Jukti Takko aar Gappo & the ‘close-up’ kathā: Ritwik Ravivār – 11 by Amrit Gangar.
NEELKANTHA (SIVA) IN HIS LAST MOMENTS UNITES WITH DURGA, HE HAD ALREADY HAD AN ENCOUNTER WITH A YOUNG MILITANT. Image: a screenshot by...
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a division of barking dog films
Digital Cahier
- May 21
- 2 min
Komal Gandhar & the‘close-up’ kathā: Ritwik Ravivār – 10 by Amrit Gangar.
Image: Towards the end of ‘Komal Gandhar’, Ritwik Ghatak ignites the flame of hope through a child, Anasuya returns to her lover Bhrigu,...
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Digital Cahier
- May 7
- 5 min
Shyam Benegal & Smita Patil's best perhaps:O.P. Srivastava takes a look at Bhumika(The Role).
Smita Patil in Bhumika(1977). Bhumika (The Role) is a 1977 Hindi film directed by Shyam Benegal. The film’s ensemble included Smita...
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Digital Cahier
- Apr 30
- 2 min
Subarnarekha & the ‘close-up’ kathā: Ritwik Ravivār – 8 by Amrit Gangar.
Cosmicity of Ghatak’s close-up of Subarnarekha’s Sita alluding to the myth of Siva and the river Ganga.(Madhabi Mukherjee in...
66 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 30
- 1 min
A restless mind in search of new film forms, of magic: D.G. Phalke by Amrit Gangar.
Image: Dadasaheb Phalke editing a film. “My work should be severely criticized, for that alone is the path towards improvement,” remarked...
85 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 28
- 5 min
O.P. Srivastava takes us on a trip on Awtar Kaul's fantastic, 27 Down.
Rakhee & M.K. Raina in Awtar Kaul's 27 Down. 27 Down is a 1974 Hindi film written, directed and produced by Awtar Krishna Kaul starring...
140 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 23
- 2 min
Meghe Dhākā Tārā and the Close-up Kathā: Ritwik Ravivar- 7 by Amrit Gangar
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(1)Image: Screenshot by Amrit Gangar Via close-ups of hands and fingers, Ghatak signalled us in close proximity to histories of despair,...
119 views1 comment
Digital Cahier
- Apr 22
- 4 min
50th year of Garm Hawa & 50 years without Balraj Sahni- a homage by O.P. Srivastava
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(1)A still from Garm Hawa(1974). Garm Hawa (1974) is undoubtedly the best Indian film to capture the pain of Partition that swept the Indian...
82 views1 comment
Digital Cahier
- Apr 16
- 2 min
Meghe Dhākā Tārā and the Close-up Kathā: Ritwik Ravivār-6 by Amrit Gangar
A close-up of an ominous flirt would change neeta’s fate, whiplashed Jagaddhatri (bearer of the world) would weep in जिजीविषा (eternal...
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Digital Cahier
- Apr 9
- 2 min
ĀMĀR LENIN & the ‘Close-up’ Katha: Ritwik Ravivar – 5 by Amrit Gangar
In a sequence, close-ups of this face appear looking at Lenin’s statue being unveiled in Calcutta, they are not Eisenstein’s rising lions...
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Digital Cahier
- Apr 2
- 2 min
NAGARIK & the 'Close-up' Katha:Ritwik Ravivar-4 by Amrit Gangar
SEETA’s HAND HAS HARNESSED SAGAR (OCEAN) FOR 70 YEARS SINCE ‘NAGARIK’ (1953), IT KEEPS MANIFESTING IN CLOSE-UPS! Image: Screenshot by AG...
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Digital Cahier
- Mar 26
- 2 min
KOMAL GĀNDHĀR & the ‘Close-up’ Katha: Ritwik Ravivar – 3 by Amrit Gangar
Image: Anasuya (Supriya Devi) holding Bhrigu (Abanish Bannerjee)’s wrist in Ritwik Ghatak’s film ‘Komal Gāndhār’ (1961), a defining...
118 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Mar 19
- 2 min
Ajantrik & the 'close-up' katha: Ritwik Ravivar-2 by Amrit Gangar
Image: A screenshot from Ritwik Ghatak’s b&w film ’Ajantrik’ (Pathetic Fallacy aka The Unmechanical, 1957), for Ritwik Ghatak ‘human...
203 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Mar 12
- 2 min
THE ‘CLOSE-UP’ KATHĀ: RITWIK RAVIVĀR – 1 by Amrit Gangar
[Image: A screen-shot by AG] SHANIBARER CHITHI (SATURDAY LETTER) TO RABIBARER RITWIK (SUNDAY RITWIK) JĀTRĀ VIA ‘JUST CINEMA’, THE CARAVAN...
