'Maya Darpan' director Kumar Shahani dies at 83 in Kolkata
Filmmaker Kumar Shahani, one of the pioneers of the Indian parallel cinema movement, is no more. Per media reports, he reportedly passed away due to age-related issues on Saturday night in Kolkata. He was 83. Shahani's distinct storytelling approach was inspired by legends like Pier Paolo Pasolini and Andrei Tarkovsky, reflected in movies such as Maya Darpan and Tarang. In addition to directing, he was a respected educator and writer, penning works like The Shock of Desire and Other Essays.
Breathed his last in Kolkata hospital
Speaking to PTI, Shahani's close friend and actor, Mita Vashist, said, "He passed away around 11pm [on Saturday night] due to age-related health issues at a hospital in Kolkata. He was ailing, and his health had been declining. It's a deep personal loss."
He made short films before feature-length ones
Shahani was born on December 7, 1940, in the Larkana district in Sindh in undivided India. Post the partition, his family settled in Bombay (now Mumbai), where, post his schooling, he enrolled in the University of Bombay. Shahani started his journey by making short films in France and debuted in Hindi films through Maya Darpan (1972), subsequently focusing heavily on societal issues in his works.
Shahani's education and influences
Shahani also studied at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, where he was a favorite student of legendary director Ritwik Ghatak. Later, Shahani traveled to France and worked as an assistant to Robert Bresson on his film Une Femme Douce. His film Maya Darpan, based on a story by Nirmal Verma, received the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Shahani also directed other noteworthy films such as Tarang, Khayal Gatha, Kasba, and Char Adhyay.
Exploring music, dance, societal constraints in films
In his projects that encapsulated art forms like music and dance, Khayal Gatha (1989) and Bhavantarana (1991), Shahani aimed to depict everyday life. In the former, he juxtaposed historical and contemporary narratives about the khayal form. In his subsequent film, released in 1997, Shahani adapted Tagore's 1934 novel Char Adhyay, casting Nandini Ghoshal, a skilled Odissi dancer, in the lead role.
This is how veteran expressed his working style
Speaking to News Click in November 2022, Shahani spoke about his filmmaking approach. He had said, "Whenever one makes a film, one tries to create a unique work, especially if one has to speak of freedom, which is all one ever wants." "Dance and cinema come together to realize that individuated freedom, drawing from the sangeet of our civilization, perhaps of all collectives," Shahani added.
