Really makes us feel we are all part of a cosmic/divine plan… The static frames seem to mirror a static way of life, where everything is preordained, and there is no free will – and therefore, anything and everything can happen.

-Baradwaj Rangan

Existential gem

 

 

 

-Sukanya Verma

Paints the titular motif of a Shakespearean play with cinematic sound—existential philosophy that the characters hear.

 

-Dalton

Brimming with cinematic energy… Deceptively simple, yet deeply political… Renegotiates many dichotomies — insider | outsider, the self | other, us | them, thus effortlessly subverting many of our received notions of identity & selfhood; a critical parable for our times.

-Anjali Monteiro & KP Jayasankar

Navigates through a cinematic idiom by creating ripples of curiosity, intensely blurring the real and the imagined, rejecting conventional narrative demands with an artistic audacity, & rendering them redundant within its experiential zone.

-Joshy Joseph

A supernatural story told in stasis; a motion picture that muses about the transience of life while treating you to sudden bursts of evaporating pop

 

-Sreehari Nair

For its interesting take on issues of identity, selfhood & otherness, the conflicts it gives rise to, & the compassion & tolerance that triumphs… & most of all, for Mammootty, who has shown that age is no bar for playing roles of characters who challenge stereotypes.

-Rashmi Doraiswamy

Explores the limitlessness of imagination and proves what a beautiful artwork it can be when you place no boundaries on the human mind.

 

-Cris

Contains a certain sensuality within the simplicity of the narrative that almost hearkens back to the pleasure of experiencing a film sans the pesky plotting or the inordinate backflips of a crafted backstory.

-Amartya Acharya

Employs an understated style that serves this material beautifully, and convinces us that, to some people, life may be as much a product of the assembly line as in a factory. The only escape is perhaps to possess a degree of humanity.

 

 

Baradwaj Rangan

Of a moral crisis and its consequences.

 

 

 

 

 

Saibal Chatterjee

Foregrounds the regular couple who promptly arrive at the scene of every disaster—the opportunist, and the altruist with integrity.

 

 

 

Dalton

Alienation and Dignity personified.

 

 

 

 

 

Vijay Sharma

Pragmatic narrative that unfolds the layers of the unpredictable human psyche when set in a comparatively claustrophobic physical world.

 

 

 

Dipsikha Bhagawati

Gives us a spectacular series of bleached frames that make us boil with the characters inside… With Nasir last year, and now Koozhangal, it may be safe to say that a rigorous cinema tradition has finally arrived in Tamil cinema.

 

 

Baradwaj Rangan

Presents a ravaged world unvarnished… Masterful film about the mutation of misery… How do you account for punishments that aren’t tied to transgressions? How do you measure the cost of lost childhood?

 

 

Tanul Thakur

What is it about raw brutes that magnetises those that fear and love-hate them? A lyrical lens empathetically traverses the mindscape of a toxic caveman in desperate search for solace.

 

 

 

Dalton

Uses the camera like a sharp scalpel that makes its way deep into the flesh and prises open the innards of an unforgiving space… An intense portrait of marginalisation.

 

 

 

Saibal Chatterjee

Contrasts adult male arrogance and aggressiveness with youthful grit and cheer, and poignantly suggests the allegory of hope and persistence in a situation that appears hopeless and promises no sustenance.

 

 

Darshana Goswami

Creates a unique feminist approach to film making in which presence is suggested by absence; absence of the mother and of a central event.

 

 

 

Devdutt Trivedi

The linguistic root of gharana (ghar, or home) — a community of musicians bound by region, apprenticeship, or musical style — and the frequent reference to the Almighty, and the divine-filial reverence for mentors indicate the intersections of three key figures in The Disciple: parents, gurus, and gods. Sometimes they coalesce into one. These figures of authority induce unambiguous reverence and unwavering allegiance. The disciple then faces a paradoxical conundrum: How can he find his voice by losing his own?

 

 

Tanul Thakur

The grammar of cinema includes a variety of cinematic punctuation marks. Tamhane uses a full stop to literally put an end to things.

