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Baradwaj Rangan

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Baradwaj Rangan
Baradwaj Rangan in 2014
Alma materBITS Pilani
Occupation(s)Film critic, writer
Years active2003–present
AwardsNational Film Award for Best Film Critic
WebsiteOfficial website

Baradwaj Rangan (/ˈbərəðwɑːdʒ ˈrənɡən/) is an Indian film critic and writer. A chemical engineering graduate with no formal training in filmmaking or cinema writing, he has a diverse career in advertising, IT consulting, and cinema writing. He has authored two books on Indian cinema, written for The New Indian Express, The Hindu, and Tehelka, and has also been a screenwriter.

As a film critic, Rangan won the Best Film Critic category at the 53rd National Film Awards in 2006. He was the editor of Film Companion South until 2022 and is a member of the Film Critics Circle of India. Rangan currently works as a critic and chief editor for Galatta Plus and runs a Spotify podcast Cinema With Baradwaj Rangan.

Career

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Baradwaj Rangan had no formal training in filmmaking or cinema writing.[1] He is a chemical engineering graduate from BITS Pilani (1988–1992).[2][3] According to him, it was a time when "parents considered only medicine or engineering" to be "serious professions", that he did not have interest but continued with it anyway.[1] He notes that he was fascinated with writing and liked reading critical analyses on world cinema, especially those by American critics.[1] Rangan was selected for a workshop by the Advertising Agencies Association of India (AAAI), Mumbai which led to him having a stint as a copywriter with J. Walter Thompson in Chennai.[1][2] After that, Rangan received a full scholarship from the Marquette University, Milwaukee for a Master's degree in Advertising and Public relations, focusing on Internet advertising. Later, Rangan worked as an IT consultant in the United States for about five years.[1][2]

Film critic

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Rangan still had the urge to write and started reviewing films for the website sitagita.com.[2] That was when he was noticed by Sushila Ravindranath, then the editor of The New Sunday Express, the Sunday edition of The New Indian Express. Rangan worked there for two years,[1] before shifting to The Hindu, which he became the deputy editor of.[4] Rangan also wrote for the magazine Tehelka, while still working at The New Indian Express.[5] His first review was of the Hindi film Dum, published on 30 January 2003 in the Madras Plus supplement of The Economic Times.[6] Rangan has authored two books: Conversations with Mani Ratnam (2012), wherein he interviews film director Mani Ratnam on the perspectives of his films,[7][8] and Dispatches From The Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema (2014),[9] which he describes as a "panoramic view of Indian cinema".[10] He also wrote an essay in Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation (2014).[11]

Rangan made his debut as a dialogue writer with Kadhal 2 Kalyanam,[12] which never saw a theatrical release.[13] He later wrote the screenplay for Kalki, a 2017 release.[14] He also teaches a course on cinema at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.[15] Rangan wrote the English narrative for the 2014 play Meghadootam: The Cloud Messenger.[16] A short story written by him, The Call, was published in The Indian Quarterly magazine.[17]

As of 2017, Rangan was the editor of Film Companion South,[18] and left in 2022.[19] He is also a member of the Film Critics Circle of India.[20] In October 2018, Rangan was a guest speaker at India Film Project where he discussed about a critic's job and the role of criticism in the 'Insta Generation' along with critics Rajeev Masand and Vikramaditya Motwane.[21][22] He currently works as a critic and chief editor for Galatta Plus.[23] He also runs a Spotify podcast Cinema With Baradwaj Rangan.[24] He played a cameo as himself in the 2018 film Seethakaathi and the 2023 video anthology series Modern Love Chennai, and played an antagonist in the 2024 film Weapon.[25][26][27]

Awards

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At the 53rd National Film Awards which took place in 2006, Rangan won in the Best Film Critic category. The citation given to him by the jury of the 53rd National Film Awards reads, "The Award is presented for intelligent and reader-friendly reviews of popular cinema with a depth of understanding of the form, a discernible passion for the medium bulwarked consistently by a knowledge of the trends and touchstones of global cinema."[2] In 2013, Arul Mani of Tehelka described Rangan as "far and away the most intelligent writer we have in India when it comes to cinema".[8]

Works

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  • Conversations with Mani Ratnam (2012) Penguin UK, ISBN 9788184756906
  • Dispatches from the Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema (2014) Westland, ISBN 9789384030568

