February 21, 2006
Earth
Deepa Mehta's 1947:Earth
Date: February 24th
Time: 7:00 pm
Place: School of Social Work, Room #1636
This is the second in Deepa Mehta's 'Fire-Earth-Water' trilogy. Largely based on author Bapsi Sidhwa's own experiences in pre-Partition times, the story is told by the daughter of a well-to-do Parsee businessman - the precocious brace-legged Lenny. Her Hindu aayah (nanny) falls in love with a Muslim masseur which does not go down well with her other admirer (an ice-candy man). Powerfully told, it wistfully recalls love and friendship and its fragile existence as love turns to hate and friends become deadly enemies. It's a story of love that becomes impossible because of lines drawn by departing colonial rulers. The story of the small community mirrors the larger story of the Partition of British India into two countries - India and Pakistan in 1947.
Starring: Aamir Khan, Nandita Das, Rahul Khanna, Gulshan Grover, Kulbhushan Kharbanda and Kitu Gidwani
(Running time: 110 min)
Posted by hparikh at 08:40 PM | Comments (0)
The theme of Beyond Bollywood
More than 1200 movies are made and released each year in India. While it is true that a majority of the movies are formulaic “Bollywood” fare, there is a lot more to Indian cinema than movies with songs and dancing around trees. Directors like Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalkrishnan have been critically acclaimed for their honest and frank exploration of Indian life. New generation Indian film-makers such as Mira Nair, Manish Jha, Deepa Mehta, Gurinder Chhadha and others have garnered accolades for work at prestigious film festivals around the world. We would like to highlight the fact that India also makes a lot of films in regional languages which are often ignored.
Our aim is showcase Indian film-making over the years and show movies that most people (including Indians) would rarely get an opportunity to see in places other than film-festivals. We want to stimulate dialogue amongst the participants. We believe that great cinema is always universal and transcends regional and linguistic boundaries. We shall be having a panel discussion and have a presenter for each movie who will introduce the movie.
This blog will be used for introducing the movies and for further discussion.
Posted by hparikh at 08:18 AM | Comments (0)