Mani Kaul

Mani Kaul (25 December 1944 – 6 July 2011) was an Indian director of Hindi films and a figure in Indian parallel cinema. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later became a teacher. Starting his career with Uski Roti (1969), which won him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, he went on to win four of them in all. He won the National Film Award for Best Direction in 1974 for Duvidha and later the National Film Award for his documentary film Siddheshwari in 1989. Description above from the Wikipedia article Mani Kaul, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Works

Sara Akash

Samar wants to be successful in life but his parents force him to get married. His wife is shy and reserved and Samar does not like this. The other members in the family often ill-treat her.

Release Date1969-01-01

Charactersd Amar Thakur

Vote Count3

Light

Ramesh is a poorly paid employee in the city Power House. His only child has high temperature, but he mistakes it for common fever. At the Power House, employees including Ramesh demand a pay rise. When the management turns down this demand, they plot to turn off the main switch of the Power House for a few minutes in order to teach a lesson to authorities. Ramesh is entrusted with this job. In the meantime, the doctor takes the decision to immediately operate on Ramesh's child. Ramesh is not aware of this. In the Power House, Ramesh turns off the main switch. The lights go off in the operation theatre too...

Release Date1965-01-01

Charactersd Ramesh

The Story of Film: An Odyssey

A worldwide guided tour of the greatest movies ever made and the story of international cinema through the history of cinematic innovation.

Release Date2011-09-03

Charactersd Self

Episode Count1

Vote Count61

In Search of Guru Dutt

This documentary is a three-part tribute to director Guru Dutt, who died in 1964 at the age of 39. The work traces Guru Dutt's personal story through many interviews with his family members and colleagues and observes his work through the use of extensive film excerpts. The documentary was produced by the British television network Channel 4 producer Nasreen Munni Kabir.

Release Date1989-06-11

Charactersd Self - Director

Vote Count1

Idiot

An epileptic man returns from medical treatment abroad and finds himself in love with a woman named Nastasia.

Release Date1991-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count4

Erotic tales

Release Date1994-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Episode Count1

Duvidha

A newly-married merchant’s son is sent away for business. A ghost, who laid eyes on the bride, falls madly in love with her and takes the form of the husband and begins living with her.

Release Date1973-06-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count23

The Cloud Door

A very clever parrot lives in a Hindu palace, surrounded by many beautiful girls, but the parrot escapes, and is trapped far from the palace. One day, when its new owner is sleeping, the bird convinces a young boy to open the cage door. In return, it shows the boy a secret passage to get into the palace.

Release Date1994-09-28

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count13

Uski Roti

The film depicts the life of a truck driver Sucha Singh and his wife Balo. Balo has to get Sucha Singh's food ready every day, walk a long distance through the fields and wait for him on the highway as he drives past the village. He leads an independent life, playing cards with his friends and spending time with his mistress, and comes home only once a week. However, he expects his wife to play the traditional role of a devoted wife. One day Balo gets late, trying to save her sister from the advances of a lecherous villager. Sucha Singh is angry, and drives away without his food. She decides to wait for him until nightfall.

Release Date1970-01-02

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count18

One Day Before the Rainy Season

A literary film based on a play in three acts, Ashad Ka Ek Din portrays the love of Mallika and Kalidasa, the renowned Sanskrit poet and dramatist. Vilom, a friend to both and interested in Mallika, is a passive onlooker for the first two acts. Kalidasa leaves his verdant mountain valley home for the splendour of far off Ujjain, where he wins fame. The action of the film is rooted in the village to which Kalidasa returns years later and finds Mallika married to Vilom and the mother of his child. Mallika sacrificed her love so that the poet could pursue his muse.

Release Date1971-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Arising from the Surface

Taking an experimental approach to the relationship between the written text and moving image, Mani Kaul has a series of texts read aloud in voice-overs (poetry, essays, and stories), while the characters within the texts walk through real or imaginary landscapes.

Release Date1980-02-17

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

Nazar

A middle-aged antique dealer and money lender recollects his marriage to a 17-year-old orphan girl.

Release Date1991-03-06

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count11

Danish Girls Show Everything

Despite its suggestive title, this multi-part Danish omnibus film is not a work of exploitation. Instead, it presents 20 different short films (back-to-back) on the general theme of Danish women, directed by filmmakers including Krzysztof Zanussi, Monika Treut, Gustav Hamos, David Blair, Vibeke Vogel, Dusan Makavejev, Morten Skallerud and Lars Norgaard. Some dramatic vignettes mix with other comedic ones, but all are offbeat and experimental. The picture includes one animated sequence (by Norgaard).

Release Date1996-06-14

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Ghashiram Kotwal

A stylized version of Vijay Tendulkar’s radical Marathi play chronicling the Peshwa regime in western India, a collective effort of direction and cinematography made by an independent group of young filmmakers.

Release Date1976-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Mind of Clay

In a poetic hour and a half, director Mani Kaul looks at the ancient art of making pottery from a wide variety of perspectives.

Release Date1985-03-27

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count7

The Servant's Shirt

This film suggests a network of hierarchical relations between people through sometimes subtle and at other times blunt illustrations.

Release Date1999-09-30

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

Siddheshwari

An impressionistic biographical look at Siddheshwari Devi (1908–1977), the classical Indian singer whose voice was appreciated by the maharajas and public alike.

Release Date1990-02-15

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Before My Eyes

A 'filmscape' on the Kashmir valley.

Release Date1989-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count10

Puppeteers of Rajasthan

Documentary short about the nomadic puppeteers of Rajasthan.

Release Date1974-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Desert of a Thousand Lines

Based on the text written by Vijaydan Detha and Kamal Kothari, the film is set in the arid desert of Rajasthan, a setting similar to Duvidha, where two rival clans face off one another in the desert.

Release Date1981-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Chitrakathi

Chitrakathi is about the folk artists of western India who narrate with the help of leather puppets. Mani takes us to the sleepy Konkan coastal village and introduces us to the family that has preserved this unique art for several centuries.

Release Date1977-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count1

6:40 PM

FTII Diploma film by Mani Kaul

Release Date1967-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Homage to the Teacher

The film shows the role of school teachers and the importance thereof.

Release Date1967-12-25

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count6

Dhrupad

A documentary story told through images, poetry and the Dhrupad, a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition.

Release Date1983-10-04

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count4

Forms and Designs

A short film that sets up an opposition between functional forms of industrial age and decorative ones from Indian tradition.

Release Date1968-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

During and After Air Raid

The precautions to be taken during and after an air-raid by the people, are shown in this film.

Release Date1970-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count2

Arrival

To the city come men, women, fruits, flowers, vegetables, goats and sheep – all ready for consumption. It is the process of consumption/exploitation that forms the core of the film.

Release Date1980-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count3

A Historical Sketch of Indian Women

A documentary on the role of women in India.

Release Date1975-02-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

Vote Count5

Bojh

Release Date2000-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

The Traveller

Mani Kaul's diploma film shot at Ajanta Caves

Release Date1966-10-10

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

A Monkey's Raincoat

A Monkey’s Raincoat is a personal documentary about young artists working at the ‘Rijksakademie’; an institute which offers residency to sixty talented artists from all over the world.

Release Date2005-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector

I Am No Other

Mani Kaul's last film documents his days in Holland and his engagement in India with that form of cinema which for him was the Big Other i.e. Bollywood. Included are interactions with his family, his son the well known physicist Ribhu Kaul and with Bollywood comedians like Johnny Lever.

Release Date2002-01-01

DepartmentDirecting

JobDirector