Singing cinema

Cinema music exists only because there is cinema and has been and is constantly in a state of transition.

Interview: Kamal Hassan

‘There is no separate pedestal for the performer’

Kamal Hassan. Having been part of the film world for 54 of his 58 years, Kamal Hassan is today an epitome of versatility. His career started with a ba

R. Vijaya SankarR. Ilangovan

In first person: Mammootty

Irresistible magic

CINEMA is not just my bread. It is my breath and my very being. It is indeed a proud privilege to partake in the centenary celebrations of Indian cine

Man behind the 1970s wave

IT was when Tamil cinema was in dire need of a powerful shot of adrenalin that the young and energetic “Team Bharathiraja” arrived on the scene in the

Parallel cinema

Parallel experience

WITH three films Shyam Benegal did what countless other directors with their thousands of films failed to do: reveal the psyche of Muslim wome

‘Hindi films saved Urdu’

OUR films have kept Urdu alive. Take any dialogue from Hindi films. More than 80 per cent of them are in Urdu. New words have been incorporate

The Bachchan phenomenon

Brand Bachchan

CRITICS call him destiny’s child. He was there at the right place at the right time, they murmur. There could be a grain of truth in that. But

More stories from Cinema

‘Diminishing support’

FOR me, this 100 years business is something governmental. The government records and the historians need certain dates to mark stages and demarcate t

NEW DELHI, 26/02/2009: Noted Bengali film director Goutam Ghose at Fire restaurant, The Park , in New Delhi on February 26, 2009.
Photo: V. Sudershan

Cinema in each language is national

So let us call it 100 years of Indian cinema for convenience’s sake. Now the question that I want to address is, what is Indian cinema? And how Indian

The veteran Bengali actor, Soumitra Chatterjee, at the release function of the book 'The Vision of Ray - Cine Posters and Beyond', a collection of cinema posters and other film graphics by Satyajit Ray and Sandip Ray, on the occasion to mark the 50th anniversary of Satyajit Ray's film 'Pather Panchali', in New Delhi on March 15, 2005. The book is compiled by Parimal Ray,
Photo: V. Sudershan

Back to Bengali literature

LIke everything, else cinema on the whole has gone through various kinds of change. The same applies for Indian cinema, especially after the transform

BANGALORE, 08/10/2011: Actor Anant Nag at an interaction programme 'Belli Hejje' which was organised by Karnataka Chalanachitra Academy at Badami House on October 08, 2011.
Photo:V Sreenivasa Murthy

‘Films were bolder in the past’

I GREW up in a small village called Shirali, the nearest town being Bhatkal, in north coastal Karnataka. My parents were from North and South

New trails of discovery

Cinema was adopted enthusiastically by the pluralistic society of Kerala, just emerging from feudalism and casteism in the early 20th century, as an i

C. S. Venkiteswaran