Masterclass - FTII Jana Hai

About 79 years ago, Mani Kaul was born on 25th December 1944. He was born as Rabindranath Kaul in Jodhpur. He passed away on 6th July 2011, in New Delhi. He was suffering for a fairly long time from cancer. He was just 66 years old.

In addition to his wide-ranging film-making, Kaul had a unique way of interpreting ancient Indian lore and mythologies. This is evident in films such as Duvidha (One of my favorites). Another one Sidheshwari, which is a compelling history of a vocalist of the hyped Banaras Gharana. It’s a visual poem put together in the form of documentary and fiction.

It gave me immense pleasure to have worked for him in 5 films, during my earlier days. The best amongst the films I worked for was Sidheshwari, which was shot in 1987. It was one of the most wonderful experiences for me working in this film.

36 years ago, this docu-feature, Siddheshwari was shot entirely in Varanasi. While preparing for the shoot, the core unit reached Varanasi, about one and half months before, researching each and every lane of the place. Kamal Swaroop was of great help in unearthing bizarre locale for the shoot.
Hotel Gaurav became our home. With Kamal Swarup, Juku (Rajat Dholakia), Piyush Shah, Anuradha, Mita Vashisht, Anup Singh, Lalita, Vishwanath and others, we had a delightful time for those one and half months. By the time we could wrap up the shoot, I was very familiar with each of the lane, leading towards the ghat.


Enormous nostalgia.

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