The Art Cinema of the 80s
To counter this, the art cinema of the 1980s diversified from its Bengali
moorings of the earlier period under the aegis of the Film Finance Corporation.
Works by Shyam Benegal, Gautam Ghose, Saeed Mirza, BV Karanth, Girish
Kasaravaili, Mrinal Sen, MS Sathyu, Ray, and Kundan Shah,
among others, actively addressed questions of social
injustice: problems of landlord exploitation, bonded labour,
untouchability, urban power, corruption and criminal
extortion, the oppression of women, and political
manipulation. Ghatak in particular had addressed many of
these issues earlier, but never had there been such an
outpouring of the social conscience, nor such a flowing of
new images - of regional landscapes, cultures, and social structures. Many of the
films may seem didactic and uncomplex, undercutting the attention to form that
had marked the earlier period - but not all. Benegal's first two films indicate an
unusual concern with the psychology of domination and subordination.
Ankur/The Seedling (1974), starring Shabana Azmi, is particularly striking not
only for this but also for the open, fluid way it captures the countryside. Among
Kannada directors, working in south India, Kasaravalli in Ghattashradha (1981)
effected an intimate vision of the oppression of widows through the view of a
child. And special mention must be made of Kundan Shah's Jaane Bhi Do
Yaaron/Let Sleeping Dogs Lie (1984), a wonderful exercise in farce and
slapstick that is also a brilliant portrait of Bombay.
The South
The most notable of the directors who speak specifically about their own
cultures, and about the possibilities of change, are Adoor Gopalakrishnan and
Aravindan from Kerala. A key to their productivity was the overall development
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