Cities have often been central to the plot in movies. Here, we pick 10 films in which they transcend their roles as mere locales
The making of this list has seen much debate. Why Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi and not Mahanagar? Why not Dhobi Ghat or Hyderabad Blues? Truth is, it’s tough choosing just 10 films from the wide variety of cinema in the past 100 years. For the rest, we hope the debate will go on.
Dhanbad
Gangs of wasseypur
Gangs of Wasseypur is a two-part saga of Dhanbad’s savage coal mafia sprawling over six decades. The film stuns you with impeccable detailing, authenticity in setup, flavour of the language (including most certainly the local profanities), and the rustic musical score picked up from the streets of Bihar. Right from the opening sequence that introduces us to Wasseypur, the film goes on to bring the little town alive on the big screen.
Calcutta
36 chowringhee lane
In 36 Chowringhee Lane, English grammar teacher Violet Stoneham, an Anglo-Indian, is probably the last of a generation that was quintessentially Calcuttan. It portrays a Calcutta in transition: Where her olden loneliness has a fleeting courtship with the young and the restless. And then, she is pushed back into her melancholic confines. Debutant director Aparna Sen sets her movie in Calcutta, a city that has grown up in the charms of yore, but is poised to move on.
Pratidwandi
Satyajit Ray’s Pratidwandi presents one of the most perfect pictures of a volatile Calcutta of the 1970s—the economic stagnation, the ultra-Left Naxalbari movement, and a swirling cynicism amidst the youth. The vignettes of life that Ray shows in the film have lived on over decades through graffiti, street chatter, and the psyche of Calcuttans. That era never seems too far away.
kanchipuram
kanchivaram
This period film is a touching narrative of the lives of the silk weavers of Kanchipuram, who writhe in abject poverty despite weaving saris that often become proud possessions of the well-heeled. It captures a specific phase in the history of the Tamil Nadu town, but could well translate into the life story of all those who belong to the dying breed.
Bombay
(This story appears in the 03 May, 2013 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)