Decolonizing Indian Cinema:

The Influence of Indian Paintings and Nayi Kahani literature on Mani Kaul

Abstract

The New Indian Cinema movement was started in 1969 by a new group of filmmakers who wanted to distance themselves both from the alternative film practices shaped by Satyajit Ray and mainstream practices of Bombay film industry. The main force of the brigade was a group of young filmmakers, most of them were fresh graduates from the Indian Institute of Film & Television, Pune. Mani Kaul was one of the most important figures among them. His first film Uski Roti (1969), based on the story of Mohan Rakesh, indicated the emergence of a new style of filmmaking in Indian Cinema. His other compatriots of the New Cinema Movement also started making moves extracting inspiration from the Nayi Kahani‘s of modern Hindi literature. As far as narrative is concerned Mani Kaul‘s films were inspired by nayi kahani of Gajanan Mukhtibodh, Mohan Rakesh, Vijaydan Detha and Vinod Kumar Shukla. His visual chic, on the other hand, was shaped by the Indian image making practices of Rajput, Mughal and Kangra miniature paintings. In addition to that Mani Kaul‘s film sound was designed after the sonic traditions built by the schools of Indian classical music. The paper would argue how the inspirations of Nayi kahani, Indian miniature paintings and Indian classical music helps Mani Kaul in foregrounding the effort to decolonize the cinematic practice in India