Baradwaj Rangan is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Peoples South Asia * Indian people, people of Indian nationality, or people who have an Indian ancestor ** Non-resident Indian, a citizen of India who has temporarily emigrated to another country * South Asia ...

film critic, writer, and formerly the deputy editor of ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the sec ...

''. He later became a senior editor of

Film Companion Anupama Chopra () is an Indian author, journalist, film critic and director of the MAMI Mumbai Film Festival. She is also the founder and editor of the digital platform Film Companion, which offers a curated look at cinema. She has written sev ...

. Rangan won the National Film Award for Best Film Critic in 2006. Before joining ''The Hindu'', Rangan wrote for ''

The New Indian Express ''The New Indian Express'' is an Indian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper published by the Chennai-based Express Publications. It was founded in 1932 as ''The Indian Express'', under the ownership of Chennai-based P. Varadarajulu Naid ...

''. He has also authored two books, worked as a screenwriter, and is a teacher at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.

Career

Baradwaj Rangan had no formal training in filmmaking or cinema writing. He is a

chemical engineering Chemical engineering is an engineering field which deals with the study of operation and design of chemical plants as well as methods of improving production. Chemical engineers develop economical commercial processes to convert raw materials in ...

graduate from

Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani Birla Institute of Technology & Science, Pilani (BITS Pilani) is a Deemed university in Pilani, Jhunjhunu, India. It focuses primarily on higher education and research in engineering and sciences. After expansion to a campus in Dubai, it has b ...

. According to him, it was a time when "parents considered only

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pr ...

or engineering" to be "serious professions", that he did not have interest but continued with it anyway. Rangan claims that he was fascinated with writing and liked reading critical analyses on world cinema, especially those by American critics. He 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. After that, Rangan received a full scholarship from the

Marquette University Marquette University () is a private Jesuit research university in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Established by the Society of Jesus as Marquette College on August 28, 1881, it was founded by John Martin Henni, the first Bishop of the diocese of ...

Milwaukee Milwaukee ( ), officially the City of Milwaukee, is both the most populous and most densely populated city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin and the county seat of Milwaukee County. With a population of 577,222 at the 2020 census, Milwaukee i ...

for a

Master's degree A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

in Advertising and Public relations, focusing on Internet advertising. Later, Rangan worked as an IT Consultant in the United States for about five years. He still had the urge to write and started reviewing films for the website ''sitagita.com''. That was when he was noticed by Sushila Ravindranath, then the editor of ''The New Sunday Express'', the Sunday edition of ''

''. Rangan worked there for two years, before shifting to ''

'', which he became the deputy editor of. Rangan also wrote for the magazine '' Tehelka'', while still working at ''The New Indian Express''. His first review was of the Hindi film '' Dum'', published on 30 January 2003 in the ''Madras Plus'' supplement of ''

The Economic Times ''The Economic Times'' is an Indian English-language business-focused daily newspaper. It is owned by The Times Group. ''The Economic Times'' began publication in 1961. As of 2012, it is the world's second-most widely read English-language bu ...

''. Rangan has authored two books: ''Conversations with Mani Ratnam'' (2012), wherein he interviews film director

Mani Ratnam Gopala Ratnam Subramaniam (born 2 June 1956), known professionally as Mani Ratnam, is an Indian film director, screenwriter, and producer who predominantly works in Tamil cinema and few Hindi, Telugu and Kannada films. Ratnam has won six ...

on the perspectives of his films, and ''Dispatches From The Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema'' (2014), which he describes as a "panoramic view of Indian cinema". He also wrote an essay in ''Subramaniyapuram: The Tamil Film in English Translation'' (2014). Rangan made his debut as a dialogue writer with '' Kadhal 2 Kalyanam'', which never saw a theatrical release. He later wrote the screenplay for '' Kalki'', a 2017 release. He also teaches a course on cinema at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai, and has interviewed notable personalities like producer/writer G. Dhananjayan, and director Gautham Vasudev Menon. Rangan wrote the English narrative for the 2014 play ''Meghadootam: The Cloud Messenger''. A short story written by him, ''The Call'', was published in ''The Indian Quarterly'' magazine. As of 2017, Rangan was the editor of '' Film Companion South'', and left in 2022. He is also a member of the Film Critics Circle of India. 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 Vikramaditya Motwane (born 6 December 1976) is an Indian film director, producer and screenwriter who works in Hindi cinema. He is known for films like '' Udaan'' (2010), ''Lootera'' (2013) and '' AK vs AK'' (2020). His directorial debut '' ...

Awards

At the

53rd National Film Awards The 53rd National Film Awards, presented by Directorate of Film Festivals, the organisation set up by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, India to felicitate the best of Indian Cinema released in the year 2005. The selection process of ...

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." 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".

Works

* '' Conversations with Mani Ratnam'' (2012) Penguin UK, * ''Dispatches from the Wall Corner: A Journey through Indian Cinema'' (2014) Westland,

References

External links

*
Baradwaj Rangan
at Penguin India {{DEFAULTSORT:Rangan, Baradwaj Best Critic National Film Award winners Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani alumni English writers Indian film critics Indian male journalists Living people Writers from Chennai Year of birth missing (living people)