Director Shekhar Kapur chooses his five favourite directors of Indian cinema

Satyajit Ray: No list of directors is complete without him. Starting from the ‘Apu’ trilogy to ‘Devi’ to ‘Charulata’, he showed  amazing versatility and command over the film medium.  His  allegory ‘Goopy Gayn Bagha Bayn’ remains a landmark in Indian  cinema.  The way he used the freeze shot in Charulata is a  technique unknown to Indian cinema before the film was made. I liked his ‘Sadgati’ much more than ‘Shatranj Ke Khiladi’. 

Truly it is his most fundamental film in terms of context, language of  cinema and presentation in the form of a telefilm.  In his last three films ‘Ganashatru’, ‘Shakha Prashakha’ and ‘Agantuk’ he dealt  contemporary social issues like no other director did.  As a script writer, director, editor and music composer Ray has given international dignity to Indian cinema which any one is yet to touch.

Chetan Anand: He was India’s first director to win the Grand  Prix in the first ever Cannes International Film Festival in 1946  for his maiden film ‘Neecha Nagar’.  I marvel at the off beat  theme he attempted and the usage of the dialectical montages in  the film. Chetansaab was influenced much more by European  film makers like Eisenstein and Pudovkin than Hollywood.

He was the first director to introduce the western touch to Indian  cinema.  In his later films ‘Taxi Driver’, ‘Hakeekat’ and ‘Aakhri Khat’ he attempted a variety of subjects with expertise. His ‘Heer Ranjha’ was sheer poetry on celluloid the first of its kind in Hindi  cinema. Chetansaab was superb in moments of silence, extracting performances from his actors and in conveying a  lyrical mood through his films.

Vijay Anand:  He started off as a scriptwriter when he was in  college and yielded magnificent results with his very first script  ‘Taxi Driver’.  He gave his best to Dev Anand in ‘Nau Do Gyarah’,  ‘Hum Dono’ and ‘Tere Ghar Ke Samne’. 

With Guide at the age of  35, Vijay Anand achieved almost everything Hindi cinema could  give him.  His later hits ‘Teesri Manzil’, ‘Jewel Thief’ and ‘Johny  Mera Naam’ showed him as a master technician in whose name  many of today’s directors swear. With ‘Tere Mere Sapne’ he  proved how versatile he could be.  After Chetan Anand and Guru  Dutt he set a new trend in song picturisation followed even  today.  He was an exceptional editor who really understood the  meaning of brevity in films.

Govind Nihalani:  I worked with him as an actor in ‘Drishti’  along with Dimple Kapadia.  As a director and cinematographer  Govind belongs to the school of, “Other cinema” started by  M S Sathyu and Shyam Benegal.

Govind gets the best scriptwriters to work for his films and shoots with amazing intensity and dedication. Each of his frames speak volumes.  His sense of  colors is marvelous.  ‘Akrosh’, ‘Party’, ‘Vijeta’, ‘Tamas’ and ‘Ardha  Satya’ prove how brilliant a director Govind is. 

Aparna Sen:  In the bastion of male directors she broke all records with her very first film ‘36 Chowringhee Lane’.  The manner in which she dealt with the life of an Anglo-Indian family in central Kolkata is something very commendable.  Jennifer and Geoffery Kendal gave performances of life times in the film. 

Ashok Mehta’s usage of natural lighting in many of the frames in the film is a technician’s delight. Aparna showed superb restrain in directing the film. She is a very good script writer and has proved her merit many times with films like ‘Paroma’, ‘Paromitar Ek Din’ and ‘Mr. & Mrs. Iyer’.  Aparna understands the language of cinema very well and does not go in for unnecessary commercial compromises