English, August

English, August is an excellent film that stands as a landmark within the new, challenging cinematic approach of the young generation of Indian film makers. The main character Agastya Sen is a young, free-minded, city-bred man that gets transferred to the province to work as a bureaucrat. Being confronted with the complexity and Kafkaesque nature of the Indian bureaucratic hierarchy, he sinks deeper and deeper into loneliness and depression.
The protagonist represents a whole generation of educated, urban Indians fighting to achieve independence, self-recognition and personal freedom. The psychological state of being dislocated and misunderstood is brilliantly evoked by Rahule Bose who at the time was a huge discovery and today stands as one of the biggest stars of Indian art house cinema. The subtle elements of satire give a multi-layered, in-depth and full account of the discrepancy between public life on the one hand and the intimate and hidden realm of privacy on the other.
The very thoughtfully created cinematic language stands even today as one of the most impressive achievements of Indian cinema in the last fifteen years. After watching this film several times, I felt it has the strength to create the same specific mood as Indian ragas, leaving the spectator the freedom to experience his own raga while watching this film. (RS)