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| 1981–2000 |
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| 2001–present | |
| English, August | |
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| Directed by | Dev Benegal |
| Screenplay by | Dev Benegal |
| Based on | English, August by Upamanyu Chatterjee |
| Produced by | Anuradha Parikh |
| Starring | Rahul Bose Tanvi Azmi Mita Vashisht Shivaji Satam |
| Cinematography | Anoop Jotwani K. U. Mohanan |
| Edited by | Dev Benegal Allyson C. Johnson |
| Music by | D. Wood Vikram Joglekar |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release date |
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Running time | 118 minutes |
| Country | India |
| Language | English |
English, August is a 1994 Indian English-language black comedy film and director Dev Benegal's first feature film. A humorous and irreverent study of bureaucracy and the Indian Generation X, English, August won several awards at international film festivals.
English, August became the first Indian independent film to break the stranglehold of mainstream Indian Bollywood cinema when it was acquired by 20th Century Fox and became a theatrical success in the country. This has led the way for other low budget, independent movies such as Bombay Boys and Split Wide Open , which are part of the next generation of "middle cinema". [1]
The film is based on the novel of the same name by Upamanyu Chatterjee. [2]
The negatives of the film were spoiled due to flooding at a storage facility of Prasad Studios. There was an unsuccessful attempt at restoration, [3] [4] following which the film was declared a lost film.
In February 2020, a copy of the film was found in the National Film Archives of India. Since the film reel is a 35 mm print, the restoration process has begun. [5] However, restoration was brought to a halt in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[ citation needed ]
Agastya Sen (Rahul Bose), nicknamed "English, August", speaks and thinks in English. A lover of poetry, he listens to Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, rock and jazz and reads Marcus Aurelius. He is also an Indian Administrative Service Officer, a member of the most influential and powerful cadre of civil servants in India. He is sent off for a year's training to Madna, the hottest town in the country. Culture shock and a language barrier in his own country follows (August's mother tongue is Bengali). He feels like a foreigner, but must survive.
Moreover, August is surrounded by wild characters: Srivastava, the pompous head bureaucrat and his wife Malti, the fashion and cultural leader of the town; Sathe, a local pothead and cartoonist; Kumar, the Police Superintendent and connoisseur of porn films; and Vasant, the world's worst cook. August negotiates this provincial creek with the only paddle he can find; Fantasy, daydreams and "self-abuse" become his means of revolt and escape as he escapes from the heat into the mystery and quiet of his secret world of erotic fantasy and contemplation.
Reviewing the film at the International Film Festival of India, S. R. Ashok Kumar of The Hindu wrote that "For a debutant the director's work passes muster". [6]
The original soundtrack for the film is composed by D. Wood and consists of the following instrumental tracks. [7]
Ashok Kumar, was an Indian actor who attained iconic status in Indian cinema. He was considered the first big star of Hindi cinema as well as the first lead actor to play an anti-hero. He also became the first star to reinvent himself, enjoying a long and hugely successful career as a character actor. He was a member of the cinematic Ganguly family. He was honoured in 1988 with the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest national award for cinema artists, by the Government of India. He also received the Padma Bhushan in 1999 for his contributions to Indian cinema.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose: The Forgotten Hero is a 2004 Indian epic biographical war film, written and directed by Shyam Benegal. The film starred an ensemble cast of Sachin Khedekar, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Rajit Kapur, Arif Zakaria, and Divya Dutta, among others. The film depicts the life of the Indian Independence leader Subhas Chandra Bose in Nazi Germany: 1941–1943, and In Japanese-occupied Asia 1943–1945, and the events leading to the formation of Azad Hind Fauj.
Rahul Bose is an Indian actor, director, screenwriter, social activist, and athlete. Bose is the President of Indian Rugby Football Union.
Aandhi (transl. 'Storm') is a 1975 Indian political drama film starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen, and directed by Gulzar. At the time it was alleged that the film was based on the life of the then-Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and her relationship with her estranged husband, but in reality, only the look was inspired by the politician Tarkeshwari Sinha and Indira Gandhi. The story is based on a chance meeting of an estranged couple after several years, when wife Aarti Devi, now a leading politician happens to stay in the hotel run by her husband during an election campaign. The movie is noted for its songs composed by Rahul Dev Burman, written by Gulzar and sung by Kishore Kumar and Lata Mangeshkar.
