Journalism of Courage
Bariwali (2000). This film by auteur Rituparno Ghosh, features a National Award-winning performance by Kirron Kher in the role of the lonely widow who is the sole custodian of a crumbling mansion. To pay for the maintenance of the same, she rents it to a production company filming Tagore’s Chokher Bali (a film Ghosh himself would go on to make in later years) and unconsciously gets involved with the director of the film. The film despite being a profound meditation on loneliness is thorough with the rigorous process of period-drama production. (Photo: Movie Still)
Luck by chance (2009). Arguably the best opening credit sequence in the history of Indian cinema, Zoya Akhtar’s love letter to Bollywood is a warm look into the demanding world of tinsel town. Following the stories of worn-out superstars, starlets struggling with casting couch, exasperated producers, clueless star kids dealing with the travails of nepotism, gossip magazines, publicity gimmicks and actors from the world of theatre trying to enter cinema - this film had it all. But even when it looked at the most bitter of truth, it had a lens laced with affection and warmth. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Iti Mrinalini (2010). Starring the mother-daughter duo of Konkona Sen Sharma and Aparna Sen in the same role, as the younger and older Mrinalini, this widely acclaimed semi-autobiographical film follows one night in the life of an aged actress, as she contemplates suicide. As she prepares to write her final note and take a last look at her memorabilia, the night opens a floodgate of memories that look at her journey from a struggling actress to an acclaimed heroine. The film follows her long-term relationship with a leading director in the industry, the parental bond she shares with her long-time associate and hairdresser, and also looks at the price of superstardom. (Photo: Movie Poster)
The Dirty Picture (2011). Indian cinema has never shied away from front-lining stories about actresses and heroines in its many narratives about the hoopla of film-making. Based on the life of sex-siren Silk Smitha and featuring Vidya Balan in a National Award-winning performance, this film looks at the world of B-grade, soft-porn cinema in South India in the 70s and 80s. An immediate interrogation of the sexual politics of our ample item numbers, this film charted the journey of a woman who weaponises her sexuality to pave her way to cultural sensationalism. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Shubho Mahurat (2003). What is better than a murder mystery on a film set? This National Award-winning film by Rituparno Ghosh is based on Agatha Christie’s novel The Mirror Crack'd From Side To Side. A relationship drama at its core, this film follows Sharmila Tagore, a yesteryear actress who returns to America to produce a film. Trouble arises in paradise when the lead heroine of the film, another faded actress making a comeback, mysteriously dies. With erstwhile actors now working as productions heads, scheming cinematographers and prying tabloid journalists - this film is a testament to Ghosh’s unmatched understanding of the industry he worked in for several long years. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Kagaz Ke Phool (1959). This Guru Dutt classic is one of the rare films that looks at the loneliness that often dictates the process of creating cinema. Following the relationship between a deeply lonely creator and his equally lonely muse, this film interrogates questions of creativity in a world so driven by material impulses that it stands completely divorced from relationships of innocence. With an unforgettable soundtrack by SD Burman, this film is a cult classic with its iconic final shot of Guru Dutt in a chair. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Chotushkone (2014). Winning its director and cinematographer National Awards, this visually sumptuous thriller by Srijit Mukherji follows the story of four veteran directors, with shared history, as they embark on a road trip to meet the producer of their next film. The film, whose pitch is to be made in a special villa of the producer, will be an anthology of four short films - all combined by the common theme of death. What unfolds is a war of wits - as each director narrates their own story, only to be critiqued and praised in equal measure by the others, and before you know it the film reaches a climax so stunning and quick that you are left gasping for more. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Om Shanti Om (2007). This campy ode to Bollywood cinema took us behind the scenes - into the world of extras, as it followed the life of Shah Rukh Khan who falls in love with a superstar Shantipriya. Based on the classic reincarnation drama Madhumati, this film does not raise any ground-breaking questions on superstardom or the process of film-making. But what it does, is keep referencing the many vagaries and eccentricities of the Bollywood circus - without a single note of irreverence for one of the longest standing film industries of the world. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Arekti Premer Golpo (2010). This queer classic of Indian cinema is based on the life of Chapal Bhaduri, a queer yesteryear superstar of the jatra format - a melodramatic theatre format prevalent in Bengal for centuries now. The film follows the lives of Abhiroop Bhaduri, a trans documentary filmmaker and their bisexual cinematographer and lover -- as they try to sidestep homophobic repressive authorities and get their film made. The film also looks at smaller issues, usually left unaddressed in our cinema, like the importance of foreign funding in documentary film-making and the plight of filmmakers in obtaining copyrights and extracting drama from real-life subjects. (Photo: Movie Poster)
Harishchandrachi Factory (2009). This 2009 Marathi film is a beautiful documentation of the process that went behind creating the first film of our cinema industry - Raja Harishchandra by the legend Dadasaheb Phalke. With a winning turn by Nandu Madhav in the role of Dadashaeb, the film is replete with anecdotes about a single man’s conviction to tell a story with images, at a time when stories through moving images were a thing of fantasy. (Photo: Movie Poster)
