English, August (1994)

Directed by

Dev Benegal

Genre

comedy, drama

Country

India

Runtime

1h 58m

Rating

8.3 of 10 from 3 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young man navigates the absurdities of working as a civil servant in a small Indian town. The film follows his daily life and his bored, cynical reactions to the bureaucracy around him.

satiricalirreverenthumorousobservationaldryoffbeatbureaucraticrelaxed

What happens

English, August is a 1994 Indian English-language satirical comedy film and director Dev Benegal's first feature film. A humorous and irreverent study of bureaucracy and the Indian Generation X, English, August won several awards at international film festivals. English, August became the first Indian independent film to break the stranglehold of mainstream Indian Bollywood cinema when it was acquired by 20th Century Fox and became a theatrical success in the country. This has led the way for other low budget, independent movies such as Bombay Boys and Split Wide Open, which are part of the next generation of "middle cinema". The film is based on the novel of the same name by Upamanyu Chatterjee. The negatives of the film were spoiled due to flooding at a storage facility of Prasad Studios. There was an unsuccessful attempt at restoration, following which the film was declared a lost film. In February 2020, a 35 mm print of the film was found in the National Film Archives of India. On 3rd July 2026, Film Heritage Foundation announced that it was restoring the film in 4K, and that it would have its world premiere at the 83rd Venice International Film Festival. As per Variety magazine, English, August is the second film in the "Venice Classics" lineup. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

More like this

• Veettai Paaru Naattai Paaru (1994)
• Pathavi Pramanam (1994)
• Njan Kodiswaran (1994)
• Cabinet (1994)
• Vietnam Colony (1994)
• Varavu Ettana Selavu Pathana (1994)
• Veetla Visheshanga (1994)
• Lucky Chance (1994)