''English, August'' is a 1994 Indian English-language

black comedy Black comedy, also known as black humor, bleak comedy, dark comedy, dark humor, gallows humor or morbid humor, is a style of comedy that makes light of subject matter that is generally considered taboo, particularly subjects that are normally ...

film and director

Dev Benegal Dev Benegal is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter, most known for his debut film ''English, August (film), English, August'' (1994), which won the National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English, Best Feature Film in English at the 42nd ...

's first feature film. A humorous and irreverent study of bureaucracy and the Indian

Generation X Generation X (often shortened to Gen X) is the Demography, demographic Cohort (statistics), cohort following the Baby Boomers and preceding Millennials. Researchers and popular media often use the mid-1960s as its starting birth years and the ...

, ''English, August'' won several awards at international film festivals. ''English, August'' became the first Indian independent film to break the stranglehold of mainstream Indian

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

cinema when it was acquired by

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc., formerly 20th Century Fox, is an American film studio, film production and Film distributor, distribution company owned by the Walt Disney Studios (division), Walt Disney Studios, the film studios division of the ...

and became a theatrical success in the country. This has led the way for other low budget, independent movies such as ''

Bombay Boys ''Bombay Boys'' is a 1998 Indian crime comedy film written and directed by the Indian director Kaizad Gustad. It follows the adventures of three young men in modern-day Mumbai (or Bombay). The boys are of Indian origin, but were all raised in t ...

'' and ''

Split Wide Open ''Split Wide Open'' is a 1999 Indian film directed by Dev Benegal. It is his second feature film after ''English, August (film), English, August'' (1994). The film primarily deals with the Water conflicts in the slums of Bombay, and paedophilia, ...

'', which are part of the next generation of "middle cinema". The film is based on the novel of the same name by

Upamanyu Chatterjee Upamanyu Chatterjee (born 1959) is an author and a retired Indian civil servant. His works include the novel '' English, August: An Indian story'', '' The Last Burden'', '' The Mammaries of the Welfare State'' and ''Weight Loss''. In 2008, he wa ...

. The negatives of the film were spoiled due to flooding at a storage facility of

Prasad Studios Prasad Studios and Prasad Film Labs are motion picture post-production studios headquartered in Chennai, India, founded by Prasad Group in 1956. The production house has produced over 150 films in Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam and Hindi ...

. There was an unsuccessful attempt at restoration, following which the film was declared a

lost film A lost film is a feature film, feature or short film in which the original negative or copies are not known to exist in any studio archive, private collection, or public archive. Films can be wholly or partially lost for a number of reasons. ...

. In February 2020, a copy of the film was found in the National Film Archives of India. Since the film reel is a 35 mm print, the restoration process has begun. However, restoration was brought to a halt in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Plot summary

Agastya Sen ( Rahul Bose), nicknamed "English, August", speaks and thinks in English. A lover of poetry, he listens to

Bob Dylan Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan; born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Described as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture over his nearly 70-year ...

Miles Davis Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th century music, 20th-century music. Davis ado ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

and

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

and reads

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. He is also an

Indian Administrative Service The Indian Administrative Service (IAS) is the Public administration, administrative arm of the All India Services of Government of India. The IAS is one of the three All India Services along with the Indian Police Service (IPS) and the Indian ...

Officer, a member of the most influential and powerful cadre of civil servants in India. He is sent off for a year's training to Madna, the hottest town in the country. Culture shock and a language barrier in his own country follows (August's mother tongue is

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

). He feels like a foreigner, but must survive. Moreover, August is surrounded by wild characters: Srivastava, the pompous head bureaucrat and his wife Malti, the fashion and cultural leader of the town; Sathe, a local pothead and cartoonist; Kumar, the Police Superintendent and connoisseur of porn films; and Vasant, the world's worst cook. August negotiates this provincial creek with the only paddle he can find; Fantasy, daydreams and "self-abuse" become his means of revolt and escape as he escapes from the heat into the mystery and quiet of his secret world of erotic fantasy and contemplation.

Cast

* Rahul Bose as Agastya "August" Sen * Salim Shah as Ravi Srivastava *

Tanvi Azmi Tanvi Azmi is an Indian film and television actress. She is known for her roles in '' Akele Hum Akele Tum'' (1995), ''Bajirao Mastani'' (2015), '' Thappad'' (2020) and ''Tribhanga'' (2021). Early life and career She was born to Marathi-Hindi ...

as Malti Srivastava * Shivaji Satham as Govind Sathe * Yogendra Tiku as SP Kumar *

Virendra Saxena Virendra Saxena (born 23 November 1961) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi theatre, film, and television. He is an alumnus of the National School of Drama. Saxena is known for his character roles as well as his unique voice. He has acted i ...

as Laxman Shankar * Mita Vashisht as Sita Avery * Paromita Vohra as Neera

Reception

Reviewing the film at the International Film Festival of India, S. R. Ashok Kumar of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It was founded as a weekly publication in 1878 by the Triplicane Six, becoming a daily in 1889. It is one of the India ...

'' wrote that "For a debutant the director's work passes muster".

Awards and recognition

* Won the Silver Montgolfiere and the Gilberto Martinez Solares prize for the Best First Film at the 1994 Festival des 3 continents * Won the Best Feature Film in English at the 1995

National Film Awards The National Film Awards are awards for artistic and technical merit given for "Excellence within the Cinema of India, Indian film industry". Established in 1954, it has been administered, along with the International Film Festival of India ...

, India * Won a Special Jury Prize at the 1994 Torino International Festival of Young Cinema

Soundtrack

The original soundtrack for the film is composed by D. Wood and consists of the following

instrumental An instrumental or instrumental song is music without any vocals, although it might include some inarticulate vocals, such as shouted backup vocals in a big band setting. Through Semantic change, semantic widening, a broader sense of the word s ...

tracks.http://www.tropicfilm.com/ English, August audio-video goodies page * "August Blues" * "By the Sea" * "Title Theme" * "Welcome to Madna" * "End Titles"

Notes

External links

Dev Benegal Weblog
*

{{National Film Award Best Feature Film English 1990s English-language films 1990s rediscovered films 1990s satirical films 1994 comedy films 1994 directorial debut films 1994 films 20th Century Fox films Best English Feature Film National Film Award winners English-language Indian films Films based on Indian novels Indian comedy films Indian satirical films Rediscovered Indian films