With a month or so to run, we look at season of screenings focusing on period indie independent cinema and a new Indian art exhibition at the same venue…
MOST people in the West have a passing idea about the style they can expect from Bollywood films – but few here know that in the 1970s and 1980s another sort of cinema emerged and thrived in India.
Known as Parallel or Alternative Cinema, the Barbican Centre in London has a season of these Indian films screening through November and into December.
Titled ‘Rewriting the Rules – pioneering Indian cinema after 1970’, it screens several films that are classics in this genre.
These were budget features by filmmakers who had wider social and political concerns but were still interested in making films that a mass audience could enjoy.
Several of the directors featured like Mrinal Sen premiered their work at Cannes and have an internationally recognised body of work – others like John Abraham from Kerala are well known to film students in India but much less recognised outside.
Another much feted name – but in the world of documentaries is the legendary Anand Patwardhan, who is among veteran community of filmmakers who constantly chose to challenge the establishment and agitate for equal rights.
Tomorrow (November 7) the latest film in the series which began last month with Sen’s ‘Interview’ (1971) continues now with ‘Duvidha’ (1973) by Mani Kaul.
Best known for his visual style which takes a lot of inspiration from Indian painting and music, Kaul’s film charts the fete of a new bride, Duvidha – whose husband leaves her at home with her in-laws, while he goes out to work and she falls in love with a ghost who assumes her husband’s form.
“Memorable lead performances are intensified by Kaul’s distinctive use of long takes and static frames; the minimalist visual style resembles an extended painting. The film is deeply rooted in Rajasthani culture, bringing to life the region’s landscapes, architecture, and customs,” informs the website.
Dr Omar Ahmed, a UK based film scholar from the University of Manchester, has curated the films and shared with www.asianculturevulture.com his thinking.
Dr Omar commented: “We were looking at films that had some commonality in terms of themes, style and their socio-political content.
“These parallel cinema filmmakers were often using their work not only to critique the state of society, be it women’s rights, gender representation, caste politics but also re-thinking the language of film in new and alternative ways.”
In the launch film of the season, ‘Interview’, a young man in Kolkata is keen to get a job and must find a suit for the interview at a company where colonial type attitudes still persist – he is advised he must wear a suit to be taken seriously and it sets him on a troubled path.
Sen pinpoints outdated colonial attitudes – even though this is more than 20 years since the end of the British Raj.
Dr Omar speaking more generally about the season, explained: “Many of the societal issues such as women’s rights, unemployment, poverty, corruption and communalism remain unresolved and continue to impact the lives of many people on a daily basis.
“It allows us an audience to reflect on what progress has been made if any, when it comes to caste, gender and communalism to name just a few.”
He feels that many independent films coming out of India today reflect more of the influence of Hollywood and independent western cinema, rather than the Indian Parallel filmmaking but films such as ‘Court’ or ‘Masaan’ do show influences of this alternative way of making films.
He also cites the work of Gurvider Singh whose ‘The Fourth Direction’ (‘Chauthi Koot’) screened at Cannes and who was mentored by Kaul.
Dr Omar also says that filmmakers such as Anurag Kashyap, Rajat Kapoor and Kiran Rao do reflect an appreciation of Indian Parallel Cinema.
Dr Omar is currently finishing a book on Indian Parallel Cinema and has just curated a strand within Leeds International Film Festival that celebrates the work of iconic Indian actor Smita Patil. His book, ‘The Revolution of Indian Parallel Cinema in the Global South (1968–1995): From Feminism to Iconoclasm’, comes out early next year.
He tells acv: “It will be one of the first monographs on the film movement and its history, offering film enthusiasts to learn more about the origins, evolution and demise of the movement over a period of four decades of unrivalled creativity and anti-establishment politics.”
He taught media and film studies at the University of Manchester and then did Phd looking at the history and politics of Indian Parallel Cinema.
The screenings continue alongside a major exhibition of contemporary Indian art – ‘The Imaginary Institution of India 1975-1998’ which goes into 2025 (See listings below).
It features many of the best known artists whose work became synonymous with modernity, dissent and equal rights in a time of political turmoil. It’s been curated by Shanay Jhaveri, head of visual arts at the Barbican and mounted with the assistance of Kiran Nadar Musuem of Art.
There are over 30 artists featured and many of these works have not been seen before in the UK.
Both the films screening as part of this season and the art exhibition are well worth seeing and if your only understanding of Indian cinema is Bollywood and visual art of an older period, you must take yourself to both to appreciate the Indian artists’ diversity of dissent, their fight for equality and their desire to be seen and heard.
Listing
Cinema
Tomorrow (November 7) – ‘Duvidha’ 6.45pm, Cinema 3, Beech Street, Barbican London EC1Y 8AA and continues until Thursday, December 12
See here for full listings: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/series/rewriting-the-rules-pioneering-indian-cinema-after-1970
Art
The Imaginary Institution of India 1975-1998 Art Gallery, Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS until January 5 2025
https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2024/event/the-imaginary-institution-of-india-art-1975-1998
