Vimarsh

‘Rashomon’ is one of the earliest films coming from an ingenious and one of the most brilliant directors in the history of cinema, Akira Kurosawa. Kurosawa is considered to be the supreme and one of the most innovative milestones in the practice of film-making; he is not only an inspiration to Japanese cinema but also a guide to film-makers all over the world. ‘Rashomon’ was his twelfth film, and it was released in 1950. It is a Period Drama, known as Jidaigeki in Japanese. The film has two influences from the short-stories of Ryūnosuke Akutagawa. The setting and the title of the film are based on the short-story ‘Rashomon’ and another short-story ‘In a Groove’ provides characters and the plot to the movie. The movie ‘Rashomon’ marks the entrance of Japanese Cinema on the platform of world cinema. The movie won several international awards including the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival (1951), and an Academy Honorary Award at the 24th Acade...

“Mahendra Singh: Honor is an important thing to me, even if we lose life. Sharma ji: Good Mahendra Babu. Honor is yours and life is of daughter!” Above two lines is a rough translation of the dialogue in Bihari accented Hindi from the 2010, National Award Winning movie Antardwand (meaning ‘Inner conflict’) by Sushil Rajpal. The film presents, first time in the history of Hindi Cinema, the issue of Groom-kidnapping in the state of Bihar. Mahendra Singh wants his daughter to get married to Madhukar Sahi’s only son Raghuveer. The daughter studies in college. Raghuveer also studies in Delhi, and he aspires to be an IAS/IPS officer for which he is giving exams. His girlfriend from Delhi, Siya, is pregnant. Madhukar Sahi wants Raghuveer to get married to the only daughter of his rich friend. Mahendra Singh approaches Madhukar Sahi for the marriage; he offers up to 10 lakh rupees for the marriage. But Madhukar Sahi insults him and asks him to leave his house. For Mahendra Sing...