Mani Kaul's"Uski Roti" ('Our Daily Bread'), which came out in 1970, is now considered a classic of Indian New W
ave cinema and was, like the films of Satyajit Ray, heavily influenced by the Italian Neo-Realist Movement. In terms of its raw, unadorned style it could have been made twenty or thirty years earlier at least. Kaul uses black and white images rather than excessive dialogue to tell his story which is unusual in that it deals with the role of women in Indian society.
A young wife waits by the roadside for her husband, a bus driver, to drive past so she can give him 'roti' but he pays her little attention and has a mistress. I have no doubt a similarily themed movie made in the West would have been excessively melodramatic but Kaul opts for a documentary-like realism with heightened sound recording and a highly stylized form of acting. This is an Indian art-movie, quite clearly not designed for mass consumption and so simply constructed it feels positively primitive like the ethnographic studies of Murnau or Flaherty. It's virtually impossible to see it here now but if you get the chance I can warmly recommend it.
ave cinema and was, like the films of Satyajit Ray, heavily influenced by the Italian Neo-Realist Movement. In terms of its raw, unadorned style it could have been made twenty or thirty years earlier at least. Kaul uses black and white images rather than excessive dialogue to tell his story which is unusual in that it deals with the role of women in Indian society.A young wife waits by the roadside for her husband, a bus driver, to drive past so she can give him 'roti' but he pays her little attention and has a mistress. I have no doubt a similarily themed movie made in the West would have been excessively melodramatic but Kaul opts for a documentary-like realism with heightened sound recording and a highly stylized form of acting. This is an Indian art-movie, quite clearly not designed for mass consumption and so simply constructed it feels positively primitive like the ethnographic studies of Murnau or Flaherty. It's virtually impossible to see it here now but if you get the chance I can warmly recommend it.
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