerala held at Thiruvanantpuram Khopkar headed the Documentary
from July 31 to August 4, 2011.
The festival, which is now a
companion to the larger International
Film Festival of Kerala, endeavours to
catalyse a vibrant documentary and
short film movement. Increasing
accessibility and affordability of media
technology has led to a boom in the
production and scope of films. The
festival aims to map and reflect
the exploding nature of the medium in
its many facets of creativity and
resistance.
Conflicts and realities in modern world
was the focal theme of the festival. 200
films from 200 countries were
screened in the five-day festival. More
than 200 films from 25 countries were
screened at the five-day festival which Arun Khopkar, Navroze Contractor and Sashikumar speak at the homage to
Mani Kaul and Chintha Ravi at the Kerala Film Festival.
was organised by Kerala Chalchitra

60 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Docu-drama on
THE AWARD WINNERS Guru Gobind Singh
Thakur Ranvir Singh travelled 8,000
Best Long Documentary km and covered eight states of India --
A Pestering Journey(K.RManoj) Bihar, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh,
Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab,
Citation: The award is given to K.R.Manoj for his searing and
Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra to
compassionate vision, linking the smallest organism to human life make In the Footsteps of Guru Gobind
and the environment, through powerful and poetic images which Singh. “We also covered 61 gurdwaras
express poignant beauty and the greed and brutality that blindly from Hemkunt Sahib in the Himalayas
to Hazoor Sahib in Maharashtra
destroys it.
following the actual route traversed by
Best Short Documentary guruji himself,” he adds proudly.
There is Something in the Air (Iram Ghufran) "It took us four years to make it. It
Citation:The award is given to Iram Ghufran for her imaginative really wasn't an easy task, but what
treatment of human suffering, through images and sounds that convey kept us going was our admiration
for guruji," says Singh. The film,
through suggestion the intensity of pain, rather than an offensive
according to him is “not a mere film but
display of those who suffer. his sewa for Guru Gobind Singhji”.
And yet, it does not promote any one
Best Short Fiction
religion, he claims. It's my attempt to
Kaveri (Shilpa Munikempanna) build bridges between different
Citation: This outstanding film handles its delicate coming-of-age- religions," he says.
theme with striking confidence and a lightness of touch – so that a
This is the first time that a film is being
simple story of two sisters is transformed into a moving experience. made on the legendary 10th Sikh guru
and, according to him, it will be the last
Best Animation
time. Not because there is no reverence
Journey to Nagaland (Aditi Chitre) but simply because it is such a difficult
Citation: The film achieves a remarkable level of stylized animation subject. "In the past, there have been
as it journeys from the mythical past to a troubled present some special programmes and some
general information dedicated to him,
Best Music Video but this kind of treatment has never
Sitaharan and Other Stories (Anusha Nandakumar) been given. This film is an
Citation: Using a magical combination of shadow play, masks, encyclopedia on Guruji's life and
brings out his glory.
puppets and real people, this video probes the line between illusion
and reality. Written by Ranvir Singh and Kartar
Singh Duggal, the two-and-a-half-
Best Cinematographer (Documentary) hour-long film has been filmed on
Shehanad Jalal for A Pestering Journey actual locations and uses paintings and
pictures to depict Guru Gobind Singh.
Best Cinematographer (Short Fiction) No expense has been spared to make
Barun D. Jordar for Open Doors the film authentic. The film has been
Special Jury Mention made in three languages -- English,
Hindi and Punjabi – so that it can reach
Sound Design: Aditi Chitre and Preetham Das for Journey to out to the maximum number of people.
Nagaland Born in Kota, Rajasthan, the 74-year-
Animation: It Is The Same Story (Nina Sabnani) old filmmaker has worked on film and
television projects in Britain and the
Short Fiction: The Elephant (Renu Sawant) US. In his four-decades-long career, he
Short Documentary: Vertical City (Avijit Mukul Kishore) made documentaries like Heart to
Heart, Spring is Here Once More and
Long Documentary: Mullathiv Saga (Someetharan)& You Don't Lions of Gir. He was also the executive
Belong (Spandan Banerjee) producer of the first Hollywood-India
co-production Shalimar.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 61
 Contractor film bags top Jeevika Award 'Our films never get shown.' 'We won't
send the DVDs as they might get copied
and for us our films are our survival.''It
is amazing that the music video
industry in the hills is a multi crore
business!' These comments made us
curious and jolted us from our
complacency of defining popular
culture in preconceived ways. We were
intensely curious about what was out
there and what insights we could gain
from the various social, cultural,
economic, political diversity in the
films made in parts of the country
without a long history of established
film industries; hence the name
'emerging cinemas'. We started
Vaishali Sinha receives the Special Mention Award from Adoor Gopalakrishnan exploring and decided to go beyond the
at the Jeevika Livelihood Festival. notions of high and low art, and look at
works that were made with honesty and
Navroze Contractor's Jharu Katha Saika Mallick's Koh-I-Noor (2011/ passion, that were true to the lived
(2010/India) bagged the award for Bangladesh), which was given the experiences of people.
the Best Documentary at the Jeevika award for the Third Best Documentary,
The idea got crystallised through the
Asia Livelihood Documentary tells the story of 7-year-old Raqeeb
Film Festival, held at the India from a nondescript Bangladeshi process of speaking to people, and
Habitat Centre, New Delhi from village named Chandpur, who is finding and viewing films from
August 26 to 28, 2011. Jharu Katha, largely oblivious to the world of different parts of the country. For
made in Rajasthani and Hindi, cinema house in. However, the grown- example, through a couple of
draws extensively on the fieldwork ups around him continuously try to documentaries, we knew of a group in
conducted in remote corners of rural imagine and construct young Raqeeb's Malegaon, Maharashtra who had
Rajasthan and the by-lanes of Jodhpur world in their own terms. The film, reworked Bollywood and Hollywood
city. The 64-minute film engages in named after the cinema house 'Koh-i- blockbusters and adapted them to their
conversation with a wide spectrum of noor', tries to capture whether those milieu. What we wanted to show in the
broom-makers. Their struggle for views conform to Raqeeb's own ideas. Festival of Emerging Cinemas were not
livelihood is intersected with different the films made on the Malegaon group,
stories of the broom provided by The Jury made a Special Mention of
but a film made by them. Malegaon ke
women and ritual attendants of shrines, Made in India, directed by Rebacca
Haimowitz and VaishaliSinha, which Sholay was made for the people of
traders, municipal sweeper and Malegaon; we wanted to see how a
garbage collectors. Through the explores the human experiences behind
the phenomena of “outsourcing” different audience, one in Delhi would
counterpoint of their voices, the film
surrogate mothers to India. The film respond to it.
covers wide ground in opening the
contradictory values and belief- weaves together the personal stories of
The films we came across were
systems of the broom. an infertile American couple and an
concerned with identity, aspiration,
Indian surrogate within the context of a
ritual heritage, migration and
Ajay T G's Andhere se Pehle growing reproductive outsourcing
(2011/India), which bagged the award business. assimilation, and were often done with
for the Second Best Documentary, humour and pathos. We discovered
documents how tribal land is routinely Akash Kamthan's Dekha Andekhi: there is an audience for these films that
grabbed or illegally acquired by private Kaal aur Kala, which explores the aim to mediate the past with the present.
companies in India in the name of hardships faced by the Sanganer Hand We felt that these films redefine the
development. In the Raigarh district of Block Printing industry, was named concept of popular culture and need
Chhatisgarh, farmers are caught in a the Best Student Documentary. The wider viewing and dissemination.
search for justice against the Jindal Jury made a Special Mention of Important to mention here are the films
Thermal Power Plant. Alongside K. Harish Singh's Budhan Diaries, on tribal communities that represented
testimonies by desperate farmers, this which documents the journey of
adivasis as people dealing with an array
film documents their determined Budhan Theatre of Chharanagar in
of complex problems in today's world,
protest against an impending public Ahmedabad. The People's Choice
Award was given to Amar, directed by and not as 'exotic' and 'primitive' as has
hearing that will decide the expansion been the custom in the mainstream
of the power plant in Tamnar. Andrew Hinton.
media.

