Many thanks to Minai for passing the word along. Go to her blog to get more information about getting (to) this. After viewing it once when I could not give it the attention that it fully deserved, I am going to have to watch it again or maybe a couple more times. Nonetheless, in a few places, it was very visually riveting for me. This copy has no subtitles, so I couldn’t really follow the plot (unfortunately, I’ve forgotten much of the little Hindi that I learned last year and so I am going to have to relearn!). However, much of the time, it seemed that the plot was beside the point. Most of the movie is enjoyable for the great visual feast, with often elaborate, extremely imaginative and/or surreal sets, fantastic costumes, and lots and lots and lots of exciting dance. And, of course, a very young Padmini. (I think I also recognized the debut of Usha Kiran. But I’ll have to double-check; I don’t really know that actress as well, nor was I looking for her as much. But I have enjoyed her performances before – or, rather, after…) Actually, I think as soon as I have a couple or few hours, I will look at it again.
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New Information: Doing some searching tonight, I found that it is scheduled to be shown at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at the end of February. I might have to work evenings in February and I might have to move around the end of the month (if not sooner – though I am not sure where, but that’s another problem)… Nonetheless, I might take the evening off and do whatever else I need to do in order to see this film on the screen, with subtitles and everything.
See Kalpana (1948) for Free Online, and/or at the Brooklyn Academy of Music at the End of February
06 Wednesday Feb 2013
Posted in Uncategorized
Hi Richard, thanks for the plug. :) Isn’t Kalpana great! I’ve just been watching it in bits and pieces so far, but I love the dances, and the love the beautiful Amala Shankar! Anywho, I’d be very interested to hear about your experience if you’re able to see the screening later in the month. I suspect the upload at Pad.ma is from a VHS tape (given the tracking lines at the bottom and occasional stuttering) and is not the same as the restored version that played at Cannes…I bet the one at the screening is the pristine restored version…just imagine what some of the dances would love like in such quality on the big screen! That’s all for now, toodles! :D ~Minai
Oh silly me – the Brooklyn Academy of Music flyer clearly states at that link that it’s the World Cinema Foundation restoration. You should definitely see it!!
Richard,
I am also at a disadvantage since I know very little Hindi. Somehow, I expected to be disappointed but I watched the film without even a cigarette break. I read Mohan Khokar’ s biography after Minai mentioned about it. Tje film seems autobiographical as well as his vision of and for India. Unfortunately, the biography is difficult to get hold of. Fortunately our university library had a copy. I doubt whether it will be republished, his son said somewhere that there is very little money in music publishing. May be it will be digitized at some stage. I wrote a bit about it in my blog
http://gaddeswarup.blogspot.com.au/2012/04/excellent-book-about-uday-shankar.html
I wonder how much better the film would have been with Simkie. Amala Shankar said somewhere that she was no way comparable to Simkie. I also wonder whether the other woman in the film was based on Simkie. On the whole, it was wonderful to see his choreography and many of the people’s dances.
Thanks Richard, thanks Minai, thanks Pad.ma!
will take a look on weekend.
Swarup, I know what you mean about expecting to be disappointed by this film but not having it turn out that way at all. And thanks for the link to your blog post (which I would have found anyway, of course :) ) That’s an interesting writeup and I would like to see that book some time.
Who knows how the film would have been with Simkie? But the cast was pretty impressive as it was.
Harvey, hope you liked it as much as we did!