Mani Kaul

Mani Kaul Biography

Mani Kaul was an influential director of Hindi cinema and one among the three great directors who initiated new wave movement (parallel cinema) in Indian film industry, the other two renowned directors being Basu Chatterjee and Mrinal Sen. Mani Kaul’s Uski Roti, Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvam Shome and Basu Chatterjee’s Sara Akash were released in the same year 1969 thus creating a milestone in Indian cinema – a new generation of art cinema what we call parallel cinema. The same year the movie Aradhana was also released which gave new direction to Hindi cinema as well as the careers of Kishore Kumar, R. D. Burman and Rajesh Khanna. Thus the last year of the 1960’s decade saw the emergence of a new direction of cinema both in art form as well as commercial in extreme opposite swings. Four of his films have won Filmfare critics award for best movie- Uski roti, Ashad Ka Ek Din, Duvidha and Idiot. He was one of those directors who gave debut movie to King Khan – Idiot in 1992.  

Mani was born as Rabindranath Kaul on 25 December 1944 in Jodhpur. His uncle was actor-director Mahesh Kaul who gave magic entry to south Indian Hema Malini to Hindi movies, through Sapnom ka saudagar. Graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Mani Kaul debut direction with the movie – Uski Roti in 1969. Mani Kaul received the 1970 Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie. This movie is considered a seminal work of the Indian New Wave and one of the early formal experimental films in Indian cinema.

In 1971, he released his second movie, Ashadh Ka Ek Din based on the short play written by Mohan Rakesh. This movie gave him second critics’ award at Filmfare. He made his first colour movie in the year 1973 – Duvidha. Surprisingly his third movie too gave him critics’ award thus placing him as one of the popular choice of critics. But he got his fourth and last critics’ award only in 1992 with the movie – Idiot, based on the novel written by Fyodor Dostoevsky. In 1971, he was a member of the jury at the 21st Berlin International Film Festival.

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Updated: January 25, 2014