Hours In The Dark: Essays On Cinema

T.G. Vaidyanathan has always been the reviewer most film-makers, critics, and movie-goers paid attention to. This collection of essays covers nearly three decades of film criticism by him. The book gathers together his essays on individual films in several languages, both Indian and foreign. The essays are energetic and acerbic, often partisan, but never dull. Written in an approachable style, they bring alive years of movie-watching in a manner neither entirely journalistic nor academic.

The film discussed range from the Taviani brothers' Padre Padrone to Jonathan Demme's The Silence of the Lambs and Benegal's Trikaal. There is a special section on Satyajit Ray, general pieces on the concerns of modern cinema in India, as well as accounts of Vaidynathan's encounters with directors such as Roman Polanski and Tomas Gutierrez Alea. The book includes an annotated bibliography with suggestions for further reading.

Excerpts From Reviews:

'Hours in the Dark is an incisive observation into the succession of moving images through most of the century. Nothing by any other Indian film writer comes anywhere near it.'

- The Hindu

'Hours in the Dark is a joyous celebration of the movies a wonderful read'.

- Indian Express

About the Author:

T.G. Vaidyanathan taught English Literature at Bangalore University. He has been lecturing and publishing on cinema for many years and this is the first time his essays have been collected. His other books include Vishnu on Freud's Desk: A Reader in Hinduism and Psychoanalysis (OUP, 1999), which he co-edited with Jeffrey J. Kripal.