This Wednesday, movie cataloguing social platform Letterboxd up to date its listing of high 500 movies of all time, primarily based on consumer scores. Over time, Letterboxd has carved out a distinct segment as a repository of user-generated movie evaluations, establishing credibility. Due to this fact, the listing is seen because the West’s greatest movies of all time. And whereas the listing is dominated by Hollywood and Japanese movies, Indian cinema finds a spot too, with 9 movies from numerous Indian industries featured. On the high is a traditional that has been talked about in most critics’ and publications’ lists of the highest movies.
Letterboxd’s high Indian movie
The highest Indian movie on Letterboxd is Apur Sansar, Satyajit Ray’s masterful conclusion of the Apu trilogy, which additionally contains Pather Panchali and Aparajito. The opposite two movies additionally make the listing. However it’s Apur Sansar that’s the highest-ranked Indian movie within the listing at quantity 93. Apu Trilogy is broadly thought to be one of many best movie trilogies ever, and was talked about by Time journal as one of many 100 movies to see earlier than dying in a seminal listing twenty years in the past. Solely two different Indian movies – Mom India and Nayakan – made that listing.
About Apur Sansar
Satyajit Ray is broadly thought to be the best Indian filmmaker ever. However when he started work on the Apu Trilogy in 1950, he was only a 28-year-old visible artist working in a press. Pather Panchali, the primary movie of the trilogy, was his directorial debut. Ray employed non-professional actors and an nearly completely newbie crew. He repeated his crew within the sequels Aparajito and Apur Sansar. The third movie started manufacturing in 1958 when Ray and the crew had gained some expertise, however have been nonetheless all ‘amateurs’ within the true sense of the phrase.
Apur Sansar can be remembered for its lead pair. The movie marked the debut of two actors who would go on to be display legends – Soumitra Chatterjee and Sharmila Tagore, who was solely 14 on the time. The movie not solely established the 2 actors, but in addition made them Ray’s favourites. The filmmaker collaborated with each in lots of his subsequent movies. Each would go on to win Nationwide Movie Awards. Apur Sansar, launched in 1959, was broadly acclaimed. It received the Nationwide Award for Greatest Movie and was nominated for a BAFTA Award after its abroad launch. The movie’s industrial success allowed Ray to experiment extra in a profession that might span three extra a long time.
Different Indian movies within the Letterboxd listing
There are 8 Indian movies within the Letterboxd listing aside from Apur Sansar. The highest 300 contains the opposite 2 from the Apu trilogy – Pather Panchali at 139 and Aparajito at 211. The listing additionally contains Malayalam movies Meiyazhagan (310) and Kumbalangi Nights (357); SS Rajamouli’s blockbuster RRR (324); Anurag Kashyap’s cult movie Gangs of Wasseypur 2 (339); Aamir Khan’s 3 Idiots (479); and Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s twelfth Fail (496).
Many Indian followers expressed disappointment at solely 9 Indian movies making it to the listing of 500, despite the fact that India is the very best film-producing nation on the earth. Notable omissions, as per social media customers, embody Kamal Haasan’s Nayakan, Mehboob Khan’s Mom India, and all movies by Guru Dutt.
How the listing was chosen
Letterboxd listed the standards required for a movie to be within the high 500. It mentions that movies have to be feature-length (greater than 40 minutes lengthy) with a competition premiere, theatrical distribution or skilled streaming launch. All documentaries, TV exhibits, recuts, or performs are excluded, however TV films are included. However most significantly, a movie will need to have obtained a minimal of 25000 scores on Letterboxd to be eligible. This dominated out many Indian classics.