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He completed a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in English literature at [[University of Mumbai|Bombay University]] in 1970, a B.A. in Sociology at [[Brandeis University]] in 1972, and an M.A. in Communication studies at [[McGill University]] in 1982 <ref>[http://www.frif.com/subjects/patw.html Films of Anand Patwardhan] Icarus Films, New York.</ref><ref>[http://www.patwardhan.com/about/index.htm About Anand] Official website.</ref>.
He completed a [[Bachelor of Arts|B.A.]] in English literature at [[University of Mumbai|Bombay University]] in 1970, a B.A. in Sociology at [[Brandeis University]] in 1972, and an M.A. in Communication studies at [[McGill University]] in 1982 <ref>[http://www.frif.com/subjects/patw.html Films of Anand Patwardhan] Icarus Films, New York.</ref><ref>[http://www.patwardhan.com/about/index.htm About Anand] Official website.</ref>.


Anand Patwardhan is probably India’s most distinguished, and certainly one of its most controversial, documentary filmmakers. He is consistently India’s "representative" at documentary film festivals around the world, and his films have won numerous awards at such festivals in Toronto, Vancouver, Mannheim, Cannes, Sydney, and elsewhere; he has also won, in India, the National Award and the Filmfare Award on more than one occasion.<ref>[http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Cinema/AnandP.html Manas: Culture, Indian Cinema-Anand Patwardhan]</ref>
Anand Patwardhan is probably India’s most distinguished, and certainly one of its most controversial, documentary filmmakers. His films have won numerous awards at film festivals in Vancouver, Mannheim, Tokyo, Yamagata, Sydney, Paris, Mumbai, Karachi and elsewhere; he has also won, in India, the National Award and the Filmfare Award on more than one occasion.<ref>[http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/southasia/Culture/Cinema/AnandP.html Manas: Culture, Indian Cinema-Anand Patwardhan]</ref>


Patwardhan has a distinctive filmic “voice” in a literal sense: in his films we often hear him speak, as narrator or thoughtful questioner. He often does his own camerawork, providing a feeling of directness, a personal eye. His films have found acclaim at festivals worldwide, but he has often been forced to fight Indian censors for the right to show them in his native country. The problems he addresses—economic inequality, environmental devastation, the challenges faced by secular and democratic movements in an era of fundamentalism and nationalism—are dangerous and crucial, and clearly as relevant here as they are on the subcontinent.<ref>[http://ektaonline.org/events/patwardhan/PFA/index.htm Documentary Voices- Anand Patwardhan].</ref>
Patwardhan has a distinctive filmic “voice” in a literal sense: in his films we often hear him speak, as narrator or thoughtful questioner. He often does his own camerawork, providing a feeling of directness, a personal eye. His films have found acclaim at festivals worldwide, but he has often been forced to fight Indian censors for the right to show them in his native country. The problems he addresses—economic inequality, environmental devastation, the challenges faced by secular and democratic movements in an era of fundamentalism and nationalism—are dangerous and crucial, and clearly as relevant here as they are on the subcontinent.<ref>[http://ektaonline.org/events/patwardhan/PFA/index.htm Documentary Voices- Anand Patwardhan].</ref>


Patwardhan has been an activist ever since he was a student—having participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement; being a volunteer in Caesar Chavez's United Farm Worker's Union; working in Kishore Bharati, a rural development and education project in central India; and participating in the Bihar anti-corruption movement in 1974-75 and in the civil liberties and democratic rights movement during and after the 1975-77 Emergency. Since then he has been active in movements for housing rights of the urban poor, for communal harmony and participated in movements against unjust, unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism.<ref>[http://www.patwardhan.com/about/index.htm About Anand Patwardhan]</ref>
Patwardhan has been an activist ever since he was a student on scholarship in the USA—having participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement; being a volunteer in Caesar Chavez's United Farm Worker's Union; working in Kishore Bharati, a rural development and education project in central India; and participating in the Bihar anti-corruption movement in 1974-75 and in the civil liberties and democratic rights movement during and after the 1975-77 Emergency. Since then he has been active in movements for housing rights of the urban poor, for communal harmony and participated in movements against unjust, unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism.<ref>[http://www.patwardhan.com/about/index.htm About Anand Patwardhan]</ref>


