Desert of a Thousand Lines

A literary film based on a play in three acts, One Day Before the Rainy Season (Ashad Ka Ek Din) portrays the love of Mallika and Kalidasa, the renowned Sanskrit poet and dramatist. Vilom, a friend to both and interested in Mallika, is a passive onlooker for the first two acts. Kalidasa leaves his verdant mountain valley home for the splendour of far off Ujjain, where he wins fame. The action of the film is rooted in the village to which Kalidasa returns years later and finds Mallika married to Vilom and the mother of his child. Mallika sacrificed her love so that the poet could pursue his muse.

A newly-married merchant’s son is sent away for business. A ghost, who laid eyes on the bride, falls madly in love with her and takes the form of the husband and begins living with her.

Chitrakathi is about the folk artists of western India who narrate with the help of leather puppets. Mani takes us to the sleepy Konkan coastal village and introduces us to the family that has preserved this unique art for several centuries.

Myshkin, an epileptic man, eturns from medical treatment abroad and finds himself in love with Nastasia. There are twists and turns as Myshkin gets engaged to another woman, only to have an epileptic seizure. He and Nastasia are betrothed but on the wedding day, she returns to her rich pursuer Pawan, who kills her. As both men wait together for the police, Myshkin descends into insanity.

The film depicts the life of a truck driver Sucha Singh and his wife Balo. Balo has to get Sucha Singh's food ready every day, walk a long distance through the fields and wait for him on the highway as he drives past the village. He leads an independent life, playing cards with his friends and spending time with his mistress, and comes home only once a week. However, he expects his wife to play the traditional role of a devoted wife. One day Balo gets late, trying to save her sister from the advances of a lecherous villager. Sucha Singh is angry, and drives away without his food. She decides to wait for him until nightfall.

A documentary story told through images, poetry and the Dhrupad, a vocal genre in Hindustani classical music, said to be the oldest still in use in that musical tradition.

A stylized version of Vijay Tendulkar’s radical Marathi play chronicling the Peshwa regime in western India, a collective effort of direction and cinematography made by an independent group of young filmmakers.

The precautions to be taken during and after an air-raid by the people, are shown in this film.

A 'filmscape' on the Kashmir valley.

In a poetic hour and a half, director Mani Kaul looks at the ancient art of making pottery from a wide variety of perspectives.

This film suggests a network of hierarchical relations between people through sometimes subtle and at other times blunt illustrations.

Taking an experimental approach to the relationship between the written text and moving image, Mani Kaul has a series of texts read aloud in voice-overs (poetry, essays, and stories), while the characters within the texts walk through real or imaginary landscapes.

A middle-aged antique dealer and money lender recollects his marriage to a 17-year-old orphan girl.

Unpaid... overworked... a woman at home.... mother ! How muchdoes her labour cost ? Raising such a questions, this film fathomshistory - of matriarchy and patriarchy, of morality, of oppressiveanti-woman modes.

Despite its suggestive title, this multi-part Danish omnibus film is not a work of exploitation. Instead, it presents 20 different short films (back-to-back) on the general theme of Danish women, directed by filmmakers including Krzysztof Zanussi, Monika Treut, Gustav Hamos, David Blair, Vibeke Vogel, Dusan Makavejev, Morten Skallerud and Lars Norgaard. Some dramatic vignettes mix with other comedic ones, but all are offbeat and experimental. The picture includes one animated sequence (by Norgaard).

To the city come men, women, fruits, flowers, vegetables, goats and sheep – all ready for consumption. It is the process of consumption/exploitation that forms the core of the film.