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LUTYENS' NEW DELHI

By Manu REWAL

KARMA PRODUCTIONS / DUNIYA VISION (INDIA) PVT. LTD. - as PROD

Documentary - Completed 1997

- Year of production
- 1997
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- INDIA
- Languages
- ENGLISH
- Duration
- 30 mn
- Director(s)
- Manu REWAL
- Writer(s)
- Manu REWAL
- Producer(s)
- Manu REWAL (Duniya Vision)
- Synopsis
- In 1911, the imperial British government decided to shift the capital of British India from the port city of Calcutta to Delhi, the traditional capital of India. The British wanted to create a city that would reflect the power and prestige of Western civilization in order to impress the Indians. New Delhi was to be the Rome of Hindustan.
  Edwin Lutyens, the town planner for the city and the architect of the Viceregal palace, fused Western and Indian forms in an innovative manner to produce a synthetic Anglo - Indian style . His colleague Baker, on the other hand, simply reproduced classical Western architecture, interspersed with Indian ornamental motifs.
  Though it was Lutyens' conception that was largely followed in New Delhi, strict criteria, based on race, rank, and socio - economic status governed the allotment of bungalows in the residential areas. Thanks to the low rise bungalows set in a vast landscape and to the grand avenues lined by trees, Lutyen's Delhi is perhaps the greenest capital in the world. But this greenery is now under pressure from the forces of speculation and population explosion.
  A voice over narration is laid over photographs from the British period, intercut with contemporary images showing the buildings as they are being used by their Indian owners today. Music from Indian Army bands have been used, as they still play British tunes .