Birkbeck, University of London logo
BiRD - Birkbeck Research Data

    [EFF18S4] Session 4: Uski Roti/Mani Kaul

    Cite as: Temple, Michael and Barrington, Matthew (2023): [EFF18S4] Session 4: Uski Roti/Mani Kaul. Birkbeck College, University of London.

    Description

    Friday 23 March 2018, 20:15, ICA Cinema

    Film: A Day’s Bread [Uski Roti], Mani Kaul, India, 1970, DCP, 110 minutes, Hindi with English subtitles

    Soundcloud Link: https://soundcloud.com/user-952189740/essay-film-festival-2018-contextualising-the-films-of-mani-kaul-introduction

    Mani Kaul’s first feature, Uski Roti [A Day’s Bread], was a seminal film in defining the formal vocabulary of the New Indian cinema. Based on a short story by Hindi writer Mohan Rakesh, the film is a dramatic portrait of a Punjabi woman who, day after day, waits patiently at a bus stop for her husband, a bus driver, so that she can give him his meal, the bread she prepares for him every day. Kaul’s precise exploration of cinematic space, landscape and figure, inspired by the compositions of the Hungarian-Indian painter Amrita Sher-Gil, as well as his attention to gesture and repetition, give an extraordinary strength to this study of a woman’s life and her solitary condition. When her daily routine is interrupted, the film gradually builds a sense of suspension of time, of stillness and silence, becoming, as Mani Kaul put it, “a projection of the woman’s fantasies”.

    The film was introduced by Giulia Battaglia, University of Paris 3 – Sorbonne Nouvelle.

    In collaboration with the Courtisane Festival and the Otolith Group, and with the support of Birkbeck Institute for the Humanities and the National Film Development Corporation of India.

    Previews


    1 - EFF18S4 Introduction (EFF18S4 Mani Kaul Uski Roti introduction Giulia Battaglia 23-3-2018.MP3)

    Collection Method

    The Essay Film Festival, active since 2015, presents a global range of contemporary and restored essayistic works. The events are now archived here for research purposes.

    Data Objects

    Offline / Analogue Data Records

    There are no offline / analogue datasets associated with this record

    External Data Records

    There are no external datasets associated with this record

    Digital Data Downloads

    To download and items from this dataset, you must agree to abide by the licence attached to the individual items. If you make use of any item you download, you must also cite it in any publication or outputs of your own.

    If you have any questions or would like additional information, please contact us at researchdata@bbk.ac.uk.

    Full Archive

    Metadata

    Dataset Title:

    [EFF18S4] Session 4: Uski Roti/Mani Kaul
    Creators:

    Temple, Michael and Barrington, Matthew
    Dataset Contributors:

    ContributionNameEmailORCID
    CollaboratorMcCabe, Janetj.mccabe@bbk.ac.ukORCID logohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2916-9876
    CollaboratorYapp, Emmaeyapp01@student.bbk.ac.ukORCID logohttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-2646-6066
    Subjects:

    Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences > School of Creative Arts, Culture and Communication
    Data collection method:

    The Essay Film Festival, active since 2015, presents a global range of contemporary and restored essayistic works. The events are now archived here for research purposes.
    Collection period:

    FromTo
    23 March 201823 March 2018
    Statement on legal, ethical, and access issues:

    All film stills were provided by participating artists.
    Depositing User: Emma Yapp
    Date Deposited: 01 Sep 2026 10:07
    Last Modified: 01 Sep 2026 10:07
    Publisher: Birkbeck College, University of London

    Export / Share Citation

    Cite as: Temple, Michael and Barrington, Matthew (2023): [EFF18S4] Session 4: Uski Roti/Mani Kaul. Birkbeck College, University of London.

    Impact & Reach

    DownloadsShow export options
    Activity Overview
    6 month trend
    0Downloads
    6 month trend
    0Hits

    Additional statistics for this dataset are available via IRStats2.

    Actions

    Edit Item (Login Required)