gavin's blog

is a list of fifteen Indian films by Indiatimes. A little spotty this list, going by the four Hindi films on it, of which only one is really good - Parineeta. The other three, Sarkar, Salaam Namaste and Bunty aur Babli, range from the mildly interesting to the disappointngly convenional to the downright crass, and can hardly be called 'captivating'. Haven't seen any of the other 'regional language' films, but now I know which ones to look for, if they should come by me.

 
Time was, when as a child, the only films I had access to regularly were the weekly regional and foreign films on state-run Doordarshan. Naturally they were all high on the art quotient, festival and award types. Really used to look forward to these films, entries into strange worlds where disenchantment ran high, but the human spirit always triumphed - the universal human story on film (Hollywood came into my life only in college). The rest of the programming on DD helped by providing a bleak backdrop for these films, authenticity standing out against mind stultifying content all the more in contrast.