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Arvind Sinha (1961- present)

Arvind Sinha
(1961- present)

Born in Bihar, Arvind had shifted to Kolkata during his childhood. A student of South Point High School, he has been a self-taught film-maker who did not even assist a director before he began making his first documentary in 1990. Arvind's films have been critically acclaimed the world over. Interestingly, most of his documentaries also have clips of Hindi films. The director maintains that he does this since Hindi cinema is part of the daily life of Indians. From the intricacies of dhrupad to the deep-voice multi-phonic Tibetan Buddhist chanting, Arvind has chosen a wide range of subjects. Only three documentaries from India have ...

Deep Focus

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Filmography

    • Chhau: Mask Dance of Seraikella (1990) 
    • The Recluse (1992) 
    • Ajit (The Unconquerable) (1995) 
    • Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein (Between The Devil and the Deep River) (1999) 
    • Kaya Poochhe Maya Se (Journeyings and Conversations) (2002)
    • Dhrupad in the Time of Liberalization (2002) 
    • Dagar (2004) 
    • Shazia (2005) 
    • Raja Hindustani (2008) 
    • Swami Vivekananda (2010) 
    • Umzey Chhen-Mo (2017)

Awards
    • Arvind won two Silver Lotuses (Rajat Kamals) as a producer and director of The Recluse for Best Arts/Cultural Film at the 40th National Award in 1993. The award was given for "a fine and moving tribute to one of the great living master of Dhrupad - Ustad Amiruddin Dagar". Raja Sen had won the same award that year for Suchitra Mitra.
    • Arvind won a special mention at the 43rd National Award for his sensitive portrayal of migrant child labour in Ajit in 1996. It won the Mercedes Benz Award at Leipzig International Film Festival 1996. Ajit was the closing of the festival and had got a special mention too. It also got a gold medal at Spain's Bilbao International Film Festival 1996 and the UNICEF award at the same festival.
    • Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein (Between The Devil and the Deep River) won Arvind two (Golden Lotuses) Swarna Kamals as producer and director at the 47th National Award in 2000. It won the Best Non-Feature Film for its in-depth portrayal of an environmental disaster in north Bihar, of lives uprooted and rendered 'amphibian' due to the blind imposition of the development model of embankment of rivers.
    • Kaya Poochhe Maya Se (Journeyings and Conversations) won three Golden Lotuses (Swarna Kamals). As a producer and director, this film got Arvind three Golden Lotuses (Swarna Kamals). The first two was as a producer and director of the Best Non-Feature Film for "a probing, thoughtful, intense, yet a non-judgmental record of the myriad faces of humanity floating around the Howrah Station that lies by the side of the river Ganga. The director with just his keen eye and an unpredictable symmetry of images, gains an inner eye into the mystery called people. It is as though an entire civilization is reconstructed through images of floating faces, people and sounds". It won the Best Non-Feature Film direction at the same ceremony for showing "the teeming surge of humanity in Howrah station with compassion and warmth". Ranjan Palit bagged a Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal) the Best Cinemtography award for this film the same year for "a cinematic observation of myriad shades of humanity and breathtaking chiaroscuro of light and shade". Internationally, this film was at the Joris Ivens competition at the prestigious International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA). It is the only Indian film till date to be selected for the World Documentary Competition at the Sundance Film Festival. It was the only Indian film ever in the main competition at Sundance.
    • Raja Hindustani was the second Indian film in the main competition at IDFA. It won the audience award at Morocco's Agadir International Film Festival.

Did You Know?

Eminent director Mrinal Sen shared a unique friendship with Arvind. "After watching Dui Paatan Ke Beech Mein (Between The Devil and the Deep River), the director had publicly said that he would never be able to make a documentary like that," Arvind recalled.

Research by: Geety Sahgal

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