The German Connection

 Anybody who has even the least fascination for Marathi movies cannot help but see "Pinjara". Made in 1972, or rather released that year, the iconic film turns fifty this year.

I shall some time later write a detailed article/blog on the film.Right now the point I want to make is that it has a very interesting German connect. It is based on or rather is inspired by a German novel by Heinrich Mann, published in 1905.  The title of the novel is indeed interesting. It reads    'Professor Unrat'.Translated in to simple English, it means "Professor Rubbish". 

Sure it may remind one of the umpteen examples of the grand souls who dare to call themselves by the nomenclature 'professor'. That, however, is not the point right now. 

Interesting is the fact that the novel, too, depicts the rubbish heap an idealist is reduced to due to the machinations of a wily, shifty schemer! The German connection does not, however, end there.

It is a well-known fact that V. Shantaram was unmistakably and deeply influenced by German expressionism. He went to Germany to consciously study the expressionist film techniques, it seems. Especially brilliant he found the use of light and shadows by German expressionism, apparently.

In 1930 was released one of the greatest German films featuring Marlene Dietrich as Lola Lola. It is entitled " Der Blau Engel". So many are the unmistakable similarities between the two films, the caged bird as a symbol, for example, that frame after frame, you remember the original German film by Sternberg. 

Quite likely that V. Shantaram who was in Germany in the 1930's would have watched the great film that he adapted brilliantly in the Marathi mould. Incidentally, the Sternberg film is indeed based on 'Professor  Unrat'.

All the three texts are superb in their own ways proving how inter-semiotic and inter-textual translations enrich creativity. Which brings us to another major example of the German connect.

Yes, i am referring to 'Khamoshi'. With its lovely music, the brilliant performances by Nana Patekar and surely by Seema Biswas, this film illuminated by the radiant presence of Manisha Koirala reminds one, frame by frame, of Karoline Linke's 'Jenseits der Stille' which means 'the other side of or beyond silence'. Indeed another very interesting example of the German connection!

Pratima@complex creative connections!