THE NAME
First, the name “Mise-en-scène” and the meaning. It’s a French word. General meaning of Mise-en-scène is the setting of artists and the supporting backdrop elements in a film or theatre. I first came across the term while attending a film appreciation course and for me, it is the cinematic setting with artists in front of the camera. While brainstorming for the title of the blog, Mise-en-scène struck me as the most fitting one.
ENGINEER BY EDUCATION, FILMY AT HEART
Second, the creator of the blog…and what do I offer?
Hi, I am Naman Khare, an engineer by education but a huge film enthusiast at heart. My journey with cinema started back in 2016, it surprisingly and incidentally started with Ardh Satya (1983), one of my very favorite films, made by the ace filmmaker Govind Nihalani, and this led me to the stalwarts of realistic and middle-of-the-road cinema geniuses like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Girish Karnad, Mani Kaul and many more. Middle-of-the-road filmmakers include Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Basu Chatterjee, Gulzar, Asit Sen, Basu Bhattacharya, Satyen Bose, Nabendu Ghosh and many such directors who balanced the equation of art and mainstream. Eventually, I explored THE Satyajit Ray, his work, his way of developing a film, and his process of filmmaking. One can learn a great deal of filmmaking by just watching Ray’s films than having a formal education in cinema. Women filmmakers include personalities like Sai Paranjypye, who made Sparsh (1980), Aparna Sen, who also debuted as a director with the film 36 Chowringhee Lane in 1981 and one of the most courageous filmmakers Arunaraje Patil (director of Rihaee, 1988), not just an amazing filmmaker but also one of the earliest film editors in the industry. This became a never-ending journey and I continued to explore more and more films, filmmakers from our industry, western cinema, English films and so on.
SPECTATING CINEMA
Continuing on this journey of exploring cinema and films, watching them, reading about them, I got selected for a one-month-long online Film Appreciation course from Film & Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. The course was conducted under the direction of one of the most courageous filmmakers of Indian cinema, Arunaraje Patil, who made thought-provoking films like Rihaee (1988). My selection in the course was based on a writeup about my favorite films (Anand-1971, Ardh Satya-1983). This course added a lot of value to my knowledge and information about films. It helped me organize my knowledge, understand the nuances of films and how the whole idea is conceived. I started appreciating films more organically, it brought a lot of visibility to my understanding of films.
The Necessary Push I want to acknowledge that it was Gagan dada (my elder brother, an inspiration) the first among all to encourage me and push me to pursue my passion for cinema, at the same time he also gave me hints about doing something with my filmy interests, about starting a blog or a similar thing but it took two years to finally come up with this. Some of my friends too, at the end of the film appreciation course, strongly suggested that I should start a blog to share my thoughts and views about cinema. What films I would recommend people to watch? And lastly, there is so much to say so why not, this led to the inception of the perfect mise-en-scène.