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Mahesh Bhatt
Mahesh Bhatt was born on 20 September 1949 in Bombay,
Maharashtra, India. He is an Indian film director,
and is the father of film actress Pooja Bhatt. He
has been a knowing self-publicist, highlighting personal
narratives of illegitimate birth and extra-marital
romance to factor into the public reception of films
such as Arth (1982), Janam (1985) and Naam (1986).
He began his career as an assistant to Hindi director
Raj Khosla.
Bhatt's films show an unusual engagement with the
psychological damage arising from infringement of
social norms, situations which are characteristic
deep mental/emotion damage and trauma (recommended
only for the turmoiled/masochistic mind). These films
provided challenges of characterization to their actors,
who included both parallel and mainstream stars. The
stand-out film of his earlier period is Saaransh (1984),
an exploration of an old couple's anxieties in a universe
governed by arbitrary violence. His last film, Zakhm
(1998), was returned to the censor board because of
right-wing pressure critical of its references to
the Mumbai riots of 1993. He is the author of U.G.
Krishnamurti: A Life.
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