Baradwaj Rangan is an
Indian film critic, writer, and formerly the deputy editor of ''
The Hindu''. He later became a senior editor of
Film Companion. Rangan won the
National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. Before joining ''The Hindu'', Rangan wrote for ''
The New Indian Express
''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
''. He has also authored two books, worked as a screenwriter, and is a teacher at the
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai
The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism.
History
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, Ba ...
.
Career
Baradwaj Rangan had no formal training in filmmaking or cinema writing.
He is a
chemical engineering
Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...
graduate from
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani
Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a Deemed university in Pilani, Jhunjhunu, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has b ...
.
According to him, it was a time when "parents considered only
medicine
Medicine is the science and Praxis (process), practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, Preventive medicine, prevention, therapy, treatment, Palliative care, palliation of their injury or disease, and Health promotion ...
or engineering" to be "serious professions", that he did not have interest but continued with it anyway.
Rangan claims that he was fascinated with writing and liked reading critical analyses on
world cinema, especially those by American critics.
He was selected for a workshop by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Mumbai which led to him having a stint as a copywriter with
J. Walter Thompson in Chennai.
After that, Rangan received a full scholarship from the
Marquette University
Marquette University () is a Private university, private Society of Jesus, Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Henni, John Martin ...
,
Milwaukee
Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County, Wisconsin, Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at th ...
for a
Master's degree
A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice. in Advertising and Public relations, focusing on Internet advertising. Later, Rangan worked as an
IT Consultant in the United States for about five years. He still had the urge to write and started reviewing films for the website ''sitagita.com''.
That was when he was noticed by Sushila Ravindranath, then the editor of ''The New Sunday Express'', the Sunday edition of ''
The New Indian Express
''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...
''. Rangan worked there for two years,
before shifting to ''
The Hindu'', which he became the deputy editor of. Rangan also wrote for the magazine ''
Tehelka'', while still working at ''The New Indian Express''. His first review was of the Hindi film ''
Dum'', published on 30 January 2003 in the ''Madras Plus'' supplement of ''
The Economic Times
''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language b ...
''.
Rangan has authored two books: ''Conversations with Mani Ratnam'' (2012), wherein he interviews film director
Mani Ratnam
Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six Nat ...
on the perspectives of his films,
and ''Dispatches From The Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema'' (2014), which he describes as a "panoramic view of Indian cinema". He also wrote an essay in ''Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation'' (2014). Rangan made his debut as a dialogue writer with ''
Kadhal 2 Kalyanam'', which never saw a theatrical release. He later wrote the screenplay for ''
Kalki
Kalki ( sa, कल्कि), also called Kalkin or Karki, is the prophesied tenth and final incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu. He is described to appear in order to end the Kali Yuga, one of the four periods in the endless cycle of exis ...
'', a 2017 release. He also teaches a course on cinema at the
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai
The Asian College of Journalism (ACJ) is a journalism school in Chennai, India, which offers postgraduate diploma courses in journalism.
History
Asian College of Journalism, Chennai was founded in Bangalore as the Asian School of Journalism, Ba ...
, and has interviewed notable personalities like producer/writer
G. Dhananjayan
G. Dhananjayan (born 14 May 1965) is a film producer, columnist, and author of four books on Indian films and also Won 2 National Film Awards. He has produced films in the Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Hindi languages, including ''Sankat City'' ...
, and director
Gautham Vasudev Menon. Rangan wrote the English narrative for the 2014 play ''Meghadootam: The Cloud Messenger''. A short story written by him, ''The Call'', was published in ''The Indian Quarterly'' magazine. As of 2017, Rangan was the editor of ''
Film Companion South'', and left in 2022. He is also a member of the
Film Critics Circle of India.
In October 2018, Rangan was a guest speaker at
India Film Project
IFP ''(Previously India Film Project)'' is a content festival held in Mumbai, India. The festival features a flagship 50 Hour Filmmaking Challenge, where participants are given 50 hours to make a film after which a panel of judges select award ...
where he discussed about a critic's job and the role of criticism in the 'Insta Generation' along with critics
Rajeev Masand and
Vikramaditya Motwane
Vikramaditya Motwane (born 6 December 1976) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He is known for films like '' Udaan'' (2010), '' Lootera'' (2013) and ''AK vs AK'' (2020).
His directorial debut '' ...
.
Awards
At the
53rd National Film Awards
The 53rd National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2005.
The selection process of ...
which took place in 2006, Rangan won in the
Best Film Critic category. The citation given to him by the jury of the 53rd National Film Awards reads, "The Award is presented for intelligent and reader-friendly reviews of popular cinema with a depth of understanding of the form, a discernible passion for the medium bulwarked consistently by a knowledge of the trends and touchstones of global cinema."
In 2013, Arul Mani of ''Tehelka'' described Rangan as "far and away the most intelligent writer we have in India when it comes to cinema".
Works
* ''
Conversations with Mani Ratnam
''Conversations with Mani Ratnam'' is a 2012 Indian biographical book by the film critic and author Baradwaj Rangan, focusing on the career of the Tamil filmmaker Mani Ratnam. The book contains conversations between Rangan and Ratnam, discussin ...
'' (2012)
Penguin UK,
* ''Dispatches from the Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema'' (2014) Westland,
References
External links
*
Baradwaj Ranganat
Penguin India
{{DEFAULTSORT:Rangan, Baradwaj
Best Critic National Film Award winners
Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani alumni
English writers
Indian film critics
Indian male journalists
Living people
Writers from Chennai
Year of birth missing (living people)