Bharath Karthikeyan
There are 2 ways a documentary could fail! There are those which have a catchy title which drive down a sense on what the content it could offer, but not end up fulfilling those expectations and then there are those which have an obscure title and the documentary itself ends up being obscurer featuring a non-gripping narrative which loses its viewer half-way through. "An American in Madras" picks option 2, turns it a 180 and makes a victory run!I am a late 80s born Tamilian and when I finished watching this documentary, I was left with a feeling of pride and also discontent - with my inferior knowledge on Tamil Cinema compared to what I had with those of Western Cinema. We need documentaries like these for all lost art forms(Movies from a bygone era) and Kiran Bali not only shows off his film making skills but also comes of as an historian of great credibility.Moving onto the review - The documentary portrays the life and successes of Ellis Roderick Dungan in contributing to India/Predominantly Tamil Cinema direction. The story of an American who went globe trotting in his younger days and spent 15 solid years in Tamil Nadu and making a mark as a director at a time where Tamil culture, politics and freedom fights were at the peak is truly elevating to follow and has inspired this documentary.The movie has lots of stock footage corroborated with references to those by technicians and artists who had worked along with Dungan, which by itself is a mammoth task to achieve and translate to HD! Many interviews have proper English speakers but at the same time Tamil audience can enjoy the remarks by Tamil conversationalists in between which keeps the flavor intact.Last but very importantly, I would like to thank Netflix to feature this documentary which I mostly would have given a miss considering internet's influence in rather feeding us with cute cat and dog videos! Do check this one out!
