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{{EngvarB|date=August 2014}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2014}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Kumar Shahani

| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name =
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|df=yes|1940|12|07}}
| birth_place = [[Larkana]], Sindh
| nationality = Indian
| known_for = ''[[Maya Darpan]]'', ''[[Tarang (film)|Tarang]]''
| occupation = Film director, film academic, visual artist
}}

'''Kumar Shahani''' (born 7 December 1940) is a noted Indian film director and screenwriter, best known for his [[parallel cinema]] films, ''[[Maya Darpan]]'' (1972) and ''[[Khayal Gatha]]'' (1989) and ''[[Kasba (film)|Kasba]]'' (1990).<ref>{{cite web | title = Dossier on Kumar Shahani |author= Ashish Rajadhyaksha |publisher=academia.edu| url = https://www.academia.edu/2292735/Dossier_on_Kumar_Shahani | access-date = 3 May 2014}}</ref> Due to his dedication to [[formalism (art)|formalism]], and with the reputation of his first feature, ''[[Maya Darpan]]'' being considered among [[Indian cinema]]'s first formalist film, he is frequently grouped by critics and film enthusiasts alongside similar stylistic filmmakers such as [[Pier Paolo Pasolini]], [[Andrei Tarkovsky]], and [[Jacques Rivette]].<ref name="Interview With Kumar Shahani">Winds From the East. [http://windsfromtheeast.blogspot.com/2009/04/kumar-shahani-portrait.html "Interview With Kumar Shahani"], Retrieved on 17 June 2014.</ref>

==Early life==
Shahani was born in [[Larkana]], [[Sindh]] (now in [[Pakistan]]), after the [[partition of India]] in 1947, Shahani's family shifted to the city of Bombay (now [[Mumbai]]). He received a B. A. (hons) from the [[University of Bombay]] in Political Science and History and studied screenplay writing and Advanced Direction at the [[Film and Television Institute of India]], where he was a student of [[Ritwik Ghatak]]. He also studied under the renowned historian [[Dharmananda Damodar Kosambi|D. D. Kosambi]]. He was awarded a French Government Scholarship for further studies in France,<ref>Homi Bhabha Fellowships Council. [http://mumbai.mtnl.net.in/~hbfc/cv/MR_KUMAR_SHAHANI.html "Mr. Kumar Shahani"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100303025154/http://mumbai.mtnl.net.in/~hbfc/cv/MR_KUMAR_SHAHANI.html |date=3 March 2010 }}, Retrieved on 2 March 2009.</ref> where he studied at the [[Institut des hautes études cinématographiques]] (IDHEC) and assisted [[Robert Bresson]] on ''[[A Gentle Woman|Une Femme Douce]]''.

==Career==
He returned to India to make his first feature film ''[[Maya Darpan]]'' in 1972 and had to wait twelve years before he received funding to make his next full-length feature film, ''[[Tarang (film)|Tarang]]''.<ref>Upperstall.com Profile. [http://www.upperstall.com/people/kumar-shahani "Kumar Shahani Upperstall Profile"], Retrieved on 2 March 2009.</ref>

From 1976 to 1978 he held a Homi Bhabha Fellowship to study the epic tradition of the [[Mahābhārata]], [[Buddhist]] iconography, [[Indian classical music]] and the [[Bhakti movement]].<ref>House of World Culture. [http://www.culturebase.net/artist.php?1402#article "Kumar Shahani"], "[http://www.culturebase.net Culturebase The International Artist Database]" Retrieved on 2 March 2009.</ref>

==Influences==
Shahani had considered [[Roberto Rossellini]] and [[Robert Bresson]] as major influences on his work and those who he learned the most from. When comparing the two he stated, "There is austerity in Bresson. But there is a possibility in cinema to have both: austerity and ornamentation. In Bresson, there is mainly austerity even though he aspires to have spectacle. When I work along those lines, I want the ornamentation to stand out. The magic of that reality must appear and we ought to allow that to happen. The notion of ornamentation that we have in India, the ''alankar'', of how we play with it, that is something I like to retain in my work. And this is not there either in Rossellini’s work or Bresson’s in the works of Catholic filmmakers. When they move towards austerity, they really move towards it: Bresson in the tradition of St Augustine and Rossellini more in the manner of notational narratives."<ref name="Interview With Kumar Shahani"/>

For his film [[Tarang (film)|Tarang]] which dealt with labour issues, Shahani mentioned he consciously tried to avoid 'repeating' or 'imitating' one of his favourite films [[Sergei Eisenstein]]'s [[Battleship Potemkin]]. Shahani stated, "for ''Tarang'' for instance, I was shooting a strike sequence. It was an obvious point where one could have quoted Eisenstein. Most filmmakers in such a situation would do so, inadvertently and unconsciously. Even the most "bourgeois" filmmakers as it were, the most commercial ones, or their exact opposites, would all do that. That is why one should remember him, to remember what he did and not to repeat it. So I remembered him while I was shooting that sequence, constantly like a prayer. We can't help saying that Eisenstein did it such a way and let only him do like that. That is why I feel very happy with that particular sequence in Tarang. It doesn't have, in any sense, an imitation of Eisenstein."<ref name="Interview With Kumar Shahani"/>

