Mani Kaul was a Kashmiri Pandit film director of Hindi films. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later became a teacher.
Background
Mani Kaul was born on 25th of December,1944 in Jodhpur. He was the nephew of actor-director Mahesh Kaul. Initially studying acting at the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, he changed over to directing. He is a 1966 graduate of the FTII.
Education
He first joined Film and Television Institute of India as an acting student and later shifted to the direction course, graduating in 1966.
Career
Started his career with Uski Roti in 1969, which won him the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Movie, he went on to win four of them in all. Uski Roti has been described as "one of the key films of the New Indian Cinema or the Indian New Wave". It marked a drastic departure from earlier Indian cinema techique, form and narrative. It was one of the early formal experimental films in Indian cinema.
Ashadh Ka Ek Din in 1971, his next film, was based on a play by Mohan Rakesh.
Duvidha in 1973, his third, was his first in colour. It grew out of a short story by Vijaydan Detha and tells the story of a merchant's son, who returns with his new bride to have to depart on family business. A ghost falls in love with the bride... It was widely shown across Europe.