The 1970s were years of ferment. Literature and Art were seeking to provoke their audience into re-evaluating their circumstances. And the two sometimes collaborated to raise some questions in black & white.
'27 down' was based on a literary work in Hindi. The protagonist is an an aspiring artist but he yields to parental authority and settles down to life as a regular railway ticket-checker. (the job afforded predictable fringe benefits). The lady he has recently befriended holds new possibilities for him. But then she carries some baggage of her own. That colt grazing freely in the meadows when broken down into a mule, can he dream anew ? Rakhee, M.K. Raina, Sadhu Meher, essayed the central roles in the movie. 'Art cinema'..'Parallel cinema'..this genre had many names. But as a representation of the angst of an age, '27 down' is a classic.