Dev Benegal is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, most known for his debut film English, August (1994), which won the Best Feature Film in English at the 42nd National Film Awards.
Split Wide Open is a 1999 Indian film directed by Dev Benegal. It is his second feature film after English, August (1994). The film primarily deals with the Water conflicts in the slums of Bombay, and paedophilia, and also looks at the subversive sexuality in modern India and how the notions of morality are challenged when sex and poverty collide. The film came under harsh criticism when released in India and has been one of the most controversial Indian films.
Upamanyu Chatterjee is an author and a retired Indian civil servant. His works include the novel English, August: An Indian story, The Last Burden, The Mammaries of the Welfare State and Weight Loss. In 2008, he was awarded the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for his contribution to literature.
The Mammaries of the Welfare State is an English-language Indian novel, the sequel to Upamanyu Chatterjee's debut novel, English, August, also told from the perspective of the fictional character Agastya Sen. It won the Sahitya Akademi Award (English) in 2004. The novel tells the story of political bureaucracy in the fictional state of Madna when an epidemic breaks out. The title derives from a line of dialog in the novel, where a civil servant states "In my eight years of service, I haven't come across a single case in which everybody concerned didn't try to milk dry the boobs of the Welfare State".
The Japanese Wife is a 2010 Indian romantic drama film directed by Bengali filmmaker Aparna Sen. It stars Rahul Bose, Raima Sen and Moushumi Chatterjee, and Japanese actress Chigusa Takaku in the title role. It is in English, Bengali and Japanese. The film was originally scheduled for release in October 2008, but the release was delayed until 9 April 2010.
English, August: An Indian Story is a novel by Indian author Upamanyu Chatterjee. It is written in English and first published in 1988. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1994. The novel portrays the struggle of a civil servant who is posted in a rural area and is considered to be a very authentic portrayal of the state of Indian youth in the 1980s. Chatterjee, who became a civil servant in 1983, provides key insight into the disparity between rural and urban lived experiences witnessed in his generation. The key character, Agastya Sen, can also be seen in the sequel of this novel The Mammaries of the Welfare State.
Asit Sen was an Indian film director, cinematographer, documentary Filmmaker and screenwriter, who worked in both Bengali and Hindi cinema. He was born in Dhaka, now in modern-day Bangladesh, when it was part of East Bengal in British India. He directed 17 feature films in Hindi and Bengali, and was most known for the films Deep Jweley Jai (1959) and Uttar Falguni (1963) in Bengali, Mamta (1966), Khamoshi (1969), Anokhi Raat (1968) and Safar (1970) in Hindi.
Road, Movie is a 2009 Indian road movie directed by Dev Benegal, and starring Abhay Deol, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Satish Kaushik. It premiered at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival and opened the section Generation 14plus at the 60th Berlin International Film Festival in February 2010. Road, Movie was released in India on 5 March 2010.
Raja Sen is an Indian film and television director and the winner of three National Film Awards from Kolkata, West Bengal, India. He is the father of Subhasree Sen and Sreyoshri Sen.
Shajith Koyeri is a sound designer in the field of sync sound technique in Indian cinema. A recipient of the National Film Awards for Omkara, Shajith also won two Filmfare awards and two IIFA Awards. He is also the recipient of the Star Screen Award for Kaminey. Shajith is also known for his work in Foley editing and pre-mixing.
This article contains a list of books about Hindi film director and actor Raj Kapoor.
Poorna is a 2017 Indian Hindi-language biographical adventure film directed by Rahul Bose. The film stars himself with Aditi Inamdar as Malavath Poorna, the youngest girl to climb Mount Everest. The film released in India on 31 March 2017 to positive reviews. The film was screened at the 2017 Palm Springs International Film Festival where it was nominated on the festival's list of "30 Best Feature Films".
Film Heritage Foundation is a non-profit organization, based in Mumbai, India, dedicated to film preservation, restoration and archiving of India’s film heritage.