Obscure Indian film #1

Pahla Adhyay
Dir: Vishnu Mathur
Lang: Hindi
Year:1981

This is first in the series of obscure, unknown, yet important Indian films I have planned to post here.
Most obscure of obscurest Indian film turns out to be an important film. Not known to the public in general, seen by very very few people. Two years back had a screening in Mumbai. This is a film on urban/college alienation, disillusionment of campus politics. Excellent character portrayal. Ravi the protagonist is doing his phd on history and it gets slackened by professor's unresponsiveness. Now, this doesn't say anything about the film, since even the above plot itself is not a plot in the ideal sense. Shot in Bombay ( known for it's Bollywood) but, it's anything but bollywood. Infact quite the opposite. There is very minimal dialogues. There is much noise(quintessentially urban) throughout. Sounds of Cars, buses, train, people chattering(in his hostel). He tries to start conversation with his friends/college mates but he couldn't do it properly, they never get to into intellectual discussions neither does the professors who evades genuine questions as polemics.

There are some lyrically composed sequences like protest by students that turns out mildly violent and as a continuity, in the next scene we have the protagonist walk past the two wings and outside of the frame and the scene ends when
he goes in the opposite direction towards the centre of the frame!.

The other such beautifully crafted scene with emphasis on space was when he sits in the middle of a gathering of college mates, who are busy talking to their own groups and he looks around without any one to talk.

Still, I feel i yet to convey the style of direction. As one reviewer notes (in imdb) the average shot length touches almost 40 seconds ( great by indian standards).

Exquisite camera work by Navaroze Contractor (who happens to be cinematographer for another classic indian gujarati film Percy , happens to be in my top 10 indian films). This new wave classic ( which had such giants has mani kaul, aravindan, kumar shahani) has more to it than i tried to put in my words. The exploration of space and time as well as sound is one i should leave it to better hands of critics.

PS : Forgot to add it's an adaptation of a story called Milechan by Ambai ( whom, i haven't heard before but seems to be important feminist writer from India). This also happens to be the only film the director made, he has made few documentaries it seems.

Love to hear from you people :) Thank you for reading.
And sorry couldn't find any poster in the net.

Sharing the only review of this film from imdb, very nuanced one.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0239793/reviews?ref_=tt_urv