criterionforum.org

"Paramesh Krishnan Nair is the Indian Henri Langlois and the National Film Archive in Pune is his Cinémathèque Française. In the course of a 50-year career, PK has scoured the subcontinent for rare pictures and it is thanks to this dogged collector that nine silent films have survived (sadly out of 1700), including the country's first feature, Dadasaheb Phalke's Raja Harishchandra (1913). But, in addition to the 8000 films produced by the Bollywood mainstream, the masters of Parallel Cinema and the unsung auteurs of India's numerous regional industries, Nair also amassed 4000 foreign films and clips from 34 classics are included in Shivendra Singh Dungarpur's handsome tribute. It speaks much for Nair's achievement and influence that such luminaries as Yash Chopra, Shyam Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Girish Kasaravalli and Krzysztof Zanussi were so eager to sing his praises. But, while Nair's story fascinates, this epic documentary is most useful as a crash course in Indian cinema." **** (4 stars)

TMDaines wrote:I don't know how much English there is, but maybe it was the only source they could viably use? Are the subtitles burnt into the video or are they merely forced subtitles? In fairness, their website does give a heads-up that the subtitles are fixed, which is refreshingly honest.

The two-and-a-half hour length on paper may seem to be a little excessive for such a documentary, but it's easily justified by the scope of the story and the sheer range of interviews that Dungarpur has secured, many of which have been cut down to a single and often brief contribution. But every one of them adds something to this beguiling portrait – the quotes reproduced here are just a small sampling of those I noted down on my second viewing for potential use within this review. There's not a wasted recollection or anecdote here, and I have a feeling that if Dungarpur had been able to include every bit of worthwhile interview material then Celluloid Man would have run for the good part of a day.