Hours in the Dark : Essays on Cinema/T.G. Vaidyanathan. Delhi, Oxford University Press, 1996, 289 p., $35. ISBN 0-19-563764-X.
Contents: Preface. I. Perspectives from the west: 1. Towards a century of cinema. 2. Denouement in the modern film. 3. Western or anti-western? 4. The Welles Charisma. 5. Fassbinder: breaking the heart without betraying the mind. 6. Bergman's swan song. 7. Michelangelo Antonioni, Blow-up (1966). 8. Costa-Gavras, Z (1969). 9. Milos Foreman, One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). 10. Francis Ford Coppola, Godfather Part II (1975). 11. James Ivory, Roseland (1977). 12. Vittorio and Paulo Taviani, Padre Padrone (1977). 13. Steven Spielberg, Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). 14. Hugh Hudson, Chariots of Fire (1981). 15. Jonathan Demme, The Silence of the Lambs (1991). 16. Martin Scorcese, Cape Fear (1991). II. Some aspects of modern Indian cinema: 1. The problems of post-colonial cinema. 2. Art and commerce: is there a choice? 3. Films from literature. 4. Richard Attenborough, Gandhi (1982). 5. Aparna Sen, 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981). 6. Aparna Sen, Paroma (1985). 7. Shyam Benegal, Junoon (1978). 8. Shyam Benegal, Trikaal (1985). III. Satyajit Ray: Artist and craftsman: 1. The humanism of Ray. 2. Pather Panchali (1955). 3. Death in the Apu Trilogy. 4. Nayak (1966). 5. Seemabaddha (1971). 6. Shatranj Ke Khiladi (1977). IV. A view of the south: 1. Kannada cinema: an overview. 2. The cinema of Girish Kasaravalli. 3. Girish Kasaravalli, Tabarana Kathe (1987). 4. Girish Kasaravalli, Bannada Vesha (1988). 5. Girish Karnad, B.V. Karanth, Vamsha Vriksha (1971). 6. B.V. Karanth, Chomana Dudi (1975). 7. Pattabhi Rama Reddy, Chanda Marutha (1977). 8. Prema Karanth, Phaniyamma (1982). 9. Baragur Ramachandrappa, Kote (1989). 10. Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Swayamvaram (1972). 11. M.T. Vasudevan Nair, Nirmalayam (1973). 12. P. Madhavan, Mythological syndrome in Tamil cinema. 13. K. Balachander, Arangetram (1973). 14. J. Mahendran, Udhiri Pookal (1979). V. Conversations: 1. Alea and the Cuban revolution. 2. A portrait of Polanski. 3. Youssef Chahine, 'Lilli Marlene' and the El Alamein Battle. 4. Marianne Ahrne and the invandrare. Annotated bibliography.
"T.G. Vaidyanathan has been the reviewer most film-makers, critics and movie-goers have always paid attention to. This collection of essays covers nearly three decades of film criticism by him. The book gathers together his essays on individual films in several languages, both Indian and foreign. The essays are energetic and acerbic, often partisan, but never dull. Written in an approachable style, they bring alive years of movie-watching in a manner neither entirely journalistic nor academic.
"The films discussed range from the Taviani brothers' Padre Padrone to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs and Benegal's Trikaal. There is a special section on Satyajit Ray, general pieces on the concerns of modern cinema in India, as well as accounts of Vaidyanathan's encounters with directors such as Roman Polanski and Tomas Gutierrez Alea. The book includes an annotated bibliography with suggestions for further reading." (jacket)