Suranjan Ganguly

The Films of Adoor Gopalakrishnan: A Cinema of Emancipation - Anthem Film and Culture Suranjan Ganguly

Brief Description: "The first comprehensive study of the feature films of Adoor Gopalakrishnan, India's most distinguished contemporary filmmaker"--Marc Notes: The first comprehensive study of the feature films of India's most distinguished contemporary filmmaker. This work offers a compelling analysis of the director's treatment of guilt, redemption and hope within their socio-historical contexts. Table of Contents: Introduction; 1. Things Fall Apart: Mukhamukham and the Failure of the Collective; 2. The Domain of Inertia: Elippathayam and the Crisis of Masculinity; 3. Master and Slave: Vidheyan and the Debasement of Power; 4. The Server and the Served: Kodiyettam and the Politics of Consumption; 5. The Search for Home: Swayamvaram and the Struggle with Conscience; 6. Woman in the Doorway: Naalu Pennungal and Oru Pennum Randaanum; 7. Making the Imaginary Real: Anantaram, Mathilukal and Nizhalkkuthu; 8. The Dream of Emancipation: Kathapurushan and the Triumph of the Individual; Filmography; Notes; Bibliography; About the Author; Index"Biographical Note: Suranjan Ganguly teaches European and Asian cinema at the University of Colorado, Boulder and has also written a book on filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Publisher Marketing: This first comprehensive study of Gopalakrishnan's feature films offers a compelling analysis of the issues of guilt, redemption and hope within their socio-historical contexts. The abrupt displacement of Kerala in southern India from a princely feudal state into twentieth-century modernity forms the backdrop to most of his complex narratives about identity, selfhood and otherness, in which innocence is often at stake and characters grapple with their consciences.