Dareechah-e-Nigaarish

Indian Art Films that have inspired me and have helped shape the collective memory of mankind.

گروُ دت  کی  شاہکار  آرٹ فلم  صاحب  بی بی  اور  غلام  اِس یوٹیوب لنک پر دیکھی جا سکتی ہے

 Maya Mem Saab is the 1993 Indian parallel cinema Art Film based on the novel "Madame Bovary" by the French master Flaubert. Deepa Sahi gives a sterling performance and Gulzar's songs were put to lilting musical compositions by Hridyanath Mangeshkar. These included:
O Dil Banjaaray !

Ik HaseeN Nigaah Kaa Mujh Pay Saayaa Hai !



Description courtesy of Wikipedia

Maya Memsaab (Hindi: माया मेमसाब, Urdu: مایا میم صاحب‎), also known as Maya and Maya: The Enchanting Illusion in English) is a 1993 Hindi film directed by Ketan Mehta. The film is based on Gustave Flaubert's novel Madame Bovary.

Young, beautiful and intelligent Maya (Deepa Sahi) lives with her father in a palatial mansion in rural India. When her father suffers stroke, she calls for local Dr.Charu Das, who arrives on his bicycle and prescribes treatment for her dad. He comes pretty often, more on the pretext of seeing her, then her dad. Eventually they get married. Years pass by and Charu is busy engrossed in treating patients, leaving Maya alone to ponder her own fate and life. And it is not long before a young man named Rudra enters her life and an affair follows. This does not last long, as a much younger man Lalit (Shah Rukh Khan), now enters her life and begins another passionate affair. But again, Maya is not satisfied as she longs for more bodily needs and it is perhaps this that leads to her sudden death leaving two investigators to probe who or what really killed Maya.

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I have always been a great fan of Basu Bhattacharya (1934-1997), especially his classic 1971 Urdu Art Film "Anubhav" (Experience) which became the first of his Film Trilogy showcasing marital discord and dysfunctional marriages (Anubhav 1971, Avishkar 1973, Griha Pravesh 1979 ).

Since YouTube is banned in Pakistan, I have uploaded Basu Bhattacharya's 1971 Art Film "Anubhav" (Experience) on my blog "Naee Manzil Naee Raahein!" where it can be watched at any time by young Pakistanis interested in Urdu poetry, Urdu songs, Art Films and modern cinema. The movie features songs by Gulzar including "Meraa Dil Jo Meraa Hotaa".

The link to watch Anubhav for free on my blog  is:

http://naee-manzil-naee-raahein.blogspot.ca/2014/01/talats-cinema-notes-watch-basu.html

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              Mrinal Sen's Bangla Art Movie "Khaarij" (Case Closed) portrays the predicament of young boys from rural India who are given in custody of middle class families living in the cities of India to serve as house servants for pennies.  This movie uses short sentences in the dialogue which imitates everyday usage. The movie relies mostly on its silent shots (no dialogue)  where terrific acting by the actors, using their body language and facial expressions alone, helps tell a simple story powerfully.

          "Khaarij"  was  a  memorable movie  to watch and I cherished this experience so much that I felt compelled to write a  short review of the movie as a post on my blog as well.

Watch "Khaarij" for free on YouTube by clicking the link embedded here.

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Pather Panchali 

(Song of the Little Road; 1955)

Aparajito

(The Unvanquished; 1956)

Watch Aparajito by clicking the link embedded here.

Apur Sansar

(The World of Apu; 1959)

Watch Aparajito by clicking the link embedded here.



Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 Bengali Art film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name. It was Satyajit Ray's first film and went on to become the first film of The Apu Trilogy. It depicts the childhood of the protagonist Apu in the countryside of Bengal in the 1920s.

—Pather Panchali  (1955)  was followed by two films that continued the tale of Apu's life

—Aparajito (The Unvanquished) in 1956 and

—Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) in 1959.

The three films are together known as the Apu Trilogy.

(Description courtesy of Wikipedia)

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 Paar

(The Crossing; 1984)

View Paar for free by clicking the link embedded here.

