Veteran Kumar Shahani, one of the pillars of the parallel cinema movement in India, breathed his last today (25th February) in Calcutta due to age-related illnesses. He was 83.
His films like Maya Darpan, Tarang, Kasba, Char Adhyay and Khayal Gatha had his unique style which was loved by critics and connoisseurs of different cinema. Although he praised Raj Kapoor and Dilip Kumar’s films, Shahani personally made art cinema.
Kumar Shahani was born in Larkana in the Sindh region of undivided India. His family came to Bombay via Karachi after Partition. He trained under Ritwik Ghatak and Marxist historian D.D. Kosambi at the Poona Film Institute. He went to Paris on a French government scholarship and assisted Robert Bresson on Une Femme Douce (1969). Although his first film, Maya Darpan, was applauded by international critics, it took him 12 years to make his second film, Tarang. He had immense faith in cinematographer K.K. Mahajan whom he worked with in his films.
Kumar Shahani introduced actors like Rajat Kapoor and Mita Vashisht. The veteran filmmaker also worked with mainstream actors like Amol Palekar, Girish Karnad, Smita Patil and Shatrughan Sinha, but he never pandered to their star image.