Director: Ketan Mehta; Writer: Ketan Mehta, Hriday Lani, Mahesh Elkunchwar based on his play; Producer: Ketan Mehta, Pradeep Uppoor; Cinematographer: Jehangir Choudhury; Editor: Subhash Sehgal; Cast: Sanjeev Gandhi, Manoj Pandya, Rahul Ranade, Ashutosh Gowarikar, Amole Gupte, Aamir Hussain, Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Deepti Naval, Shreeram Lagoo, Aamir Khan, Mohan Gokhale
Duration: 01:53:54; Aspect Ratio: 1.335:1; Hue: 11.667; Saturation: 0.081; Lightness: 0.217; Volume: 0.377; Cuts per Minute: 2.423
Summary: Mehta’s first Hindi film addresses the increasing
lumpenisation of university students featuring
scenes of victimisation reminiscent of Volker
Schloendorff’s Der junge Toerless (1966).
Forced to attend a lecture on India’s cultural
heritage while on holiday, the boys rebel. The
violence gradually escalates into a major battle
with the authorities as the colourful and
anarchistic pre-Vedic spring festival, Holi, turns
into a menacing festival of fire with burning
school furniture. The college principal induces
a boy to denounce the leaders of the rebellion.
The informer is publicly humiliated and is
forced to commit suicide. Mehta decided to
shoot almost all the scenes in sequence shots,
often using a crab-dolly or a steadycam, and
using synch sound rather than playback or
post-synched sound (in spite of the
complicated songs and the musical
accompaniment). The film’s enthusiastic and
hallucinatory participation in student violence
(of which it is supposedly critical) allows it to
move away from its original political thrust,
conveying existential despair instead. The film
enjoyed a cult audience in New Delhi for a
short period.
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