Temples of India (1938) - Jack Cardiff | BFI

Temples of India (1938) - Jack Cardiff | BFI. Subscribe: Don’t come looking here for an insider’s portrait of Hinduism; the religion on offer is like something out of the adventures of Indiana Jones, performed in the style of ’The King and I’. Nevertheless, this film offers a rare glimpse of religious ritual and architecture in India in the late 1930s. The temples in question include those at Mysore, Varanasi and Belur and we also get to see a dancer performing Shiva’s ’Dance of Destruction’. The film ends rather oddly with a moonlight trip to the Taj Mahal, the filmmaker appearing to forget that it was built by a Muslim emperor. But despite its limitations in objectivity and logic, Jack Cardiff’s Technicolor cinematography lifts the film to a rather higher plane. (Robin Baker) For more information about Jack Cardiff visit All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit Follow us on Twitter: Like us on Facebook: Follow us on Google : britishfilminstitute/