A LETTERED SOUL: REFLECTIONS ON LITERATURE, CINEMA AND CULTURE .

A DIVERSE ARRAY, INDEED.

More musings on some of the greatest cinematic works to influence me over years, including those hailing from 2020.

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DELHI 6(2009) and EKLAVYA-THE ROYAL GUARD(2007)

In peak winter season, at the commencement of 2020(or maybe it was late December, 2019), I revisited two of my favourite films of the late 2000s era, the timeline in which I was a school student and was striving to discover more experimental works to aid and abet my personal choices in the realm of art. I was always proud of the Indian film industry then more than at anytime else because it had such rich stories to convey, with such an inclusive and universal character of its own.

Take DELHI 6, for example, as it collects the distinct flavour of an anthology within a composite screenplay in such an interesting and timely manner that mini-tales emerging out of the bylanes of the old, walled location of the title pit tradition against modernity and vice versa. As I watched it again, I could feel its nature of addressing sectarian conflicts/ religious partisanship to be straight out of the current RAM JANMABHOOMI conflict. With allegory, theatrical acuity, satire and symbolism as its creative weapons, it boasts of a dream ensemble bringing multiple generations of actors together and makes sense as a quintessential Indian tale, generating the local even within the country's capital city. It's a diverse array indeed and powerfully adept in its diagnosis of society.

EKLAVYA: THE ROYAL GUARD

This carefully constructed screenplay is meticulous in its evocation of a princely estate in Rajasthan and pits the past against the present, with traditional mores paving way for a modern outlook on what it means to be responsible for precedents set by our ancestors. The serpentine shadows, slow burn of revelations and graceful performances fit into the larger picture of intrigue within aristocratic citadels.

Suffice to say, EKLAVYA, like DELHI 6, benefits from its primacy of location and like the latter deals with class tensions and hegemony of relationships. It has a cast consisting of India's finest including Saif Ali Khan, himself a scion of the princely estate of Pataudi. Each scene, each colour palette and of course its earnestly fertile Shakespearean ethos is earned and minimalistic. The mighty Amitabh Bachchan is the sentinel of dutiful tempers and upholding truths here. Without him, this tale based on the ancient Indian myth of EKLAVYA will be nothing.

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KHOOBSURAT(1980)

In times of LOCKDOWN where we rely on the tenacity of families more than anything else, there's nothing better than watching a Hrishikesh Mukherjee family ensemble.

An exponent of everyday, educated middle class units with their cadences of witty conversations and intelligent narratives, the director is at his very best on KHOOBSURAT where evergreen star Rekha plays a happy go lucky proponent of joy in her sister's marital household governed by strict decrees of the matriarch (legendary Dina Pathak)