The Ritual
(Ghatashraddha)

At the 2009 centenary of Indian cinema, this first feature film by Girish Kasaravalli includes the list of the best twenty films of its history. Made when he was aged 27, when he had just graduated from the FTII in Pune and was taking his first steps as an assistant director for the great B. V. Karanth, The Ritual caused a lively stir and attests to the place held by Kannada-language films in the artistic renewal of Indian cinema. At the crossroads of highly diverse influences (S. Ray, A. Kurosawa or Italian neorealism), The Ritual has now come back to life thanks to the Film Heritage Foundation, supported by the Georges Lucas and Melody Hobson Foundation along with Martin Scorsese’s World Cinema Project. JB