==Filmography==
<ref>G.K, "Musings of a Marxist," [https://web.archive.org/web/20040128031849/http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/mp/2002/12/05/stories/2002120500870300.htm "The Hindu"], Retrieved on 2 March 2009.</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Year !! Film !! Notes
|-
| 1965 || ''The Glass Pane'' || Graduate Diploma film
|-
| 1967 || ''Manmad Passenger'' || short film
|-
| 1969 || ''A Certain Childhood'' || short film
|-
| 1970 || ''Rails for the World'' || short film
|-
| 1971 || ''Object'' || short film
|-
| 1972 || ''[[Maya Darpan]]'' || '''Winner''' [[Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie|Filmfare Award – Best Film (Critics)]]<br>[[National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi]]<ref name="20thaward">{{cite web|url=http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm20thNFAAward.aspx|title=20th National Film Awards|publisher=[[International Film Festival of India]]|access-date=26 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105220349/http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm20thNFAAward.aspx|archive-date=5 November 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| 1973 || ''Fire in the Belly'' || short film
|-
| 1976 || ''Our Universe'' || short film
|-
| 1984 || ''[[Tarang (film)|Tarang]]'' || [[National Film Award – Special Mention (feature film)|National Film Award – Special Jury Award (Certificate)]]<ref name="31staward">{{cite web|url=http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm31stNFAAward.aspx|title=31st National Film Awards|publisher=[[India International Film Festival]]|access-date=9 December 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112200555/http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm31stNFAAward.aspx|archive-date=12 November 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="31stawardPDF">{{cite web|url=http://dff.nic.in/2011/31st_nff_1984.pdf|title=31st National Film Awards (PDF)|publisher=[[Directorate of Film Festivals]]|access-date=9 December 2011}}</ref>
|-
| 1987 || ''Vaar Vaar Vaari'' || short film
|-
| 1989 || ''[[Khayal Gatha]]''|| '''Winner''' [[Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie|Filmfare Award – Best Film (Critics)]]<br>'''Winner''' [[FIPRESCI]] Prize – [[Rotterdam International Film Festival]]
|-
| 1989 || ''A Ship Aground'' || short film
|-
| 1990 || ''[[Kasba (film)|Kasba]]'' || '''Winner''' [[Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie|Filmfare Award – Best Film (Critics)]]
|-
| 1991 || ''Bhavantarana'' || Oriya documentary film about Guru [[Kelucharan Mahapatra]]<br>[[National Film Award for Best Biographical Film]]<ref name="39thaward">{{cite web|url=http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm39thNFAAward.aspx|title=39th National Film Awards|publisher=[[International Film Festival of India]]|access-date=27 February 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140315101348/http://iffi.nic.in/Dff2011/Frm39thNFAAward.aspx|archive-date=15 March 2014|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref name="39thawardPDF">{{cite web|url=http://dff.nic.in/2011/39nd_nff_1985.pdf|title=39th National Film Awards (PDF)|publisher=[[Directorate of Film Festivals]]|access-date=27 February 2012}}</ref>

|-
| 1997 || ''[[Char Adhyay]]'' ||Hindi film based on Tagore novel
|-
| 2000 || ''The Bamboo Flute'' ||
|-
| 2004 || As the Crow Flies ||
|}

==Awards==
<ref>[http://apt5.asiapacifictriennial.com/artists/artists/kumar_shahani "The 5th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080821112534/http://apt5.asiapacifictriennial.com/artists/artists/kumar_shahani |date=21 August 2008 }}, Retrieved on 2 March 2009.</ref>
* National Award (1972, 1984, 1991)
*[[Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie|Filmfare Critics Awards – Best Film]] (1972, 1990, 1991)
*[[Rotterdam International Film Festival|The International Film Festival of Rotterdam]] – [[FIPRESCI]] Award (1990)
*[[Prince Claus Award]] (1998)

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [https://www.amazon.co.uk/Kumar-Shahani-Shock-Desire-Essays/dp/9382381619 Kumar Shahani - The Shock of Desire and Other Essays ed. Ashish Rajadhyakhsha]
* [http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?products_id=807302 Laleen Jayamanne The Epic Cinema of Kumar Shahani ]
* [https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cinema_and_Television.html?id=-oTx7soYmj0C&redir_esc=y Jacques Kermabon & Kumar Shahani Cinema and Television: Fifty Years of Reflection in France ]
* {{IMDb name|id=0787511|name=Kumar Shahani}}
* [http://www.indianauteur.com/july_auteur_1.php The museum as a refuge for film: the case for Kumar Shahini's epic cinema at Indian Auteur ]
{{National Film Award Special Mention feature film}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shahani, Kumar}}
[[Category:1940 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:Hindi-language film directors]]
[[Category:People from Larkana District]]
[[Category:Film directors from Mumbai]]
[[Category:Sindhi people]]
[[Category:University of Mumbai alumni]]
[[Category:Film and Television Institute of India alumni]]
[[Category:20th-century Indian film directors]]
[[Category:Indian male screenwriters]]
[[Category:Indian documentary filmmakers]]
[[Category:Special Mention (feature film) National Film Award winners]]

Kumar Shahani - Revision history

imported>GreenC bot at 02:41, 19 April 2021