Tag: Documentary film

An Indian Affair

An Indian Affair002

 

An Indian Affair reveals the hidden story of Britain’s relationship with India. Historian Maria Misra presents the remarkable tale of an affair that began with lust and matured into mutual respect, even love, until a new British desire to dominate locked the partners into an unequal and abusive marriage – the Raj.

Pratap Rughani co-directed Programme 2 Brief Encounter.

A Takeaway Media production for Channel 4 TV, 2001.
PROGRAMME 2 BRIEF ENCOUNTER. SYNOPSIS
They came as traders and left as rulers, but in between stands the biggest turnabout in the story of Britain and India; for a brief flicker of time the relationship confounded the stereotypes – a fusion culture was born.

PART 2
Back in England, Indo-mania took root. Indian clothes, fashion, music, literature and food… even bathing habits came under an Indian spell. The Prince Regent crowned it all with his Indian folly – the Brighton Pavilion. We chart the Indianisation of England, on a journey with the eighteenth century traveller and celebrity Abu Talib Khan.

An Indian Affair001

The Dog’s Tale

This series comprised 7 x 40minute films broadcast at 9.30pm on BBC2.

Pratap was principal director of Programme 2 Gods and Gladiators.

Review by Nancy Banks-Smith, The Guardian
“The Dog’s Tale (BBC 2) showed three weak beams, crooks, cripples and mongrel curs, dovetailed into a triumphant triangle”. From the dog-headed gods of ancient Egypt to the sacred healing hounds of Mesopotamia, dogs have always been part of human ritual. Once a year in Italy for example, Christians extol the fidelity and obedience of dogs by awarding them their own religious festival. But, as this week’s programme in the series “The Dog’s Tale” shows, man’s best friend is also being dragged into an altogether bloodier ritual in Japan. Tosa dogs are 85lb. (38kg) of pure, in-bred muscle. Once the status symbol of Samurai warriors, they have now been adopted as fighting dogs by the Japanese yakuza – Japan’s gangster fraternity. When Nobuharu Hamano lost interest in pit bulls, he bought up a stable of 20 Tosas and 6 wolves. “We don’t fight ourselves,” he says, “our dogs fight for us instead. And we get rid of our stress by seeing the dog fight.”
The Dog’s Tale, Thursday 9.30pm BBC2.

“From God to Dog”, Pratap Rughani

‘Easing the pain’ by Pratap Rughani

The Dog’s Tale Radio Times review by Adam Sweeting