Kamal Swaroop is one of Indian avant-garde cinema’s most legendary cases. An elusive auteur of few works, most almost impossible to see – or even show. Om Dar-B-Dar had serious trouble with the officials back in the day and ‘was vanished’ as a consequence.
Om Dar-B-Dar (a nonsense play on words Swaroop tentatively translates as ‘I’m Door-by-Door’) is a Surrealist (anti-)narrative whose hero, Om, is good at only one thing: holding his breath for a long time – while his scientific research (well…) always seems to end up more on the magic side. His father has similar arcane interests, devoting his life to astrology – for which he left a government job. All of which sounds more straight-forward than this scathingly delirious attack on just about every holy cow India has on offer actually is.
Film details
- Country of production
- India
- Year
- 1988
- Festival edition
- IFFR 1990
- Length
- 101'
- Medium/Format
- DCP
