''Appunti per un film sull'India'' (English: ''Notes for a Film on India'') is a 1968 short documentary film by

Pier Paolo Pasolini Pier Paolo Pasolini (; 5 March 1922 – 2 November 1975) was an Italian poet, filmmaker, writer and intellectual who also distinguished himself as a journalist, novelist, translator, playwright, visual artist and actor. He is considered one of ...

where he visits India to do a recce for his proposed film with India as its background about a king who gives up his body to feed a starving tiger. The film was shot around post-independent India when it was facing grave challenges of poverty, population and caste system. Pasolini narrates the challenges of India and its charms amidst all the problems the country faces. The 33-minute-long documentary is composed of short interviews from random people about their opinions on matters such as family planning. The documentary also shows short interviews of journalists and one politician about the challenges India faces in modernizing itself without becoming westernized or losing the Indian identity in the process. The film opens and ends with a shot of a Sikh soldier, who, Pasolini identifies, in his commentary, as the one who would play the role of Maharaja in his film. Among others Pasolini interviewed for his film the former Maharaja of Bhavanagar and his wife and well-known

Urdu Urdu (;"Urdu"
'' Rajinder Singh Bedi Rajinder Singh Bedi (1 September 1915 – 1984) was an Indian Urdu writer of the Progressive Writers' Movement, progressive writers' movement and a playwright, who later worked in Hindi cinema as a film director, screenwriter and dialogue writer ...

. The documentary was shot in many places including

New Delhi New Delhi (, , ''Naī Dillī'') is the capital of India and a part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament Ho ...

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. , the city had a population of 3.1 million, making it the tenth most populous city in the country. Jaipur is also known ...

, Rishikesh and

Varanasi Varanasi (; ; also Banaras or Benares (; ), and Kashi.) is a city on the Ganges river in northern India that has a central place in the traditions of pilgrimage, death, and mourning in the Hindu world. * * * * The city has a syncretic t ...

etc.

References

External links

* Films directed by Pier Paolo Pasolini Italian short documentary films Documentary films about poverty 1968 films 1968 documentary films Documentary films about India 1960s short documentary films 1968 in Italian television 1960s Italian films {{short-documentary-film-stub