==Films of Anand Patwardhan==
==Films of Anand Patwardhan==

Revision as of 05:51, 21 November 2009

Anand Patwardhan
File:Anand patwardhan.jpg
Anand Patwardhan
Alma materUniversity of Mumbai,Brandeis University,McGill University
OccupationFilmmaker
Known forWell known documentary filmmaker. In his films we often hear him speak, as narrator or thoughtful questioner.

Anand Patwardhan is an Indian documentary filmmaker, known for his activism through social action documentaries on topics ranging from corruption, slums dwellers, nuclear arms race, citizen activism to communalism [1][2][3][4], noted amongst these are Ram ke Nam ('In the Name of God') (1992), Pitr, Putr aur Dharmayuddha ('Father, Son and Holy War') (1995) and Jang aur Aman ('War and Peace') (2002) [5], which have won several national and International awards.

Biography

Anand Patwardhan was born in 1950, in Mumbai, Maharashtra.

He completed a B.A. in English literature at Bombay University in 1970, a B.A. in Sociology at Brandeis University in 1972, and an M.A. in Communication studies at McGill University in 1982 [6][7].

Anand Patwardhan is probably India’s most distinguished, and certainly one of its most controversial, documentary filmmakers. His films have won numerous awards at film festivals in Vancouver, Mannheim, Tokyo, Yamagata, Sydney, Paris, Mumbai, Karachi and elsewhere; he has also won, in India, the National Award and the Filmfare Award on more than one occasion.[8]

Patwardhan has a distinctive filmic “voice” in a literal sense: in his films we often hear him speak, as narrator or thoughtful questioner. He often does his own camerawork, providing a feeling of directness, a personal eye. His films have found acclaim at festivals worldwide, but he has often been forced to fight Indian censors for the right to show them in his native country. The problems he addresses—economic inequality, environmental devastation, the challenges faced by secular and democratic movements in an era of fundamentalism and nationalism—are dangerous and crucial, and clearly as relevant here as they are on the subcontinent.[9]

Patwardhan has been an activist ever since he was a student on scholarship in the USA—having participated in the anti-Vietnam War movement; being a volunteer in Caesar Chavez's United Farm Worker's Union; working in Kishore Bharati, a rural development and education project in central India; and participating in the Bihar anti-corruption movement in 1974-75 and in the civil liberties and democratic rights movement during and after the 1975-77 Emergency. Since then he has been active in movements for housing rights of the urban poor, for communal harmony and participated in movements against unjust, unsustainable development, militarism and nuclear nationalism.[10]

Films of Anand Patwardhan

Virtually all his films faced censorship by the Indian authorities but were finally cleared after legal action. His film, ‘Bombay Our City’, has been shown on TV, after a four year court case [11], while, 'Father Son and the Holy war' (1995), was adjudged in 2004, as one of 50 most memorable international documentaries of all time, by DOX, Documentary film magazine; though it was shown on India’s National Network, Doordarshan only in the year 2006, 11 years after its making, and that too after a prolonged court battle, which lasted 8 years, and ended with nation’s Supreme Court ordering the state-owned media, to telecast the film without any cuts, as it has earlier suggest.[12]

His next important film, 'War and Peace' made in 2002, brought him in the news once again, when the CBFC India (Central Board for Film Certification, or the Censor Board), refused to certify the film without making 21 cuts [13]. As always, Patwardhan took the government to court, hence it was banned for two years, however, after a court battle, and Anand won the right to screen his film without a single cut. As with his previous film, Patwardhan successfully fought in court, which eventually forced a reluctant national broadcaster, Doordarshan, to show his film on their national network through its ruling in June 2003 [14][15][16], it was commercially released in multiplexes in 2005 [17]

