Saturday, April 24th, 2010, 6:30 PM

ASHES TO ASHES (Raakh Redux)

India/2010/133min/Digibeta

ArcLight Hollywood

[buy tickets here]

Director:Aditya Bhattacharya

Producer:Asif Noor

Screenwriter:Aditya Bhattacharya, Nuzhat Khan (dialogue)

Cinematographer:Santosh Sivan

Production Designer:Partho Sengupta

Editor:A. Sreekar Prasad

Music Composer:Ranjit Barot

Sound Editor:Haresh Vyas, A.M. "Paddy" Padmanabhan

Cast:Aamir Khan, Supriya Pathak, Pankaj Kapur, Jagdeep, Master Ahmed Khan, Naina Balsaver

One night in an unnamed Indian city, young Aamir Hussein is forced to watch in impotent frustration as his girlfriend Neeta is brutally gang-raped in an assault led by the scion of the Karmali mafia family.

Aamir’s inability to do anything about the crimes makes him leave home and sink into the city’s underbelly. There, he encounters the flotsam and jetsam of the decaying metropolis, chief amongst whom is a taciturn ex-cop, P.K. Having his own axe to grind against the Karmali clan, P.K. helps the boy Aamir become a man and exact revenge.

With writer/director Aditya Bhattacharya’s dystopian vision of modern India, RAAKH (1989) became an instant cult classic when released in 1989 and immediately became a benchmark film for gangster noir, inspiring celebrated directors like Sudhir Mishra, Ram Gopal Varma and Vinod Chopra. The film was one of Bollywood multi-hyphenate Aamir Khan’s first starring roles and won for him a nomination for Best Actor at the Filmfare awards and a jury mention at the Indian National Awards. Pankaj Kapur won the National Award for Best Supporting Actor. The film also marked the debut of A. Sreekar Prasad, who won the National Award for Best Editing, and ace cinematographer Santosh Sivan.

IFFLA viewers will be the first to see the newly cut version of RAAKH specially edited to coincide with the film’s 20th anniversary.

Hindi (English Subtitles)

Watch Trailer Here

Presented by:
American Cinematheque