S. N. S. Sastry

The rich historical and cultural heritage of the Malwa plateau in Central India is the theme of this film. The ruins that survive bring back memories of kings and poets, craftsmen, and architects.

The film portrays the personality and family life of Ustad Amir Khan, the famous vocalist and his music.

Made a year before the Emergency, Flashback was commissioned by Films Division to commemorate its 25th anniversary. Sastry, with his ever-surprising style, turns this ‘history of’ film into a joyous mix, bringing archival film footage, documentation of Films Division’s infrastructure, and the musings of John Grierson, Ezra Mir, S Sukhdev and himself together, to tussle with the role of documentary cinema. Today, the unprecedented access to archives like that of Films Division is an open invitation to ‘flashback’ and reassemble the past.

A backgrounder showing the state of affairs which eventually led to the proclamation of Emergency by the Government of India in 1975.

This film records the late third Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi, taking the oath for her office and addressing the first-ever UN Conference on Human Environment at Stockholm. Here, she said, "The rich countries may look upon development as a course of environmental destruction...But to us, development is one of the primary means of improving the environment of living, of providing food, water, sanitation and shelter, of making the desert green and the mountains habitable."

The film takes us to through the silent stone relics of Nagarjunakonda, ancient secluded centre of art, learning and research founded 2000 years ago on the banks of the river Krishna in Andhra Pradesh.

Those born on Independence Day in 1947 were selected from different parts of India and interviewed to know their hopes and desires, ambitions, hobbies, fears and frustrations and the result is this unique film.

On 26th of June, 1975 the state of emergency was declared by the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. This film collects reactions of cross-section of people about changes brought about by the Emergency for their benefit. The film also includes an interview with the Prime Minister.