Filmography

Quotes

  • ...My entry into the world of the documentary began as a means of political, social intervention and thirty odd years later this is still a primary motive. If I am not satisfied with the results, it is not because of a failure of the medium, but because of the limits that our system puts on the distribution of such films. All my films are badly under-utilized and hence did not had the impact on the real world that they could have had...[25]
  • ...In India, the early documentary scene was dominated by government propaganda made by the Films Division of India, which produced newsreels and documentaries that were compulsorily shown before every commercial film. People either arrived deliberately late or walked out for a smoke during these films, and the tag of "boring" became inescapably attached to the documentary. It has taken several decades of sustained independent work to break this tag... [26]
  • ...You have to be a filmmaker, and then you have to be a lawyer as well...[27]
  • ...The real issues of the information gathering and disseminating systems have more to do with what kinds of programs are made, who makes and airs them and what impact they have. The role of the developed world as consumer and the role of the developing world as the consumed may now be complicated as the latter yields its own voracious elite, but the former continues to determine taste.[28]
  • ...It does not need much imagination to see that even in so-called advanced nations like the UK and the USA, a great deal of racism and deep-seated religious prejudice fuels the propensity towards righteous war and the belief that one's own nation is always right and that "terrorism" resides only in the other...[29]
  • ... I do not wish to neutralize the horror I feel at the destruction of Buddhist monuments with the thought that my national leaders did the same thing a decade ago. But I do believe that if this act sparks in us the desire to fight intolerance of all kinds, then surely the Buddha will not have lived and taught in vain...[30]
  • ...One problem with our democracy is that a rigid class and caste hierarchy coupled with gross gender inequality has kept large sections of our population traditionally without a voice. But having no voice does not mean having no brain! On the contrary the voiceless have much to say and we can learn so much from their ways of seeing and thinking. Feelings of humanity seem to survive much better amongst the powerless than among the affluent and powerful...[31]

References

  1. ^ Interview Tehelka October 13, 2007.
  2. ^ 'Michael Moore’ of India, screening and Interview University of California, Berkeley October 13, 2004.
  3. ^ Silverdocs Documentary Film Festival American University School of Communication, June 16, 2004.
  4. ^ Anand Patwardhan University of California, Los Angeles
  5. ^ Review The New York Times, June 26, 2003.
  6. ^ Films of Anand Patwardhan Icarus Films, New York.
  7. ^ About Anand Official website.
  8. ^ Manas: Culture, Indian Cinema-Anand Patwardhan
  9. ^ Documentary Voices- Anand Patwardhan.
  10. ^ About Anand Patwardhan
  11. ^ Short is Sweet,Tehelka
  12. ^ Father, Son and Holy War The Frontline, The Hindu, September, 2006.
  13. ^ Filmmaker's Battle to Tell India's Story in India The New York Times, December 24, 2002.
  14. ^ Alone against India's nuclear nationalism BBC News, August 12, 2003.
  15. ^ Director Interview BBC Four, August 4, 2003.
  16. ^ Film Review BBC Four, 2002.
  17. ^ War and Peace hits the box office for the first time in India Tehelka, June 25, 2005.
  18. ^ Review India Today
  19. ^ Films Index Official website.
  20. ^ Awards imdb.com.
  21. ^ Screening of screen Patwardhan's films at Stanford University Rediff.com, October 2001
  22. ^ Father, Son and Holy War – Review and Awards
  23. ^ 3rd KaraFilm Festival Karachi International Film Festival, website.
  24. ^ 51st National Film Awards - 2004 Official listings Directorate of Film Festivals Official website.
  25. ^ Tehelka Interview - Nov 2009
  26. ^ Anand Patwardhan, the Michael Moore of India -Interview UC Berkeley News
  27. ^ New York Times article, 24 December 2002
  28. ^ Anand Patwardhan and The Messengers of Bad News - SOC American University
  29. ^ BBC Interview, 2003
  30. ^ Destruction of Buddhist monuments in Afghanistan and the Babri Masjid
  31. ^ Filmmaker as activist - The Hindu

Websites on Anand Patwardhan's work

Interviews

Writings

Reviews

Video Clips

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