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Kolkata: Renowned Veteran filmmaker Kumar Shahani, a National Award-winner, who is best known for groundbreaking films such as Maya Darpan, Char Adhyay, and Kasba, and a pioneer in parallel cinema has died at the age of 83. A close friend of the director and actor Mita Vashisht revealed that the filmmaker passed away last night at a hospital in Kolkata.
Besides directing, he was also an eminent educator and writer, with works like “The Shock of Desire and Other Essays.” His legacy will continue to inspire future filmmakers. Actor Mita Vashisht confirmed the news saying that the filmmaker ‘was ailing and his health had been declining’, as quoted by sources.
FHF is deeply saddened to hear about the passing of Kumar Shahani, pathbreaking avant-garde filmmaker, a leading light of the Indian New Wave, and one of the first members of FHF's Advisory Council, who deeply believed in the importance of the work we do https://t.co/6xwiLjTSoz pic.twitter.com/hcTYgf6CUE
— Film Heritage Foundation (@FHF_Official) February 25, 2024
His close friend Vashisht, who worked with the director on Vaar Vaar Vaari, Khayal Gatha, and Kasba, told sources, “He passed away around 11 pm last night due to age-related health issues at a hospital in Kolkata. He was ailing and his health had been declining. It’s a deep personal loss. We were in touch with his family. Kumar and I would talk a lot and I knew he was ailing and was in and out of hospital.”
83-year-old Shahani is survived by his wife and two daughters. The filmmaker was born in Larkana, Sindh in the undivided India. After the partition in 1947, Shahani’s family shifted to Bombay. The filmmaker studied at the Film and Television Institute of India.
Kumar Shahani made his debut in 1972 with the movie Maya Darpan which won a National Film Award for Best Feature Film In Hindi. Shahani studied at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune. He was known to be one of the favourite students of director Ritwik Ghatak. Later, Shahani went to France and assisted Robert Bresson on his film Une Femme Douce. He considers Ghatak and Bresson his teachers. Maya Darpan, based on a story by Nirmal Verma, won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in Hindi. Shahani also directed other notable films like ‘Tarang’, ‘Khayal Gatha’, ‘Kasba’, and ‘Char Adhyay’.
#WorkingStills #BehindTheScenes
A #rarepic of filmmaker Kumar Shahani as he directs the cast on the sets of his landmark film Maya Darpan! pic.twitter.com/W8UZVCnVTP— NFDC-National Film Archive of India (@NFAIOfficial) March 31, 2017
In 1984, he directed Tarang which won a National Film Award. Shahani focused more on portraying everyday life in his two personal films about music and dance, Khayal Gatha (1989) and Bhavantarana (1991). In Khayal Gatha, he contrasted historical and modern stories about the khayal form. In his next film, released in 1997, Shahani adapted Tagore’s 1934 novel Char Adhyay. He chose Nandini Ghoshal, a trained Odissi dancer, for the role, pushing her to break free from her training to portray the character’s journey beyond societal constraints.
