06/05/2026
KALPANA (Uday Shankar, India 1948).
Kalpana (which means "Imagination") may have been the first Indian feature film to screen for paying audiences in the United States, although it seems to have had only six engagements--New York; Washington, DC; San Francisco; Berkeley; Los Angeles and Philadelphia--and was screened only once per city in an un-subtitled print. Audiences didn't seem to mind, however, since its internationally celebrated director/star appeared at each screening and did his best to explain the film's thin plot (based on Shankar's own life, involving a teacher operating a dance academy in the Himalayas) to the crowd as the film unspooled. Theresa Loeb, in The Oakland Tribune, reported the practice wasn't particularly successful, since "much of his explanation was lost, for the audience had to be keen just to follow the fast-paced film as it unreeled without having to listen to additional off-screen dialogue." Still, for the record, she declared the feature "immensely entertaining."
After that, Kalpana more or less disappeared for 60 years--it was never much of a success in India, although Satyajit Ray supposedly loved it--but was finally restored in the 21st century by a collective that included Cineteca di Bologna/L’Immagine Ritrovata, The Film Foundation’s World Cinema Project, the family of Uday Shankar, the National Film Archive of India and the Doha Film Institute. The film itself has, perhaps unsurprisingly, been compared to THE RED SHOES and ALL THAT JAZZ, but it's really a one of a kind work.
Sunday at 2:20PM at the Kimbell Cultural Event Center
A Co-Sponsorship with The Arts Center of Brazos Valley
Use the discount code KBTX for half-price tickets.
Click here for tickets: https://thequeensfilmsociety.org/event-6706922
Come see this dazzling dance fantasia unlike any other with your friends and future friends at The Kimbell. Best thing of all, now it has English subtitles!
