Critique

All Book Review Critique on Films

Discovering Guru Dutt Through His Films

Guru Dutt's films reveal something new with every viewing. Drawing from her learnings in the 'Basic Course in Appreciating Songs in Guru Dutt Films' and her own observations, Anshula explores the songs, visual motifs and subtle cinematic details that continue to make his cinema endlessly rewarding to revisit.

Latest in Critique

Discovering Guru Dutt Through His Films

A young film student's journey through Guru Dutt's films, exploring the songs, visual motifs and cinematic details that make his timeless cinema unforgettable.

Landscape of Exile: Individual and Cultural Alienation in Ritwik Ghatak’s Films

Ritwik Ghatak’s Partition Trilogy focused on the pervasive sense of rootlessness that afflicts those displaced from their ancestral lands.

The Aesthetics of Fractured Dislocation in Ritwik Ghatak’s Cinema

Despite the shadows of Partition repeatedly appearing as a motif in his Partition Trilogy, Ritwik Ghatak’s cinema transcended that to themes of dislocation.

71st National Film Awards, 2023: A Travesty of Purpose

This year is the first time that there has been no announcement of a winner for the Best Book on Cinema at the 71st National Film Awards. Amitava Nag questions.

Baazi – ‘Thank You, Guru Dutt!’ Book Excerpt

Silhouette presents an excerpt of 'Thank You, Guru Dutt' by Lata Jagtiani, as a tribute to the maverick filmmaker on his 100th birth anniversary.

A Carnival of Cinemas

A comprehensive look at India's film festival landscape, examining IFFI's evolution, the proliferation of film festivals, their impact on cinema, and debates around festival programming.

Mera Naam Raaju, Gharana Anaam

Excerpted with permission from Shailendra — A Love Lyric in Print: A Daughter Remembers by Amla Shailendra Mazumdar, published by Antara Infomedia

Early Films, and Raj Kapoor’s Best—with Nargis

Excerpted with permission from Director’s Chair – Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age by Manek Premchand, published by Blue Pencil in January 2024.

Welcomed with Arrows

Book excerpt from 'And the Music Lives On', by Manek Premchand.

Tapan Sinha: The Humanist Filmmaker

Tapan Sinha's films juxtaposed stark reality with pristine beauty and showed the beauty of life amidst its strife. Sinha's nephew Siddhartha Ghosh explores.

A Shout Out for an Unclaimed Beloved

Shiladitya Sarkar analyses Tapan Sinha's journey as a chronicler of his times through the lens of two of his best-loved films Galpo Holeo Satti and Ek Doctor ki Maut

Tapan Sinha and Feature Film Management

Those who worked with Tapan Sinha learned a lot about filmmaking. Nilanjan Bhattacharya, a documentary filmmaker reminisces the working culture of Tapan Sinha’s unit.

The Impossibility of Love: Three Films of Tapan Sinha

Gayatri Chatterjee explores three films by Tapan Sinha — Jhinder Bandi, Kshudhita Pashan and Jatugriha, examining how they portray love as an impossibility.

The Cinema of Tapan Sinha — Literary Synthesis and Cinematic Demarcation

Partha Pratim Ghosh explores why Tapan Sinha was deprived of film society attention. And how this paradox is finally resolved, posthumously.

The City, Crime and Middle Class Vulnerability in Tapan Sinha’s Films

Tapan Sinha's Adalat O Ekti Meye, Atanka, and Antardhan map the idea of a middle-class community life not in its proud and fulfilled existence but in crisis and trouble.

Director’s Chair, ‘Sui Generis’: A Book in a Class of Its Own

Manek Premchand's 'Director’s Chair: Hindi Cinema’s Golden Age' is sui generis – a must read for the dilettante as well as the aficionado! Book Review

Share what you’ve made