Me

 

GAUTAMAN BHASKARAN’S RESUME

I am a film and theatre critic, columnist and author having worked in two of India’s best regarded daily newspapers, The Statesman in Kolkata (Calcutta) and The Hindu in Chennai (Madras), for 35 years.

I am now a columnist for the Hindustan Times, News 18 of the CNIBN and a movie critic for Arab News.

I also contribute to The Seoul Times. 

I have been writing on regional cinema, including reviews of Tamil and Malayalam movies.

This is apart from my stories on world cinema and Bollywood. 

I have been covering major film festivals, including Cannes (29 years), Venice (18 years) and Berlin. I have also been writing from festivals such as Beijing, Melbourne, Stuttgart, Deauville, Tokyo, Fukuoka, Cairo, Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Doha, El Gouna, Marrakech and several in India (Mumbai, Goa, Kerala, Pune, Bengaluru, Kerala and New Delhi).

Cannes celebrated 70 years. And published a special book to commemorate its 70 years by asking 70 world journalists to write – each on a particular year. I have contributed a chapter, and the volume was released at the end of April 2017.

My authorised biography of India’s auteur director, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, was published by Penguin/Viking. A paperback edition is also out. This has an additional chapter on Adoor’s latest work, Pinneyum (Once Again) – which came after an eight-year hiatus. 

I have served on several international film juries — New Delhi, Pune, Melbourne, Venice, Deauville, Abu Dhabi, Silk Road at Fuzhou and others. I have been on the Indian National Book Jury. I have also served on Indian Panorama juries.

I was India Editor of Free Malaysia Today in Kuala Lumpur .

I also wrote for Asia Times and Gulf Times (10 years).

Earlier, I reviewed films for Screen International, London, and The Hollywood Reporter in the USA. I not only reviewed Indian movies for them but also foreign films in major international movie festivals, such as Venice, Deauville and Marrakech. 

I also wrote for Variety, and was Variety Arabia’s India Correspondent for many years. 

I also did stories for the Gulf News and Khaleej Times.

I was a long-time contributor to The Japan Times, Japan’s leading English newspaper, in fact for more than 10 years from 1999. 

In 2008, I completed my 25-year tenure with the English language newspaper, The Hindu, in Chennai , where I wrote editorials, comments, reviews and features on a wide range of subjects, such as environment, wildlife, health, children, history, heritage, archaeology, advertisement, fashion, cinema and theatre. 

Earlier, I worked with The Statesman in Kolkata for 10 years. This was my first assignment.

I have written features and editorials on Kolkata rickshaw-pullers, Kolkata trams, Kolkata Chinese, circus industry, pollution, AIDS, mental illness, alcoholism, smoking, tiger and elephant poaching, history, archaeology, civic affairs and on cities like Venice, Florence, Rome, Amsterdam, Paris, Cannes and others. 

I have been travelling widely both within the country and outside on a variety of journalistic assignments. I have done spot reporting on and interviews with several organisations, including UNESCO in Paris, Sorbonne University also in Paris, Globe Theatre in London, Belgian Centre of Comic Strip Art in Brussels and Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum. 

I have met and written about personalities as varied as Mulk Raj Anand, R.K. Narayan, Barbara Cartland, R.K. Laxman, Mario Miranda, Sudhir Dar, E.P. Unny, Alyque and Pearl Padamsee, Tom Ford, Pierre Cardin, Rohit Bal, Ritu Beri, Gemini Ganesh, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Nandita Das, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Aishwarya Rai, Amitabh Bachchan, Sidney Poitier, Pedro Almodovar, Lars Von Trier, Jane Campion, Ang Lee, Ken Loach, Girish Kasaravalli, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Aravindan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Shyam Benegal, Anurag Kashyap, Mani Ratnam, Kamal Hassan and others.

I grew up in Kolkata, went to school and college there and worked for The Statesman for 10 years under British editors before joining The Hindu in Chennai in 1984. It is in Kolkata that I developed a passion for meaningful cinema: I had this fascinating opportunity of watching Satyajit Ray closely at work, and the fact that his son, Sandip, and I were classmates at St. Xavier’ s College helped me to nurture my association with the great Master.

I can speak, read and write Bengali, Hindi and Tamil (my mother tongue). I can understand Malayalam. I work in English.

In 2001, I was invited by The Japan Foundation (under the Japanese Foreign Ministry) for a fellowship to study modern Japanese cinema. I stayed in Japan for six months and did detailed research, meeting tens of Japanese producers, directors and actors. I wrote several articles on Japan for The Hindu.

I have taught cinema/communication skills at Karnataka’s Manipal University and English/journalism/cinema at Chennai’s Loyola College.

My writings may be seen on my website: http://www.gautamanbhaskaran.com

Gautaman Bhaskaran

Film Critic, Arab News 

Writer/Columnist, Hindustan Times in India and News 18 of CNN

Emailgautamanb@hotmail.com

gautamanb@gmail.com

Mobile + 91 98410 29426 

Telephone + 91 44 43238286

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