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Digital Cahier
- Dec 11, 2022
- 1 min
Jogan, a film which sets Dilip Kumar apart by Sharad Raj
Kidar Sharma's Jogan(1950) starring Dilip Kumar with Nargis and debutant Rajendra Kumar is my all time favourite Dilip Kumar performance...
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Digital Cahier
- Nov 26, 2022
- 8 min
Decoding the Uttam-Suchitra chemistry by Satyabrata Ghosh
Cinema could have been only a spectacular experience for the ticket-paying audience for a decade or two, if it had limited itself to...
82 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Nov 16, 2022
- 6 min
Bengali Cinema – A Middle Way to Tread by Satyabrata Ghosh
Years back, probably in the summer of 1989, the actor Rabi Ghosh in a lively chat with me, referred to Charlie Chaplin as he explained...
106 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Nov 2, 2022
- 6 min
Ballavpurer Roopkatha: a director in charge by Satyabrata Ghosh
While we were growing up as cinephiles, it was often told that the cinema is a ‘director’s medium’. In practice however, we witnessed and...
63 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Oct 20, 2022
- 7 min
On watching Ponniyin Selvan at a Critical Time by Satyabrata Ghosh
Aishwarya Rai & Vikram The world of the movie business faced its first challenge in America in the late 1950s when television started...
120 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Oct 10, 2022
- 3 min
"Ab yeh tala main teri jeb se chaabi nikaal kar hi kholunga,”Amitabh's gems listed by Sharad Raj
It was the summer of 1982 when the reigning superstar of the Hindi films, Amitabh Bachchan met with a near fatal accident on the sets of...
69 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Aug 26, 2022
- 5 min
Figuring out Chaddha from Gump: an attempt to compare and contrast by Satyabrata Ghosh
An essential quality of cinema is to portray moments that are transitory in human life. At most, they stay as good or bad memories, which...
171 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 17, 2022
- 6 min
The Curious Case of Sharmaji Namkeen
Satyabrata Ghosh Seldom a painter could finish a portrait or a landscape in one go. The same is true for a sculptor or an author, who...
162 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Mar 1, 2022
- 5 min
The uphill struggle to adulthood: A critical analysis of "Bulbul Can Sing" by Dipankar Sarkar
With her third outing, Rima Das has honed a lyrical, realistic cinematic idiom that considers the viewers as intellectual participants....
42 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Feb 2, 2022
- 4 min
Binisutoy: Imagination as the fodder of existence. An analysis by Dipankar Sarkar
Set up and pay-off has always been at the helm of narrative fiction dealing with dramatic conflict and crisis. As a norm, a certain...
32 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Dec 15, 2021
- 6 min
Homecoming : 21 years of Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Utsab’ by Satyabrata Ghosh
Cinema in India, has a long tradition of celebrating the idea of family, the basic unit of society. Even though the protagonists as well...
194 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Nov 18, 2021
- 3 min
The Hitchcock influence on Bollywood, according to Khalid Mohamed
The master of suspense may have been vastly imitated but needless to assert he has never been equalled, far from it. In fact, Alfred...
207 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Nov 7, 2021
- 5 min
On our actors who touched the zenith of greatness, by Khalid Mohamed
This has been bugging me. Do actors, like wine, improve with age? I’m not at all sure. And for this I would resort to a remark made by...
515 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Oct 31, 2021
- 8 min
Malayalam cinema: shifting paradigms by Sulochana Ram Mohan
Malayalam Cinema evolved through time. To use a cliché change has been the only constant in Malayalam cinema. In the first decade of the...
250 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Oct 11, 2021
- 4 min
From disillusionment to anger: a tale of two Vijays by Sharad Raj
If Mani Kaul considered Guru Dutt one of those rare mainstream filmmakers, who always lit up a shot for the entire image and not just for...
144 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Sep 29, 2021
- 6 min
Raj Khosla, the director of all seasons, by Khalid Mohamed
During the 1960s-‘70s, besides the super-showman Raj Kapoor, he was the other RK. Today, he is remembered affectionately, essentially by...
254 views1 comment
Digital Cahier
- Sep 23, 2021
- 5 min
The Uncompromising Vision of Mani Kaul, by Khalid Mohamed
ASHADH KA EK DIN His second feature film ‘Ashadh Ka Ek Din’ (1971) – after ‘Uski Roti’ (1969) -- has completed 50 years. Adapted from the...
901 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Sep 4, 2021
- 4 min
Khalid Mohamed revisits Ismail Merchant & James Ivory's Shakespeare Wallah
There’s something so heartbreakingly romantic about “Shakespeare Wallah”. Shot in chiaroscuro black-and-white by Satyajit Ray’s regular...
