Dramas & Documentaries

Dramas & Documentaries

For a sense of Indian history and society and some views of the country, try screening a film or video before you go. The prolific Indian film industry has produced a wealth of historical and adventure movies, as well as some of the great international classic films. Aan (1952), directed by Mehboob, a story of royalty tamed by peasants, is a prime example of Indian costume melodrama.

Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), and The World of Apu (1959), written and directed by India's premier filmmaker, Satyajit Ray, are a powerful film trilogy that depicts tragedy and poverty in the life of a child in modern Varanasi. Shakespeare Wallah (1965), written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and James Ivory and directed by Ivory, focuses on a group of English actors on tour in India. Heat and Dust (1982), also written by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala and directed by Ivory, re-creates India's past through letters discovered by the protagonist.

Films set in India by Western directors are numerous. Elephant Boy (1937) is a flawed documentary drama about a boy elephant keeper who helps conservationists. The River (1951), directed by Jean Renoir, follows a group of English people living beside the Ganges. Phantom India, directed by Louis Malle, is an epic documentary of life in India. The award-winning Gandhi (1982), directed by Richard Attenborough, traces the life of the leader of India's independence movement.

In A Passage to India (1984), based on the E. M. Forster novel and directed by David Lean, the conflict between Indians and the English under the Raj is played out through the story of a man accused of rape. The Jewel in the Crown (1984), a TV series based on Paul Scott's Raj Quartet, is an epic of Britain's last years of power in India, involving a romance between a British woman and an Indian man. Salaam Bombay (1988), directed by Mira Nair, is a fictionalized account of the life of Bombay's slum children. City of Joy (1992), starring Patrick Swayze and about Calcutta, is based on the book by the same name by Larry Collins and Dominique Lapierre.