Siddheshwari | |
---|---|
Directed by | Mani Kaul |
Produced by | Films Division |
Written by | Mani Kaul |
Starring | Meeta Vashisht, Muhar Biswas, Ranjana Srivastava, Shravani Mukherjee |
Cinematography | Piyush Shah |
Edited by | Lalitha Krishna |
Release date
|
1989 |
Running time
|
123 minutes (without cuts), 92 minutes (with cuts) |
Country | India |
Language | Hindi |
Siddheshwari is a 1989 Hindi documentary film directed by Mani Kaul. It is a cine-profile of Siddheshwari Devi, a well-known classical singer from Varanasi, India.
The film was awarded the National Award for the Best Documentary for that year in India.
Srikanth Srinivisan wrote in The Hindu that in Siddheshwari, instead of simply presenting biographical details or passively documenting the singer’s artistry, Kaul turns the genre of cine-profile inside out, amalgamating literary, theatrical, musical and cinematic forms together to construct an experience of music. "The sprawling film blends multiple timelines, realities and geographies to sketch a unique portrait of the artist," he wrote.
In a review for The New York Times, Caryn James compared the film with an abstract painting, "wildly open to interpretation". Siddheshwari is "beautifully photographed but impenetrable," he wrote.