English, August

The vision of Rahul Bose laying purposeless on that dilapidated cot, the curtains in the dark room fluttering to give a fleeting evidence of the raging heat outside, the fan on the ceiling turning with a reassuring repetitive noise, as the smoke slowly fills the screen. The rubber hits the spaced out road. I just had to light up, taken in by the movie hook-line-and-sinker. If you have liked fear and loathing in Las Vegas, if you have been riveted when Spud went Sputnik in Trainspotting, if you have split yourself during the round tables in That 70s show, then bet your bottom dollar on this one. Even if the names above sound Greek to you but you are a male who at least once in his life has felt you are somewhere you don't belong, have touched alcohol as a student and continued the virtue into adult life or if you have crossed teen and don't live with your folks - then do yourself a favor and watch this work of art. And if you dope, I am assuming you have watched this film one time too many already. Agastya brings into life the hidden snob in us, who is afraid to belong. H goes through the film meeting and rejecting people, creating an impenetrable social and cultural divide between himself and the people around him. As he resigns into his solitude, surrounded by colleagues and acquaintances, we are drawn into a trip of lethargy. The humor is silent and splitting. Contextual, self derogatory as well as condescending. One after the other characters from our everyday life enter the movie, your neighbour, the salesman, the loud guy who had sat at the table next to you at the café, the grocery store owner who wont give you credit. They are all there, and you are Agastya wading through them, one among them and yet far far away. It is a classic.

The movie is awesome - cannot imagine anyone else but Rahul Bose playing Agastya Sen - poor urban Indian caught in the madness of rural India - where everything is chaotic and illogical - the movie is awesome - just like the book by Upamanyu Chatterjee.

I liked the movie but LOVED the book! It captures the feelings of 20-something Indian youth (as the movie says" who speak better English than their native tongues) perfectly... loved the scene with the statue of Gandhi!

The movie is hilarious, balanced and representative of the Upamanyu Chatterjee novel. Although Rahul Bose doesn't quite fit the description of the urban dislocated youth of the novel, he's done a truly wonderful job. The lack of expensive camrawork et al is hardly felt as the movie takes charge of your attention span completely. The one thing for which I would be eternally grateful to the movie is for finally helping me decide on a face for the Joker of Madna and Mrs Srivastava, notwithstanding the graphical depiction of her undergarments. Rahul Bose looks at mighty ease throughout the movie and makes one suspect he truly identifies with the dislocation and perverseness which his character symbolizes. This is one movie which makes you go back and read the novel all over again and relive the moments you witnessed during the film. A rare film which has handled the subtle yet ripping humor of the novel extremely well. Overall a movie representative of the beginning of the mature Indian cinema.

Hi. I was looking for a copy of DVD of English August. But on some digging I realized that its not available in the stores at Pune and Mumbai. I have read the book and have heard a lot about the movie. The book is too good. Its subtle yet sharp. I think its one of the best works on dismal state of grass root bureaucracy in India. Apparently there was a disaster (fire or something) before the commercial launch of the movie. It looks like the movie was never released in theaters, at least not in India. I tried to search a few online movie stores in India and US, but could not get an online DVD store I can buy from. Can somebody point me to a place where I can place an order for a copy of DVD. Stores in US or India are preferable. Thanks.