IFFI 2011 PAYS HOMAGE TO MANI KAUL

The 42nd international Film Festival of India paid homage to the legendary filmmaker Mani Kaul by presenting some of his much-admired works ,‘Dhrupad’, ‘Idiot,’ ‘Naukar Ki Kameez’ and ‘Uski Roti’. Mani Kaul (1944-2011) who graduated from the University of Jaipur and the Film and Television Institute of India in 1966 was not only an Auteur but also a painter, a poet, a musician and an actor (Basu Chatterjee’s Sara Akash) . He made a total of 24 films. These included the celebrated titles ‘Uski Roti’ ‘Duvidha’, ‘Satah Se Utatha Admi’ ‘Nazar’, ‘Idiot’ and ‘Naukar Ki Kameez’ and the non-fiction features ‘Dhrupad’, ‘Mati Manas’ and ‘Siddheshwari’ Kaul emphasized the value of what is absent. His elaborate theory of contemporary aesthetic practice, ‘Seen From Nowhere’, was presented in the cultural historian Kapila Vatsyayan’s seminar Inner Space, Outer Space. He drew from haiku poetry, the nouveau roman, mannerist painting, Bresson and Ozu.