She was 16, shy and self-conscious. She had never been in a movie before but found herself in front of the camera. Perhaps it had something...
She was 16, shy and self-conscious. She had never been in a movie before but found herself in front of the camera. Perhaps it had something to do with the times, which encouraged explorations of the strange and the new. Maybe it had a little to do with the fact that her father had invested money in the production. Or, that the director was an acolyte of her father’s and a regular at his salon where creative people met to swap ideas and arguments.
At any rate, in the early 1970s, Raissa Padamsee, the daughter of renowned painter Akbar Padamsee and his first wife Solange Gounelle, consented to appear in Mani Kaul’s Duvidha. Based on Rajasthani writer Vijaydan Detha’s folk story of the same name, Kaul’s third feature was partly financed by Akbar Padamsee. Completed in 1973, the film emerged from the intersection of modernist and miniature painting and Rajasthan’s musical and literary traditions.
By then, the Indian arthouse cinema scene had begun to explore many different subjects and styles. A generation of post-Satyajit Ray directors was emerging, seeking to challenge the limits of storytelling and experiment with new forms. Out of this dizzying mix emerged a movie that counts as one of Kaul’s most...