62 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 Festival of Emerging Cinemas

A Cinema That Connects Small Town India

The Festival of Emerging Cinemas, organised and hosted by the International
Association of Women in Radio and Television and the India Habitat Centre between
August 8-12, 2011, was a celebration of the diversity in creative expression of the cinemas
that are emerging in the towns and villages of India. The idea was to showcase films that
are made by people living in the communities they are speaking to and about. The curators
were looking for films that had something to say, spoke in a local idiom, and were rooted in
the region. In the following piece JAI CHANDIRAM and ANUPAMA SRINIVASAN talk
about the genesis of the festival and its actual staging.

Our final selection included features, young tribal man to become a singer in take on the bollywood classic, made on
short fiction, documentaries and music a casteist and exploitative society. It a shoe string budget by Nasir Shaikh. A
videos from Ranchi, Imphal, Leh, gently documents the technological wedding videographer, Shaikh was
Niyamgiri, and Malegaon. Some of the transition from audio cassettes to CDs, driven by his love for hindi films to
filmmakers were social activists, some and the aesthetic movement from folk undertake this magnum venture. He
were Bollywood buffs; some were music to a more commercialised, hindi shot the film himself on a VHS camera
trained in institutes, others were self- film music inspired genre. The and edited it shot by shot through a
taught practitioners. What they had in audience was amazed to see a 'hero' VCR. The story is the same, and the
common was their love for cinema and who looked so unlike ones seen in casting stays true to the original, but
irrepressible urge to talk about the lives mainstream and even alternate cinema. with small changes in the dialogue,
and concerns of people amongst whom The film was greatly appreciated for its some clever touches in the shot taking
they lived and worked. Their films honesty and simplicity even as it and the frequent use of bicycles instead
were different in identity, content, style brought the complexity of the situation of horses, the film becomes much more
and rhythm from what is generally seen to the fore. than an imitation piece.
in Delhi and other metros. The festival
was envisioned as a platform for The next evening, the packed Wednesday evening was dedicated
dialogues between the different Indias house was thoroughly entertained by to music, and the programme began
that coexist, but usually do not interact Malegaon ke Sholay, an innovative with an interesting presentation on
with each other.
The festival was inaugurated on
August 8 by Dr.Aruna Vasudev who
shared her enthusiastic support
towards this initiative, saying that this
was a very different kind of festival and
was offering a unique opportunity to
viewers in Delhi who might not be
aware of the range and depth of films
being made in smaller towns and semi
urban areas of the country. Festival
Director, Jai Chandiram shared with
the audience the concept of the festival
and what they could look forward to
over the five evenings. This was
followed by the screening of Baha, the
film that had in fact sparked off the idea
for this festival. Noted documentary
filmmaker Shriprakash's debut feature,
the film is an exploration of the
Jharkhand music industry, the film
takes us through the struggle of a Aruna Vasudev at the Festival of Emerging Cinemas.

