NEW DELHI: His entire vocabulary of cinema was astonishingly unique; his concept of the narrative both radical and original. Director Mani Kaul, whose films such as Uski Roti, Ashad Ka Ek Din and Duvidha are signposts in off-beat Indian cinema, succumbed to cancer at his Gurgaon residence on Wednesday. He was 68.
"For me, Uski Roti (1969) is as much a landmark as Pather Panchali. Mani Kaul was, by far, our most original filmmaker," says film director Shyam Benegal. Film critic Aruna Vasudev maintains that the moviemaker "forged a totally new path." And actor Mita Vashisht says, "He was a master of the frame, of his craft."
Kaul's substantial ouvre spanning four decades also includes some of the most intense docu-features in Indian cinema, works that blur the invisible lines separating the two genres. Satah Se Uthata Admi (1980) was based on the writings of Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, a pioneer of modern poetry in Hindi. Mati Manas (1984) mapped out the life and art of terracotta artisans. "I wanted to know the anguish of the potter through my own anguish as a filmmaker," Kaul once said. And Siddheshwari (1989) recast the life of the thumri singer from Benaras. All three are powerful and moving works - shot through the mind's eye with honesty and passion. Also a Dhrupad aficionado, music rippled through his later movies. Not in songs but in the way the camera moved, the lights changed.
A master film theoretician, Kaul's movies weren't easy to log on to. Critics as well as filmmakers were often furiously divided on their artistic merit. The popular press lambasted Uski Roti, based on Hindi litterateur Mohan Rakesh's short story. Many viewers found it sluggish. But the movie's narrative style and the camerawork were merely devices in director's overall cinematic vision. As Ashish Rajadhyaksha and Paul Willemen point out in Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema¸ "The film integrates the characters into the landscape, evoking an internalised yet distanced kind of realism reminiscent of Robert Bresson."
Similarly, after watching Kaul's Duvidha, distinguished moviemaker Satyajit Ray wrote, "Kaul has wilfully adopted a very special and very private mode of expression, and his impatience with conventional narrative methods leads him to a visual style, replete with cliches of another sort." But the movie was widely appreciated in Europe.
Born in Jodhpur, Kaul was taught and hugely influenced by the famous director Ritwik Ghatak (Ajantrik, Meghe Dhaka Tara) at the FTII, Pune. One of his classmates was Kumar Shahani (Maya Darpan, Kasbah), who ploughed a similar school of filmmaking. Later Kaul also taught at the same institute; quite a few students later became key members of his film unit. During Emergency, the master director also showed political spine. "He refused to sign the documentary Historical Sketch of Indian Women doing the Emergency when its producers, Film Division, wanted him to change the last shot and the commentary," write Rajadhyaksha and Willemen.
Vashisht, who worked with Kaul in Siddheshwari recalls how Kaul would constantly challenge her during the shooting. "As a director, he challenged every faculty in your body, your imagination. But when you were in his frame, you felt beautiful. Siddheshwari was one of the most powerful and moving experiences of my life," says Vashisht. The film earned the best documentary prize in the 1989 national film awards.
Renowned film critic Derek Malcolm once called Kaul, "the stern poet of the Indian cinema, who goes his own way regardless." To the end, the director remained true to that abstract.
Mani's memorable movies:
1. Uski Roti (1969): Kaul's debut feature.
2. Ashad Ka Ek Din (1971): Film adapted from Hindi litterateur Mhan Rakesh's play of the same name
3. Duvidha (1973): Adaptation of a Rajasthani folk tale. Won a silver medal at Milan (1970)
4. Satah Se Uthata Aadmi: The docu-feature interprested Hindi poet Muktibodh's writing
5. Idiot: Based on Fyodor Dostoevsky's novel, the film also starred a young Shah Rukh Khan.