 

 

Dalton

Seems to take its elitist viewpoint from a ‘Brahminical’ position that does not envisage the necessity of a ‘public’ for any kind of artistic practice. The notion of ‘rasika’ is from a milieu in which hierarchy reigns, and his or her response goes beyond mere ‘enjoyment’ – which would be what a folk performance might fetch for its audience. Great art, without doubt, can only be truly appreciated by a few, but by keeping access open to a general public, it helps increase the ranks of those few, and that is why a ‘market’ for classical music cannot be sneered at. Perhaps Chaitanya Tamhane understands that his view of artistic practice as the exclusive domain of a few is untenable because that is where his ‘minimalism’ eventually leads – to a concealment of elitist prejudices

 

 

MK Raghavendra

What makes the scenes with the spiritual guru come to life is the drowning hypnotic music that suspends reality, created by giving centrestage to the tanpura, an Indian drone instrument traditionally played in the background to sustain the melody of the performance. The presence of the drone also embodies the concept of om, the elemental and eternal sound from which all other sounds flow.

 

 

Oorvazi Irani

Quintessentially a quest film in which the quest is foregrounded by the protagonist’s lone journey along the broad city avenues and under a vast sky; it almost appears too as if the entire universe is pressed upon his back. While the use of classical music as the trope of this journey is too unequivocal to miss, the ending marks the mystery and the enigma of it all.

 

 

Darshana Goswami

Touches a core aspect of Indian existence with its legacy of centuries old tradition. Yet it has a universal theme too… The protagonist appears to retain the core value of seeking aesthetic truth.

 

 

Babu Subramanian

An undertow of irony sweeps over its narrative. For those who wish to know in advance whether they are getting into a satire, a documentary, or an art-house venture, imagine being held in a state of nervous imbalance by a film that traverses all these labels, without pedantically conforming to one. Tamhane makes you study carefully every face that darts by and scan each one of them for the stories that might be contained in a nod of the head, a piercing look, a chewing motion.

 

 

Sreehari Nair

Tamhane uses mostly static long shots with prolonged durations to maintain a kind of epic detachement that provides space for the audience to enter and to fill the environment, which is essentially a lonely planet.

 

 

Utpal Datta

Takes shape using the Indian classical music fraternity as one big metaphor to demonstrate how degradation has occurred in almost every field, and how our blinded attitudes are responsible for the distortion of many of our long-standing, cherished values… Tamhane also strongly brings upon us the realization of the losses we have suffered over the declivity of disciples through several generations.

 

 

Dnyanesh Moghe

With its ensemble cast, energetic storytelling, fluid camera work and tongue-in-cheek look at religion, society and relationships, Ee.Maa.Yau creates a moody yet satirical portrait of life.

 

 

Utpal Borpujari

Upsets the postcards of a seaside village by unleashing the long take and emotionally charged non-stars, simulating actual lighting, and situating the primary focus on have-nots desiring the glory of wants; to serve the purpose of the neorealist church.

Lijo Jose Pellissery’s morbid satire is the extension of an experimental/versatile body of work that pioneered and continues to represent the so-termed new-gen cinema of Malayalam.

 

 

Dalton

Brilliant and faithful portrayal of a fishing village near Cochin, exposing the inhuman practices of the church and the helpessness of the downtrodden in a so-called civilized society.

 

 

Madhu Eravankara

With a gripping narrative style, Lijo Jose Pellissery’s Ee.Ma.Yau is a brilliantly portrayed film on death that reveals a range of symbolic implications, with a touch of humour and an almost obsessive concern with human mortality. The death of the old man Vavachan mestri, his son Eeshi’s promise to his father to have a grand funeral and the subsequent dramas are a reflection of our dreams and disenchantments, our hopes and disillusionments.

 

 

Parthajit Baruah

Deserves kudos for its sincerity in enacting a funeral drama that looks at sub-altern realities in a rural Keralite backdrop with the sea and Christianity forming layers of cinematic significance.

 

 

Manoj Barpujari

Superbly orchestrated rumination on life and death in a coastal Kerala village, where the follies and foibles of mankind, the workings of fate and the manifestations of grief are portrayed in a manner that is both culturally specific and universally resonant.

 

 

Saibal Chatterjee

Lyrical montage of life and times in contemporary rural India… Even subverts the conventional gender norms… Such a work by a first-time director holds a lot of promise for Indian cinema.

 

 

Priyanka Dasgupta

A milestone film of sorts, Village Rockstars epitomises the trials and tribulations, and heralds the coming of age, of a filmmaker, of her protagonist, and of the indie film movement in India.

 

 

Dalton

A women’s journey into the heart of the matter.

 

 

 

 

Premchand