INDIAN NEW WAVE FILMMAKER..MANI KAUL!

 - Manoj Kulkarni

One of the pioneers of India's new wave cinema..Mani Kaul!

Today is death anniversary of one of the pioneers of our India's new wave cinema..Mani Kaul!

Mani Kaul directing film from new wave point of view!

Scene from Mani Kaul's film 'Uski Roti' (1969).

Graduated in acting & direction from Film Institute at Pune..Mani Kaul was influenced by French New Wave cinema! In 1969 he directed his first film 'Uski Roti' which was one of the key films of New Indian Cinema. This film broke the traditional narrative structure of our cinema..And won Filmfare's critics award!

Raisa Padamsee in Mani Kaul's 'Duvidha' (1973).

Mita Vashisht & co-actor in Mani Kaul's 'Siddheshwari' (1989).

Then he made film 'Ashadh Ka Ek Din' (1971) based on a play by Mohan Rakesh. After those black & white docudrama style films he made colour film 'Duvidha' (1973) based on a short story by Vijaydan Detha. It was a popular folktale from Rajasthan..and did not match to his earlier social films. But he won Best director National award! In 2005 Amol Palekar remade this film as 'Paheli'!

Latter he made some documentaries, in which notable was 'Siddheshwari' (1989) which won national award! This showed in our Film Appreciation Course in FTII. I still remember interaction with Mani Kaul after the screening in classroom..in that one of our participants aggressively did debate with him. It was because his films did not follow the popular style of film making and very slowly worked on the detailing the visuals!

Shahrukh Khan in Mani Kaul's film 'Ahmaq' (1992).

Very few knows that now established renowned filmmaker Shekhar Kapoor acted in his film 'Nazar' (1991) and today's bollywood king Shahrukh Khan also acted in his film 'Ahmaq' (1992) during their struggling days!


His films got awards here and international recognition in various festivals. He was in the juries of '21st Berlin International Film Festival'! He was a visiting lecturer at Harvard University, USA and he taught music in the Netherlands!

Homage to Mani sir!!

- Manoj Kulkarni
['Chitrasrushti', Pune]