User Reviews

Satah Se Uthata Aadmi is candidate alongside such other works as Chattrabhang and Maya Mrigaya as being one of the most obscure Indian films particularly in the contemporary DVD era. The film on the literature of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, a left-leaning Hindi author from India's turbulent '60s and '70s, recreates Muktibodh's literary settings quite effectively. However the concerns in both the form and content of the film, including lines from Muktibodh's iconic poem Andhere Mein are adapted by the director to create a work very much in line with his previous masterworks Uski Roti(1969) and Duvidha (1973). In fact the work can be studied as a combination of the two distinct approaches, that of the pure object in Uski Roti and its sensorial effect on a constantly changing society in Duvidha. Kaul starts by appropriating the events according to the text but gradually reduces the narrative signifiers until in the gorgeous factory sequences the spectator is confronted with the written text itself. Kaul had begun his studies in the austere form of Indian music, Dhrupad and used its leading vocalist Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar to render (Raga) Bilaskhani Todi. Kaul transforms this form of music into a cinematic idiom where the form emerges first through exacting (calculating) and then by approximations (improvising) A remarkable film by Mani Kaul.

Watched this film at Films Division, Mumbai today, as a segment of the event going on there, about experimentation in Indian film. This film was screened today in Mumbai after maybe 20 years (according to Kamal Swaroop), and the last screening was in Delhi last year. The guy who wrote the other IMDb review was the guy who spoke about the movie before it started, it was a great experience. All set for Om Dar Badar and Kaal Abhirati tomorrow. Anyways, the movie is supposedly the most obscure of Mani Kaul's works, and honestly, it creates a rhythm of its own, much like a 'raag', with splendid, minimalist storytelling with some powerful, soul-piercing Hindi. It was a great experience watching this on a 35mm projection and hearing Kamal Swaroop speak about the great man. The movie is full of poignancy and austerity, with deep philosophical connotations. Bharat Gopi is brilliant as an interpretation of Muktibodh and the landscape is expertly leveraged to create utterly realistic images. A visionary work on post-war materialism, some of the lines are just too fantastic. Some work!