Remembering V Shantaram, on the legendary filmmaker’s 118th birth anniversary today.

Remembering V Shantaram, on the legendary filmmaker’s 118th birth anniversary today.
Rarely has the cinema — Indian or international — seen a filmmaker as complete as V Shantaram. A consummate actor, an innovative editor, an insightful director, and a producer. He was a filmmaker of many talents and evolved a new style of filmmaking and grammar. As an actor, he played the lead in at least two of India’s landmark films, which he also directed. As a producer, his films dealt with the social, economic and political problems of a society struggling under colonial rule and then as a country trying to establish its place as a nation.
He made his directorial debut during the silent cinema, established his reputation during the early talkie era and became a legend in his own lifetime. Over the decades he produced 92 films, directed 55 films and acted in 25 films.