130 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Aug 29, 2021
- 9 min
A forgotten legacy: Cinema through the eyes of a painter by Khalid Mohamed
(An ink sketch of Gaja Gamini by MF Husain) To begin with an analogy, the art of music did not arise as soon as man learned how to create...
275 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Aug 4, 2021
- 3 min
Kishore Kumar & the magic of Chalti Ka Naam Gadi by APS Malhotra
Diamonds are forever. So are good movies. Comedy in any medium is a tough genre to handle- it requires extreme sensitivity, sense of...
54 views6 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jul 22, 2021
- 13 min
Indian New Wave for the Millennials by Surendar Chawdhary
Warning: This is not an exercise in praising our famous men. Even though I use a lot of close ups, “Once upon a time, long long ago…”...
198 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jul 22, 2021
- 5 min
Celluloid-a befitting tribute to JC Daniel, the father of Malayalam cinema writes Nadira Cotticollan
Watching the Malayalam film “Celluloid” directed by Kamal , was somewhat like repaying a long outstanding debt , one which I wasn’t aware...
164 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jul 20, 2021
- 8 min
Shakespeare and Assamese Parallel Cinema: by Parthajit Baruah
William Shakespeare’s plays explore numerous issues that play an essential role in the formation of identity – race, gender, social...
145 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jun 27, 2021
- 10 min
Adil Hussain: the uncrowned czar of independent cinema by Sharad Raj
The posters and the images on social media confused me. I was wondering which film is this that has a Kanwaljeet Singh look alike as the...
294 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jun 23, 2021
- 8 min
In the realm of the status quo-the films of Puttanna Kanagal by Ramchandra P N
Ramchandra P N I have been harboring this theory for quite some time now that in the Indian mainstream film industry unless a movie has a...
131 views1 comment
Digital Cahier
- Jun 16, 2021
- 1 min
Punit Posts Posters: Cinema down the years part 3.
1.Gallant Heart / Diler Jigar - 1931 Silent movie art often used poses derived from academic painting or studio photography. This canvas...
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Digital Cahier
- Jun 14, 2021
- 6 min
Guernica never moved me:-Nadira Cotticollan discusses Shyamaprasad's Malayalam film, Artist.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, music, books,...
86 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Jun 10, 2021
- 1 min
Punit Posts Posters: Indian films down the years, Part 2
Poster for KALYAN KHAJINA - 1924 Art - Khire / Khare. The Maharashtra ruler Shivaji in the pose reminiscent of popular prints, which...
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Digital Cahier
- Jun 4, 2021
- 1 min
Punit posts posters: Indian films down the years.
Director V. Shantaram's "Ayodhyecha Raja" was the first Marathi talkie released in 1932. The film was produced by Prabhat Film Company....
41 views1 comment
Digital Cahier
- May 2, 2021
- 5 min
Chiriakhana: Satyajit Ray ventures into the detective genre. Dipankar Sarkar revisits the film
Chiriakhana (The Zoo, 1967) A nefarious act of crime in a detective film is, primarily, an inciting incident that is usually approached...
49 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- May 1, 2021
- 1 min
Filmmaker Anup Singh celebrates Ray's 100th, with a view from Punjab
Filmmaker Anup Singh pays a tribute to Satyajit Ray on his 100th Birth Anniversary. The article first appeared in The Sunday Tribune,...
143 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 29, 2021
- 3 min
Irrfan and that phone call in "The Namesake" by Sharad Raj
If at any point in time and in any emotional or mental state, I am asked which is the standout performance for you from an Indian actor,...
121 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Apr 8, 2021
- 4 min
Rafey Mahmood and the tale of two "mohallas": Ankhon Dekhi & Pagglait
After four months of abstinence from Netflix I finally surrendered to peer pressure and subscribed to its most basic plan. The OTT...
257 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Mar 7, 2021
- 7 min
SAHIR- THE ENIGMATIC MAGICIAN by Shrikant Mahiarya
I got introduced to Sahir Ludhianvi through a book by Prakash Pandit. The book was a part of my elder brother’s collection in Kota. My...
54 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Mar 6, 2021
- 3 min
Amitabh & I
As a 10-year old with Amitabh and my dad& sister at Natraj Studio, during the shooting of Sholay(1975) The year was 1975, when I was...
73 views0 comments
Digital Cahier
- Feb 20, 2021
- 5 min
Melody in film: the Hindi film song as a cultural product – Part II
by Roshni Sengupta (First published in Café Dissensus Everyday, June 2016 https://cafedissensusblog.com/2016/06/10/melody-in-film-the-hin...
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