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Shekhar, Divya J. (28 March 2014). "In conversation with Baradwaj Rangan". Mandate. Archived from the original on 6 December 2015. Retrieved 6 December 2015.
  2. ^ a b c d e "53rd National Film Awards" (PDF). Directorate of Film Festivals. pp. 132–133. Archived from the original (PDF) on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 24 August 2014.
  3. ^ "BITS Pilani Batch of 1988 ClassNotes". Sandpaper. 2004. Archived from the original on 1 May 2024. Retrieved 1 May 2024.
  4. ^ "Baradwaj Rangan". Caravan. Archived from the original on 29 September 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  5. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (11 September 2010). "What Bollywood can learn from Rajini". Tehelka. Vol. 7, no. 36. Archived from the original on 7 December 2015. Retrieved 7 December 2015.
  6. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (1 February 2018). "Southern Lights: Fifteen years, and Counting..." Film Companion. Archived from the original on 1 February 2023. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  7. ^ Guha, Aniruddha (9 December 2012). "30 years, 22 films, 1 book: 'Conversations With Mani Ratnam'". Daily News and Analysis. Archived from the original on 26 August 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  8. ^ a b Mani, Arul (24 November 2012). "Talking Pictures". Tehelka. Vol. 9, no. 47. Archived from the original on 28 October 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  9. ^ Bhatia, Sidharth (7 December 2014). "Book review: Dispatches from the Wall Corner — A book for movie lovers". Deccan Chronicle. Archived from the original on 25 April 2015. Retrieved 1 December 2015.
  10. ^ Trilok, Krishna (24 October 2014). "South's Most Wanted". Indulge Express. Archived from the original on 17 December 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  11. ^ Kamath, Sudhish (20 January 2014). "Subramaniapuram in English". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 24 January 2014. Retrieved 19 December 2015.
  12. ^ "'Kadhal 2 Kalyanam' to release finally". The Times of India. 29 March 2013. Archived from the original on 17 October 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  13. ^ Kamath, Sudhish (19 April 2014). "No country for new films". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  14. ^ Srivatsan (17 May 2017). "Kalki movie review: A low-key yet intriguing story about love and time". India Today. Archived from the original on 24 July 2017. Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  15. ^ Ford-Powell, Ken (2 January 2013). "Conversations with Mani Ratnam by Baradwaj Rangan". Paste. Archived from the original on 30 May 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2015.
  16. ^ Saranyan, Vidya (31 July 2014). "This love missive was magical". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 9 March 2021. Retrieved 28 April 2020.
  17. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (April–June 2016). "The Call". The Indian Quarterly. Archived from the original on 11 April 2019. Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  18. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj (7 April 2017). "The Mani Ratnam formula: 'Be entertaining, but remain honest to your original thought'". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 13 July 2017. Retrieved 10 May 2017.
  19. ^ Film Companion South [@fcompanionsouth] (15 March 2022). ""Iron Man exits the frame" - Thank you @baradwajrangan for everything you did to build Film Companion South. There's no one like you!" (Tweet). Retrieved 18 March 2022 – via Twitter.
  20. ^ "Members". Film Critics Circle of India. Archived from the original on 24 March 2017. Retrieved 24 March 2017.
  21. ^ "Ali Fazal, Mallika Dua to attend India Film Project". Outlook. IANS. 1 October 2018. Archived from the original on 9 April 2019. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  22. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj; Masand, Rajeev; Motwane, Vikramaditya (13 October 2018). "The Critic's job: Role of criticism in the Insta generation". India Film Project. Retrieved 9 April 2019.
  23. ^ "Baradwaj Rangan". Muck Rack. Archived from the original on 30 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  24. ^ Baradwaj Rangan [@baradwajrangan] (6 January 2023). "My new Spotify show premiered today. It's a weekly podcast. Here's the first episode" (Tweet). Retrieved 30 May 2023 – via Twitter.
  25. ^ Rangan, Baradwaj [@baradwajrangan] (19 December 2018). "A few months ago, director Balaji Tharaneetharan directed a scene with director Ram, writer Bava Chelladurai and me for Seethakathi. I wasn't sure it would make it to the final cut, but apparently it has. This is a picture from the newsroom set.#workHigh #nonActor #criticLife #Seethakathi". Archived from the original on 29 June 2024. Retrieved 29 June 2024 – via Instagram.
  26. ^ Ramnath, Nandini (18 May 2023). "G 'Modern Love Chennai' review: The sweet, sticky feel of nostalgia". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 28 June 2023. Retrieved 28 June 2023.
  27. ^ @baradwajrangan (5 June 2024). "#Weapon, this Friday. Starring #Sathyaraj, #vasanthravi and #rajivmenon. I have a small role as a... baddie 😃" (Tweet) – via Twitter.
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