Anurag Kashyap Meets Legendary Martin Scorsese

From the boy who used to repeatedly watch the VHS cassettes of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver, Anurag Kashyap has grown to be a member in the jury panel headed by director of these films, the legendary Martin Scorsese. Not only Anurag, most of countries new gen film makers are in awe of Martin Scorsese who re-instilled the stories of existentialism in Hollywood through dark films which reflected the degeneration of the modern American society and angst of its youth.

It was on the 13th edition of the Marrakech International Film Festival 2013, Anurag became a jury member in the panel led by Scorsese. Anurag , the only jury member from India, has been a Scorsese fan all his life and he earlier thanked the festival coordinators and the country which hosts it by saying ,"I've shot two films in Morocco and I have an eternal feeling of gratitude towards this country, its people and the royal family for having allowed me to make these movies."

Anurag's former assistant director Vasan Bala posted a pic of 'Scorsese and Anurag together' in instagram and tweeted to enormous response from young filmmakers and fans from the country. Like Vasan said , having a dinner with Scorsese would be 'living the dreams on the mean streets' for Anurag.

A direct influence of Scorsese can be seen in Anurag Kashyap's films in terms of their gritty but slick cinematography, the use of haunting rock music in violent or emotional scenes, characters who are doomed with existential crisis. Scorsese was the king of pessimism in Hollywood in the late 70s and his Taxi Driver made Robert De Niro and his character 'Travis Bickle' a global symbol for 'the man in existential crisis'. Most highlighted themes in Scorsese's landmark films like Taxi Driver and Mean Streets were Loneliness and helplessness of individuals and it can be seen in Anurag's films like Dev D, Paanch and Gulaal too ! Scorsese sent a letter of appreciation to Anurag early this year after watching his gangster epic Gangs of Wasseypur. Anurag was on cloud nine when he came to know that Scorsese liked the film.

The 9-days long Marrakech International Film Festival 2013, which made Anurag Kashyap a lucky boy, ended on December 7th and was a star studded event. Among the Hollywood A listers, there were Juliette Binoche (The English Patient), Marion Cotillard (Inception ) and Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct), along with Martin Scorsese.