{"id":3259,"date":"2023-12-14T12:13:19","date_gmt":"2023-12-14T12:13:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/?page_id=3259"},"modified":"2024-01-22T10:22:40","modified_gmt":"2024-01-22T10:22:40","slug":"the-square-circle","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/the-square-circle\/","title":{"rendered":"The Square Circle"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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THE SQUARE CIRCLE<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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(Daayra<\/strong>, Hindi & French title).<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Writer\/Producer Tmeri N Murari<\/h5>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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TIME<\/strong> MAGAZINE: One of the ten best films of the year 1997.<\/p>

Director: Amol Palekar<\/p>

Screenplay: Timeri N Murari.<\/p>

Cast: Nirmal Pandey and Sonali Kulkarni.<\/p>

REVIEWS<\/p>

The first 20 minutes of this Hindi- language panegyric packs sufficient incident for a dozen Hollywood movies. On the eve of her wedding day, a young woman (call her X) is mistakenly kidnapped by a brothel madam-the madam was supposed to pick up the woman’s sister, but never mind. Their car smashes into a tree, and X escapes her pursuers. She promptly meets a man (call him Y) dressed as a woman; he was once a prominent singer of female roles in music drama, but now that the form has been sexually integrated, he’s out of a job. After X is raped by a motorcycle gang, Y convinces her that she will be safe only if she too becomes a cross-dresser. Some stolen khakis, a haircut, a fake moustache and voila! He’s a woman, she’s a man. Tootsie <\/em>times two.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Square Circle <\/em>was, alas, shown with 20 minutes of songs cut out. But the film\u2019s pulse and generosity are still evident. The singer (played with poignancy by Bandit Queen\u2019s Nirmal Pandey) gets drawn into romance but never has to renounce his gayness. The coming of age of the young woman is limned with wit and affection.\u00a0 Hats off to screenwriter Timeri Murari.<\/u> – Richard Corliss, TIME<\/strong> magazine.<\/p>

. – Writer Timeri N. Murari offers an Indian film that does constitute some kind of break through, examining sexual identity and gender stereotyping.\u00a0 This strange, sad road movie of sorts delicately probes complex issues, showing that marriage, can be a blessing and a trap, and that relationships are often forged at the intersection of romance, duty and companionship. THE OBSERVER.<\/p>

-\u201c this is an intriguing film when Murari’s script is allowed to take wing…\u201d\u00a0 Derek Malcolm, THE<\/strong> GUARDIAN<\/strong>.<\/p>

-\u201c Timeri Murari’s film puts the melos<\/em> back into melodrama and the sense (and sensitivity) into sensationalism.\u201d Nigel Andrews, THE<\/strong> FINANCIAL<\/strong> TIMES<\/strong>.<\/p>

On <\/strong>this evidence, rural India isn’t exactly a cosseting environment for single women. Sonali Kulkarni’s unnamed protagonist has the misfortune to be kidnapped into prostitution by a Madame and her henchmen, then gang-raped by a trio of macho louts when she’s plucky enough to escape. Unlikely salvation is at hand, however, in the form of transvestite Nirmal Pandey, a wandering entertainer who has himself obviously been around. Having found his own identity through dressing as a woman, he comes up with the idea of putting her in men’s clothes so that they can pass as a ‘straight’ couple and travel the country roads in relative safety on the return trek to her home village.<\/p>

Certainly, screenwriter Timeri N. Murari has come up with a richly resonant central conceit, but the real excitement is that you simply don’t expect to see it in popular Indian cinema, an area thus far off limits for UK distributors and audiences alike<\/p>

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Amol Palekar’s direction is relatively restrained for Bollywood (the dance number has been cut for this print), but pretty rough and ready to Western eyes, though once you adjust it’s easy to get caught up in the way it plays every emotion to the hilt.\u00a0 It’s the film’s thematic daring that’s scintillating, though, as it explores the tension between sexual identity and social circumstance in a staunchly traditional society which offers little room for manoeuvre. While Kulkarni draws our sympathy, it’s Pandey’s caring, pragmatic, worldly-wise performance as the resourceful tranny that really draws you into the film’s imaginative sphere. Forget your preconceptions about Hindi cinema; this takes us on a touching, witty, always surprising journey through terrain that\u2019s unfamiliar and human dilemmas that aren’t. Quite an achievement, in any language. Trevor Johnston <\/em>TIME<\/strong> OUT <\/strong>(London)<\/p>

-The film\u2019s triumphs are its brilliant script \u2013 written by Timeri N. Murari- and its actors. Nirmal Pandey though uncomfortable in the love scenes is witty and feminine. Sonali Kulkarni, with a Smita Patel-like sensuousness, is equally moving. \u2013INDIA<\/strong> TODAY<\/strong><\/p>

– The beauty of the film is a mixture of the story\u2019s simplicity and the more complex issues it draws upon. what does it mean to be a man or a woman? Can we quell sexual longing in favour of companionship? A\u00a0 moving and meditative film, The Square Circle plays quiet testimony to the talents of filmmakers on the fringes of commercial cinema. ASIAN<\/strong> ENTERTAINMENT.<\/strong><\/p>

– But this is mostly a sensitive exploration of sexual identity in a country where such issues aren\u2019t open to negotiation. Special mention goes to the delightful Nirmal Pandey, it takes an actor of considerable talent to elicit sympathy. THE<\/strong> INDEPENDENT<\/strong>.<\/p>

–<\/strong>One fears that the writer Timeri N. Murari is going to backtrack, but, although the conclusion involves a death, the film rights itself in a last scene, which, reassessing the truth the film-makers wish to convey, is handled with dignity and conviction. THE<\/strong> GAY<\/strong> TIMES<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>

Opened<\/u> at Curzon, West End, distributor Blue Dolphin.\u00a0 Opened Paris, Distributor Avanti.\u00a0 Sold to Denmark, Australian, Swedish, Nippon TV.\u00a0 BBC-TV.<\/p>

FESTIVALS<\/u><\/strong>: Winner of Grand Prix at Festival de Valenciennes, France.\u00a0 Also shown at Toronto, The Hamptons, London, Melbourne, Copenhagen, Oslo, New York, Vancouver film festivals.

I also wrote, directed and produced a short film : THE ONLY THING.

In 1978\/79 wrote the documentary trilogy ONLY AN AMERICA \u2013 The Last Cowboy, Goin\u2019 Home, Detectives,. Directed by Michael Houldey, produced by Thames Television, London,<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

THE SQUARE CIRCLE (Daayra, Hindi & French title). Writer\/Producer Tmeri N Murari TIME MAGAZINE: One of the ten best films of the year 1997. Director: Amol Palekar Screenplay: Timeri N […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3259","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3259","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3259"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3259\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5432,"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3259\/revisions\/5432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/websprintersdemo.in\/blogs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3259"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}