shankar@brand.UUCP (Shankar Chatterjee) (12/10/85)
Currently, as a part of Festival of India, a number of Indian films are being
shown at Melnitz theater at UCLA, titled as Film Utsav. Apart from showing
such 'box-office-hit' directors' as Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, V. Shantaram
films (sorry no Satyajit Ray), films by Benegal, Nihalni, Syed Mirza, Ritwik
Ghatak, Gopalkrishnan, Mahesh Bhatt and others are being shown. I could
post the whole list if there is sufficient interest in the net. I believe
this set of films are being shown at other places in this country.
Last weekend (Dec. 7), I had a chance to see a new film by Adoor Gopal-
krishnan, "Mukhamukham" (Face to Face), a story about an ex-active trade
unionist who after coming back from hiding (due to persecution by the
authorities) finds that the world has changed so much since his active days.
A sense of betrayal and frustration permeates the whole situation although
it is not that much graphic to 'drive the nail home'. The film is very
evenly paced (though some of my Indian friends who have stayed in this country
for shorter periods than I have, found it 'too slow' and 'void of reality')
and the photography is extremely good. In fact, I have found that the film
deals with extremely delicate problems of personal emotions and the message
is quite bold.
I never saw any of Gopalkrishnan's films when I was in India (till '79)
even though I had heard about him. You don't get to see this kind of films
unless you're associated with some film-clubs. As far as "Mukhamukham" goes,
language was not a problem for me at all. Incidentally, the film is sub-titled
in English by the National Film Development Council. I would like to know
if any of the other films by Gopalkrishnan are available on video cassettes
here. I understand these films are hard to come by at local Indian stores
because they are not 'popular'. I had terrible luck once in finding a copy
of 'Oka Ori Katha' (a Malayali version of Prem Chand's 'Kafan' by Mrinal Sen).
Shankar Chatterjee USnail: USC Signal & Image Processing Institute (SIPI)
e-mail : Powell Hall 326
shankar%brand@usc-ecla.ARPA Univ. of So. Calif.
or Los Angeles, Calif. 90089-0272
chatterjee%arthur@ecla.ARPA
Ma Bell:(213) 743-2694
--
Shankar Chatterjee USnail: USC Signal & Image Processing Institute (SIPI)
e-mail : Powell Hall 326
shankar%brand@usc-eclc Univ. of So. Calif.
or Los Angeles, Calif. 90089-0272
chatterjee%arthur@ecla
Ma Bell:(213) 743-2694