DOCUMENTARY TODAY 63
 historical costume drama is a simple
tale of a man who always speaks the
truth, and the dilemma he faces when
he falls in love. The inherent strength
of the theme, and the honesty in
the storytelling left the audience
mesmerized.
The festival came to an end on 12
August with the screening of two
films by Manipuri directors. Dr. Raj
Liberhan, Director, India Habitat
Centre graced the occasion and
expressed the hope that the Festival of
Emerging Cinemas will be back
next year with an equally engaging
selection of films. The first film of the
evening was a short fiction The Sun is
Still Not Setting by a young filmmaker,
Suvas Elangbam. It beautifully
A scene from Baha, directed by Shriprakash. captured the rhythm of the lives of a
young girl and her grandfather in rural
Garhwali music videos by filmmaker direct appeal to the audience to stand Manipur as it slowly unfolded to its
and Indian Ocean vocalist, Himanshu up and join the adivasis in their fight to heart breaking finish.
Joshi. He spoke about how coming save their land, forests, water and
from a purist background, he had livelihoods. As the closing film we had an
initial reservations about this highly experimental documentary Brief
commercialised industry, and how he As a tribute to Meghnath and Biju Companion in a Capital City by
overcame his biases and tried to Toppo, filmmakers based in Ranchi Dorendra Waribam. Through out the
understand the reasons for the who have been making films in the festival we had been watching films
stupendous success of the music region for more than a decade and whose defining quality was that they
videos. He showed clips from some a half, two of their films were presented the gaze of an 'insider'. They
videos and said that by taking up shown. The first was Sona Gahi were made by filmmakers who are
diverse themes of environment, Pinjara, a short fiction film, the first of living in the community they are
politics, religion, and romance in a its kind in Kurukh, the language of speaking about. The last film was a
single album, the producers were the Oraonadivasis. Through the reversal of that idea. It is about a person
reaching out to all sections of society. medium of songs, the film reveals from the northeast who visits Delhi and
the plight of people from tribal looks at it through the eyes of an
This was followed by two music videos communities who are unable to join outsider. With his handycam he
by activist filmmaker Surya Shankar their families during the traditional explores this big, bizarre city and the
Dash based in Bhubaneswar. Surya festivities because the official set up many 'outsiders' that inhabit it,
used to make advertisement films in does not recognize their festival as a recording their little narratives of
Delhi and later worked for a news holiday. The evening came to a close confusion, joy and sorrow.
channel. Then he gave it all up to move with Gadi Lohardaga Mail a lyrical
to Orissa where he is now making self- documentary that transported the The Festival of Emerging Cinemas was
funded films and training farmers to viewers to another world with its songs an experiment and turned out to be an
make their own films. The first video of longing and nostalgia, intertwined amazing process of discovery for both
Lament of Niyamraja was set to a song with the pathos of the peoples' struggle the curators and the audience as it
of the Dongaria Kondhadivasi for survival and the end of a century old opened up a new way of looking at
community about their mountain passenger train between Ranchi and films. The viewing of the whole
Niyamgiri that had been sold to a Lohardaga. range of films raised many pertinent
mining company by the government. questions about popular culture, target
Replete with visuals of the natural On the fourth day of the festival, we audiences, activist filmma king,
landscape, animals and people, the screened Tokskal, a wonderful film market pressures etc even as it offered
video and the haunting music was a from Ladhak based on a traditional people in Delhi an opportunity to
moving experience for the viewers. folk tale. Written and directed by connect with and understand people
The second film was a short piece Jigmet Omachik, and shot, edited and from different parts of the country
called Zaroori Khwaab that made a produced by Tashi Dawa, this through the medium of cinema.

64 DOCUMENTARY TODAY
 FRAMES FROM A LIFE

Sara Akash (as actor/1969) Uski Roti (1969)

Duvidha (1973) Nazar (1990)

Dhrupad (1982) Siddeshwari (1989)