Showing all 3 books
Set in a part of India often the scene of bloody caste wars, Bhavni Bhavai retells a folk tale that combines palace intrigue, romance, caste oppression and the revolt of the lower castes, in a hilariously disturbing style that draws on Brecht, Asterix comics, and the Bhavai, a popular traditional folk theatre form of the region. In his making of the film, Ketan Mehta, a leading filmmaker, ‘was searching for a kind of form which was not completely geared towards ...
As earlier in The Rat Trap, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, one of India’s finest directors, takes yet another look at the process of social change in India, with its inevitable ethical implications, this time in the sphere of politics. Set against the background of the history of the Communist Party in Kerala, in the 1950s and the 60s, it brings into a deeply moving confrontation a man and his image, an ideal and its decadence, a slowly degenerating older generation and ...
‘This is a film about storytelling,’ says Adoor Gopalakrishnan. Ajayan, the protagonist and narrator, tells us the story of his own life, going over it repeatedly in an attempt to discover and reveal himself, picking and choosing moments and memories to create, each time, a fresh but logical, effective tale. The cyclical structure (‘in the form of a monologue’) and open ending reflect the endless possibilities of creativity. ‘Ananataram literally means ...