English, August, une histoire indienne

english, august released in 1994 was one of the first indian movies in english. this brave effort and its relative success paved the way for many such movies later in the 90s. this movie which is based on the brilliant book by upamanyu chatterjee is very well made and is enjoyable.

the movie captures well the dichotomy and the vast gap between rural india and its urban youth. rahul bose is very good as the lost young IAS officer unable to come to terms with the slow-paced rural life.

the movie is rather a faithful adaptation of the book, but nowhere as brilliant as the book itself. see the movie after reading the brilliant book.

a competent 8!!

It is a superb rendition of Upamanyu Chatterjee's novel. I would suggest that you read the novel as well to get full flavor of this movie. Englist August is not for the weak at heart though. English August presents a bold humor for the unaffected at heart. The dry acerbic humor is truly infectious. One of the smartest and wittiest movies Ihave ever watched. It has a crisp cinematography and perfectly proportioned dialog. It's truly a unique and refreshing movie. Rahul Bose manifests his multifaceted promising career in English August. He is an amazing actor and he is supported by some of the best that the Indian movie industry has to offer. You would want to be Agastya Sen and share his experience in the middle of no-where called Madna. Would crack apart yet identify with Agastya's random thoughts and his unique spur of the moment lies and empathize with educated urban individual's existential angst. There is a little bit of Agastya Sen in all of us which becomes evident only when bare our souls, even if only to ourselves in our most vulnerable moments. The true connoisseur would want to watch it over and over again.

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.