            Paar (translation: "The Crossing ") is a 1984 Hindi movie based on a short story by Samaresh Bose and directed by Goutam Ghose. The film stars Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. Naseeruddin Shah won a Volpi Cup for his role as Naurangia. 

            When the landlord of a small Indian village sends his goons to attack and kill the school teacher, trouble erupts and destroys Naurangia's little universe and he ends up becoming a fugitive from the law. The movie Paar follows Naurangia as the story unfolds.

(Movie Poster and part of the description courtesy of Wikipedia)

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Reviews of Satyajit Ray's Apu Trilogy Bangla Art movies

and of Paar, a Hindi/Urdu Art Film

Pather Panchali 

(Song of the Little Road; 1955)

Aparajito

(The Unvanquished; 1956)

 Apur Sansar

(The World of Apu; 1959)



Pather Panchali (Bengali:  Song of the Little Road) is a 1955 Bengali drama film written and directed by Satyajit Ray and produced by the Government of the Indian state of West Bengal. Based on Bibhutibhushan Bandopadhyay's 1929 Bengali novel of the same name, the film was the directorial debut of Ray. The first film of The Apu Trilogy, it depicts the childhood of the protagonist Apu in the countryside of Bengal in the 1920s.

Though the film had a shoestring budget of Rs. 150,000 (US$3000),featured mostly amateur actors, and was made by an inexperienced crew, Pather Panchali was a critical and popular success. Influenced by Italian neorealism, Satyajit Ray developed his own style of lyrical realism in this film. The first film from independent India to attract major international critical attention, Pather Panchali won "Best Human Document" at the 1956 Cannes Film Festival, establishing Satyajit Ray as a major international filmmaker. Pather Panchali is today considered one of the greatest films ever made.

—Pather Panchali  (1955)  was followed by two films that continued the tale of Apu's life

—Aparajito (The Unvanquished) in 1956 and

—Apur Sansar (The World of Apu) in 1959.

The three films are together known as the Apu Trilogy.

Aparajito portrays the adolescent Apu, his education in the rural school and in a Calcutta college. The central theme in Aparajito is the poignant relation between a doting mother and her young ambitious boy.

Apur Sansar tells the story of the brief family life of Apu, his reaction at the premature death of his wife, and finally bonding with his son whom he left as an infant.

Both the two sequels won multiple national and international awards.  Ray did not have any specific plan to make a trilogy from the start. Indeed, he planned to make the third installment only after being asked about the possibility of a trilogy at the 1957 Venice Film Festival, where Aparajito won the Golden Lion award.

Pather Panchali ushered in a new tradition of film-making in India, one in which authenticity and social realism were key themes (see Parallel Cinema),breaking the rule of the Indian film establishment of the time.   Although described as a turning point in Indian cinema, some commentators opined that Pather Panchali did not usher in a modern age in Indian cinema. Rather, the film refined an already existent "realist textual principle" in Indian cinema. In 1963, Time noted that thanks to Pather Panchali, Satyajit Ray was one of the "hardy little band of inspired pioneers" of a new cinematic movement that was enjoying a good number of imitators worldwide.  The film has since been considered as a "global landmark" and "among the essential moviegoing experiences."

(Description courtesy of Wikipedia)

Paar

(The Crossing; 1984)

Paar (translation: "The Crossing ") is a 1984 Hindi movie directed by Goutam Ghose. The film stars Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri. Naseeruddin Shah won a Volpi Cup for his role as Naurangia.

The film of exploitation in rural BiharJasidih,B. deoghar, in which a landlord (Utpal Dutt)’s men wreck a village and kill the benevolent schoolmaster (Anil Chatterjee) who was in progressive force. The labourer Naurangia (Naseeruddin Shah) breaks with a tradition to passive resistance and retaliates by killing the landlord’s brother. Naurangia and his wife Rama (Shabana Azmi) become fugitives from justice. After many efforts to find sustenance elsewhere, the two decide to return home. To earn the fare, they agree to drive the herd of pigs through the river. This proves to be an epic struggle and is what gave the film its name.

(Description courtesy of Wikipedia)