About

Kumar Shahani’s luminous films explore cultural memories embedded in classical Indian art forms, texts and objects. Kumar Shahani (1940 - 2024, b. Larkana, Sindh (now Pakistan) was one of the most significant filmmakers working within the Indian Parallel Cinema movement. Departing from the movement’s typical neorealist style, instead Shahani developed an epic idiom that engages with contemporary issues. Shahani also engages with European cinematic traditions, and his oeuvre is considered alongside renowned directors — Pier Paolo Pasolini, Andrei Tarkovsky, Sergei Paradyanov, Jacques Rivette and others — whose work is similarly entwined with the visual arts.

Between 2003 and 2006, the Australian Cinémathèque undertook a major restoration project to preserve four of Shahani's films and bring them into the Queensland Art Gallery collection – The Khayal Saga 1988, Kasba 1990, Immanence 1991 and The Bamboo Flute 2000. This program offers an opportunity to see these collection highlights on 35mm and discover Shahani's unique visual and narrative style.