Out of the Past - KVIFF 60/80 / Oka Oori Katha / India 1977
Mrinal Sen’s The Outsiders is a searing exploration of the depths of abject poverty. Faced with an irredeemable system of exploitation, a father and son decide that working only exacerbates social inequalities, so they refuse to do so. The film’s raw realism blurs the lines between protagonists and antagonists until all that remains are bitterness and suppressed rage, which serve as the central duo’s guiding credo and the driving force behind their personal rebellion. Their anarchist philosophy, disrupted by the son’s marriage to a girl named Nilamma, is reflected in the father’s nihilistic declaration: “People have always worked hard, and still they die of hunger. I would rather die than work.” Special Jury Prize in 1978.
Tomáš Hubáček
Film stills © Subhash Nandy
116 min / Black & white, DCP
Director Mrinal Sen
/ Screenplay Mohit Chatterjee, Munshi Premchand, Veerendranath Yandamoori
/ Dir. of Photography K.K. Mahajan
/ Music Vijay Raghava Rao
/ Editor Gangadhar Naskar
/ Art Director B. Kalyan
/ Producer Pattabhi Rama Reddy
/ Production Parandhma Reddy
/ Cast Krishna A.R., Pradeep Kumar, G. Narayana Rao, M.V. Vasudeva Rao
Mrinal Sen. Selected filmography: Bhuvan Shome (1969), Chorus (1975), The Outsiders (Oka Oori Katha, 1977), In Search of Famine (Akaler Sandhane, 1980), Ruins (Khandhar, 1984), My Land (Aamaar Bhuvan, 2002).
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