Word of Mouth

Director Aravind Kaushik talks about four of his favourite films

Aravind Kaushik is a Kannada film and teleserial director. Having started his career as a voice-over artiste, Kaushik went on to helm films like Nam Areal Ondina , which launched actor Rakshit Shetty. The filmmaker, who is currently busy with two upcoming projects — Steel Paatre Saaman and Shardoola , discusses the four films that had a lasting impact on him. He is currently directing the hiot TV series Kamali for Zee Kannada, which recently completed a successful run of 100 episodes.

Satya (1998)

Satya (1998)

When I first saw

Satya , I’d not yet seen films like Good Fellas or Casino , and so the whole mafia films of the West had not yet left an impact on me. A good 20 years later, and after having devoured various tales of crime set in the West and the world, it is Satya whose images flash across my mind, when I think gangster films. The rawness of Mumbai’s bylanes, the language, and the realistic approach to the portrayal of people involved with the underworld were all awe-inspiring for me as a student of films. The best takeaway from Satya was how RGV was able to make us dwell into the human side of a gangster.

Raging Bull (1980)

This film introduced me to Robert De Niro, who went on to become one of my most favourite actors ever. His performance in the film is a class apart. It dealt with the life of Jake LaMotta, but the film itself is not so much about the boxer. It is more about the man behind the boxing avatar, and his rendezvous with life. We see Jake boxing away against his own personal life. He is ill-tempered, and doesn’t treat his wife well. He boxes away in the ring of self destruction, and it is his life that is pitted against him as an opponent. The classic slow-motion opening shots of the man in the ring never fail to get me excited.

Requiem for a dream (2000)

Directed by Darren Aronofsky, this film continues to haunt me everyday simply because of the subject matter. In a consumerist culture, and amid various kinds of addictions, the film is a take about a woman’s wish to appear on a famous TV show. This leads her to do various things in life to get in shape to be on that show, and in that process her life is turned upside down. The film’s famous background score, the edit and the story telling all weave a suffocating web around the audience leaving us pondering about what we have become as people, and how we get carried away by the yearning to become famous.

Silence of the Lambs (1991)

This film by Jonathan Demme, for me, is a wonderful example of story telling, of creating moments and expectations. The film is also an example for how to keep an audience engrossed in a tale and keep them guessing. A classic film with wonderful performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie foster, it keeps your heart beating faster by the minute .The elevator scene where in Anthony Hopkins gets away from custody and the last shot of the film where in we see him walking off, are all images that have haunted me greatly. A wonderful tale of crime, with its edge-of-the-seat moments, Silence of the Lambs is truly a classic.

The Silence of the Lambs (1991)

This film by Jonathan Demme, for me, is a wonderful example of story telling, of creating moments and expectations. It is also an example on how to keep an audience engrossed in a tale, and leave them guessing. It is a classic film with wonderful performances by Anthony Hopkins and Jodie foster. Especially, the elevator scene where Anthony Hopkins gets away from custody, and the last shot of the film, where we see him walking off, are all images that have haunted me greatly. The Silence of the Lambs is a wonderful tale of crime with its edge-of-the-seat moments.

As told to S hilpa Sebastian R

As told to Shilpa Sebastian R