Duvidha - aka- In two minds

A Mani Kaul rare classic and a collectors item.


Kaul’s most acclaimed film Duvidha(1973) opens with a rather flat, Godardian image of a woman in a red saree standing in front of a white wall, staring determinedly into the camera, as high-pitched Rajasthani ethnic vocals grace the audio. Like the frozen image of Truffaut’s juvenile delinquent, it suggests a predicament addressed to the audience. Based on a folk tale, Duvidha speaks of a love that is beyond time and space. The presence of the ghost, which falls in love with the new bride, is not an exotic delicacy served to us but a given. And so is the ‘story’, which is read out verbatim to us by the narrator, freeing the film from the burden of storytelling, so to speak, instead allowing it to experiment with the imagery. Employing a number of photographs, freeze frames, jump cuts and replays, which illustrate the film’s central notion of temporal and geographical dislocation (and save on the budget) and manipulating time like an accordion player, Kaul weaves a narrative where the past, the present and the future are always in conversation. (The ghost is simply referred to as ‘Bhoot’ (ghost), which is, of course, the word for ‘past’ as well). The predicament of the title, then, involves a choice between the spiritual and the material, the bride’s past and future, her childhood and adulthood, her freedom and honour and her love and security. Bewitchingly shot like a Dovzhenko film (and composed like Cézanne‘s still lifes), and impressively designed, with a simple yet striking interplay of red and white, Duvidha builds on both Kaul’s feminist leanings and highly personalized aesthetic.

Director: Mani Kaul
Writers: Mani Kaul, Vijayadan Detha (story)
Actors : Ravi Menon, Raisa Padamsee

Awards :
National Film Award for Best Direction 
Filmfare Critics Award for Best film.

Info :
Video Size - 444 MB
Video Codec - H.264/AVC
Video Res - 640 x 480
Video Frame Rate - 25 fps 
Video Bitrate - 600 Kbps
Subtitles - English (Hardcoded)
Audio Codec - MP3
Channels - Stereo
Sample Rate - 48000 Hz @ 192 kbps
Length -  1 Hours 19 mins

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