Rahul Bose Movies

A soft-spoken Kolkata office clerk finds his thoughts drifting into his peaceful past as his powerful father and newly successful wife spawn feelings of social inadequacy in this playful but satirical family drama from acclaimed Indian dramatist Buddhadeb Dasgupta. The presence of Sumanta's (Rahul Bose) influential father looming constantly over his every move, the lowly clerical worker soon finds his home life bearing down on him as well. As Sumanta's wife, Supriya (Sameera Reddy), basks in the success of her new book about France, which she researched entirely by watching a videotape about the City of Lights, the underachieving Sumanta becomes increasingly lost in his memories. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

The sophomore feature effort of documentary filmmaker Dev Benegal is this portrait of the changing culture of modern-day Bombay. KP (Rahul Bose) is a small-time hustler working for the "Water Mafia," which sells well water from poor neighborhoods to the rich. He adores his ten-year-old adopted sister, who ekes out a meager living selling flowers at traffic intersections. When KP runs afoul of the Water Godfather, he is promptly dumped from the ring and beaten to a pulp. More frighteningly, his sister mysteriously disappears. Meanwhile, British-educated Nandita (Laila Rouass), who has just returned to India, hosts a popular talk show in which anonymous participants reveal their most intimate sexual secrets. As KP continues his desperate search for his missing sibling, he and Nandita begin an affair that never could have happened during India's more tradition-minded past. Split Wide Open was screened at the 1999 Venice Film Festival and the 1999 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

A New Yorker, an Australian, and an Englishman return to their birthplace, Bombay India, in hopes of finding their identities and reorganizing their lives. All three arrive at the same time and end up sharing the same flat. Krishna, the American, has come back in hopes of launching a successful acting career in movies. He gets his big break when local gangster-turned-producer Matsana hires Krishna to appear in a musical extravaganza. Kris has no idea that Matsana desperately wants the movie to flop so he can reap big profits. The Englishman Xerxes is a flautist wrestling with his sexual identity. He knows that he is gay but is having trouble deciding whether or not to be open about it. The lonely apartment owner Persi is definitely homosexual and finds himself attracted to Xerxes. The third roommate, former Sydney resident Fernandes, has come to Bombay to search for his estranged brother. A complex mixture of slapstick, violence and sentiment coupled with a spoof on Indian masala movies, the film follows the three disparate protagonists as lives collide and split apart in increasingly chaotic ways. The first feature of NYU Film School-trained Kaizad Gustad, the film casts an eye upon the Bollywood (Bombay-based Indian Hollywood) film industry via an "A"-rate gangster and a "B"-Grade producer. The whole point is to show that India is not what it is supposed to be. Mobile phones have replaced Mantras, and Coca-Cola has taken over Karma. Bombay Boys has received attention in Toronto, Vancouver and London Film Festivals, but its real success is bound to be in the circuit it parodies, namely the commercial Bollywood cinema. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Confronted with the Kafka-esque complexity of the Indian bureaucratic hierarchy after being transferred to the provinces, an open-minded urbanite struggles with the hopelessness and despair of being dislocated and misunderstood in this semi-absurdist drama starring Indian art-house icon Rahule Bose. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide