Natasha Hervatta
One of my favourite directors, Anurag Kashyap has brought forth a radical new movement in Indian cinema. Willing to test his limits, Kashyap has frequently shown in his movies themes that are generally not seen in mainstream cinema. Let's have a look at some of the films directed by this iconic filmmaker....
This short film tells the story of a doctor on death row who claims to have discovered a permanent cure for any virus-based disease and stars Kay Kay Menon and Nivedita Bhattacharya.
Black Friday is a crime film based on Black Friday - The True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by S. Hussain Zaidi about the 1993 Bombay bombings. It won the Grand Jury Prize at the Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles and was a nominee for the Best Film (Golden Leopard) award at the Locarno International Film Festival.
Paanch is an unreleased film written and directed by Anurag Kashyap and starring Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastava, Vijay Maurya, Joy Fernandes and Tejaswini Kolhapure. The film is "loosely" based on the 1976-77 Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders in Pune.
No Smoking is a neo-noir psychological thriller film, loosely based upon the short story Quitters, Inc. by Stephen King. The story follows K (Abraham) a self-obsessed, narcissist chain smoker who agrees to kick his habit to save his marriage and visits a rehabilitation centre, but is caught in a labyrinth game by Baba Bengali (Rawal), the man who guarantees he will make him quit.
Return of Hanuman is an animated film about an adventure of the Hindu god Hanuman.
Dev.D is a drama, a modern-day take on Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay's classic Bengali novel, Devdas. The film is set in contemporary Punjab and Delhi, where familial ties are negotiated by the traditions of patriarchy and marriages are reduced to a game of power and "honour".
Gulaal is a thriller drama film, which explores themes such as pursuit of power, quest for legitimacy, perceived injustices and hypocrisy of the powerful. The film is set in present day Rajasthan, a state in western India. The plot is provided by student politics of the university and a fictitious secessionist movement consisting of former Rajput leaders who have become present day elite.
Mumbai Cutting is an anthology film comprising short films, telling different stories based on life in Mumbai, which are directed by a host of eleven directors: Anurag Kashyap, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia, Kundan Shah, Revathy, Jahnu Barua, Rituparno Ghosh, Shashanka Ghosh, Ruchi Narain, Ayush Raina and Manish Jha.
That Girl in Yellow Boots is a thriller film, first screened at the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2010, followed by the Venice Film Festival after it played in several festivals worldwide including the South Asian International Film Festival. The commercial release however took place a year later in September 2011, both in India as well as in the U.S.
Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 1 is a crime film, centered around the coal mafia of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and the underlying power struggles, politics and vengeance between three crime families, the Part 1 features an ensemble cast with Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Huma Qureshi, Richa Chadda, Tigmanshu Dhulia in the major roles and its story spans from the early 1940s to mid-1990s.
Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2 is the second instalment of the Gangs of Wasseypur series centered around the Coal mafia of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and the underlying power struggles, politics and vengeance between three crime families. The Part 2 features an ensemble cast with Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Pankaj Tripathi, Rajkummar Rao and Zeishan Quadri in the major roles and its story spans from the 1990s to 2009.
Ugly is an upcoming psychological thriller and an emotional drama film. It was screened in the Directors' Fortnight section at the 2013 Cannes Film Festival. The film stars Girish Kulkarni, Ronit Roy, Tejaswini Kolhapure, Vinit Kumar Singh, Surveen Chawla and Vipin Sharma in pivotal roles.
Bombay Talkies is an anthology film consisting of four short films, directed by Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar and Karan Johar. The film released on 3 May 2013, coinciding with and celebrating the centenary year of Indian cinema and the beginning of a new era in modern cinema.
That Day After Everyday is a short film, starring Sandhya Mridul, Radhika Apte, Geetanjali Thapa and Aranya kaur - the film takes the audience on an emotional ride ending at an action filled crescendo. This film deals with eve teasing, a social cause. It revolves around three women who overcome their helplessness in a bad situation.
Bombay Velvet is an upcoming neo noir drama film, based on historian Gyan Prakash's book Mumbai Fables It is the story of how the city of Mumbai became a metropolis against the backdrop of love, greed, violence and jazz music. Bombay Velvet is the story of one ordinary man who goes against all odds and forges his destiny to become a 'Big Shot'. A film about jazz clubs, a passionate love story, a growing metropolis and a phenomenal hunger for a good life.
Doga is an upcoming action-superhero film based on Raj Comics character of the same name. The story revolves around a boy named Suraj who was raised by a dacoit. During this time he is treated like a dog and sees a lot of violence. He later trains in the arts of shooting, martial arts, boxing and body-building under his so-called uncles and becomes an outlaw vigilante vowing to eradicate all the terror in Mumbai.
I'll be flying back and forth between one mutually exclusive thing and another for the rest of my days. (The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath)
