Rekha Deshpande
Film Critic, India
A veteran film journalist, film-critic, writer and translator Rekha Deshpande has eight books on cinema and more than 40 translated books on various subjects to her credit. Her Marathi book “Nayika – a social, cultural, artistic analysis of women protagonists in the Indian cinema”, received the Maharashtra State Award in 1997 and “Marathi Chitrapatsrushticha Itihas” (The History of Marathi Cinema) , “Taramaticha Prawas …”(100 years of the portrayal of women in Indian Cinema), “Dastan-e-Dilipkumar“ an analytical biography of Dilipkumar are her much acclaimed books. Her Hindi translation of Arun Khopkar`s book ‘Prak-Cinema’ explores the elements of cinema in various art forms prevalent even before cinema was born and hence is a ‘must read’ for the students of Cinema.
Earlier, she began her career in Madhuri the film fortnightly a publication of Times of India group in 70s and continued as film critic with Jansatta ( Hindi daily ), Loksatta ( Marathi daily) of Indian Express group of newspapers.
Rekha Deshpande has served on the FIPRESCI jury in several international film festivals including Karlovy Vary (Czech Republic), Kerala, Bangaluru, Kolkata, Kolhapur, Third Eye Mumbai, Dhaka (Bangladesh), Aurangabad, Hyderabad and others. She is based in Mumbai.