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Sunday, August 26, 2012

Indian Films in Sight & Sound

In Sight & Sound's 2012 poll, 39 Indian films got votes. This number only includes Indian productions or co-productions directed by Indians, such as Salaam Bombay!. Foreign co-productions such as Gandhi are not included in this number.

Aaja Nachle (2007), Anil Mehta
The Adversary (1971), Satyajit Ray
Amar Akbar Anthony (1977), Manmohan Desai
Andaaz (1949), Mehboob Khan
Aparajito (1956), Satyajit Ray
Arguments and a Story or Reason, Debate and a Tale (1974), Ritwik Ghatak
Awaara (1951), Raj Kapoor
The Bogey-Man (1980), Govindan Aravindan
Charulata (1964), Satyajit Ray
The Cloud-Capped Star (1960), Ritwik Ghatak
Days and Nights in the Forest (1970), Satyajit Ray
Devdas (1955), Bimal Roy
Dil Se… (1998), Mani Ratnam
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995), Aditya Chopra
Distant Thunder (1973), Satyajit Ray
The Duo (1997), Mani Ratnam
The Emperor of the Mughals (1960)/Mughal-E-Azam, K. Asif
The Golden Thread (1965), Ritwik Ghatak
Johnny Gaddaar (2007), Sriram Raghavan
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), Guru Dutt
Kalpana (1948), Uday Shankar
Mahal (1949), Kamal Amrohi
Man of the Story (1996), Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Maqbool (2004), Vishal Bharadwaj
Mother India (1957), Mehboob Khan
The Music Room (1958), Satyajit Ray
Om Dar-ba-Dar (1988), Kamal Swaroop
Our Daily Bread (1970)/Uski Roti, Mani Kaul
Pakeezah (1972), Kamal Amrohi
Pather Panchali (1955), Satyajit Ray
Pyaasa (1957), Guru Dutt
Rang De Basanti (2005), Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra
A River Called Titas (1973), Ritwik Ghatak
Saint Tukaram (1936), Vishnupant Govind Damle, Sheikh Fattelal
Salaam Bombay! (1988), Mira Nair
Sholay (1975), Ramesh Sippy
Siddheshwari (1989), Mani Kaul
Teesri Kasam (1966), Basu Bhattacharya
The World of Apu (1958), Satyajit Ray

Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak have the most film mentions with 8 and 4 respectively. In total, Satyajit Ray’s films got 56 votes from critics (plus 17 director votes) while Ghatak’s films got 12 votes (plus 6 director votes). For many Western Critics, Indian cinema starts and ends with Ray and Ghatak, so it is not a surprize to discover these two directors have the most votes. Thankfully, Guru Dutt & Mani Kaul are included in the poll albeit with a tiny number. Guru Dutt’s 2 films got a total of 9 votes from critics while Mani Kaul's 2 films got a single vote each. Sadly, there are no mentions for Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen or Gulzar, something that feels worse considering that Aditya Chopra & Anil Mehta got one vote each. In another decade, Anurag Kashyap will likely be included and Amit Dutta might get a mention if he continues to make films.

4 comments:

Sam Juliano said...

Sachin, I am not at all surprised that Ray and Ghatek led the field here, and frankly feel they deserved too. Both rate amoung the greatest directors of all-time, and their work has influenced many. I've seen about a dozen of this group, and my own favorites are:

Pather Panchali
The Music Room
Charulata
Days and Nights in the Forest
The Cloud-Capped Star
Aparajito
Distant Thunder
The World of Apu

A bit surprised DEVI didn't place.

And I also like A RIVER CALLED TITAS.

Wonderful post!

Sachin said...

Thanks for the comment Sam. Indeed both are deserving and I am glad to see each of them have multiple films included. I have not seen DEVI so I will try to catch that as part of an upcoming Bengali film spotlight.

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