Braving the El Nino of commercial claptrap he remains doughty and a brilliant beacon to those brave enough to tread the trail less trodden like him.

Simplicity personified he is to Kannada cinema what the revered Adoor Gopalakrishnan is to Malayalam cinema and the legendary Satyajit Ray is to Bengali cinema. Girish Kasaravalli has, to date, 11 precious gems in his cinematic tiara. Each a milestone, as also a trend-setter, on the Indian, and Kannada cinema firmament. Each one of his seminal cinematic explorations, that seek to spotlight social themes, has received rich global acclaim and recognition.

However, closer home, except at film festivals, among film societies and committed cinephile circuits, Girish Kasaravalli and his eclectic cinema of social consciousness, have rarely spanned wide among the general diaspora. However, now precisely to address this lacuna and in the process, build a meaningful bridge between Kasaravalli cinema and avowed film loving patrons, Suchitra Film Society, in association with Nudi Pustaka, a division of Premier Publishing Company, has brought out an informative book, Culturing Realism— Reflections on Girish Kasaravalli's Films .

The book spotlights the mien and method of Kasaravalli and his approach and theory to the art and craft of cinema. Edited by eminent critic and English Professor N Manu Chakravarthy, the paperback is a wonderful compilation of critiques by eminent writers on Girish Kasaravalli and his cinema of meaningful discourse.

From Manu Chakravarthy’s seminal ruminations on locating the culture of Kasaravalli's films to late Prof T G Vaidyanathan’s polemical and perceptive postulations on Kasaravalli's cinema, the book contains eight equally erudite, well written and illustrative expositions on the maestro.

It also provides insightful and indepth interviews with the eminent auteur along with a tableau of Girish Kasaravalli’s films and the awards won at various film festivals.

As eminent Kannada litterateur U R Ananthamurthy observes of Girish Kasaravalli: he is original and deeply reflective. We do not just see his films; we are made to meditate on them. All his films are not just good cinema; they are profound comments on what we are today politically and culturally.”