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film review

Gulabi Talkies

Directed by Girish Kasaravalli

Produced by Basantkumar Patil

Written by Girish Kasaravalli, Vaidehi (Story)

Starring Umashree, K.G. Krishna Murthy M.D. Pallavi

Music by Isaac Thomas Kottukapally

Cinematography S. Ramachandra Aithal

Editing by S. Manohar, M.N. Swamy

Running time 122 minutes

Language Kannada

The film is set in the late 1990s among the fishing communities around Kundapura, in the southwestern Indian state of Karnataka. The impulsive midwife Gulabi (Umashree) is the protagonist, whose one passion is the cinema. She leads a lonely life in an island inhabited by fisher folk. Her husband Musa (K.G. Krishna Murthy), a small-time fish-selling agent, has deserted her and is living happily with his second wife Kunjipathu and their child Adda.

A family gifts her a television with a satellite dish antenna in gratitude after she attends to a difficult delivery (for which they even had to bodily remove her from a movie theatre). The arrival of the first color TV in her small island village heralds great changes in the sleepy hamlet. The women in the village begin gathering at her house once the men leave for fishing. But a few of them stay away, since Gulabi is one of the few Muslims in the village. Yet others prefer to watch from outside her shack, without entering it.

Among the regulars at her home is Netru (singer-actress M.D. Pallavi), a girl with an absentee husband and a domineering mother-in-law, whom Gulabi befriends and becomes a confidante to. But Netru disappears and Gulabi is blamed, leaving her all alone in the village.

The Kargil War of 1999 and the rise of communalism in Karnataka provide the backdrop to the film. The communal stereotyping of Muslims following the Kargil War finds an echo in the village. The tension between the small fishermen of the village and a Muslim businessman (who is actually never shown throughout the film) with a growing fleet of commercial trawlers acquires a communal colour.

The disappearance of Netru adds to the mounting tensions. The Muslims in the village flee and urge Gulabi to leave too, but she refuses and stays put in the village. Her house is vandalised and she is forcibly taken to a boat to leave the island. The young men from outside who spearhead the attack assure the villagers that Gulabi's television would remain in her house.

The film ends with a scene in which two illiterate elderly women, who had hitherto refused to enter Gulabi's house, going in there to watch TV (which they do not know how to switch on - they are probably unaware even that it has to be switched on).

Awards and recognition

Osian's Cinefan Festival of Asian and Arab Cinema, 2008:

Best Film in Indian Competition

Best Actress in Indian Competition - Umashree

Karnataka State Annual Film Awards, 2009

Best Film - Kannada State award

Best Screenplay - Girish Kasaravalli

Best Actress - Umashree

National Film Awards, 2009

Best Actress - Umashree

( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulabi_Talkies )

MARUPATHAI

SCREENING ON 26 AUGUST 2011,FRIDAY, 6 PM AT Y.M.C.A HALL,

NEAR SHENOY'S JUNCTION, CHITTOOR ROAD, ERNAKULAM

MARUPAATHAI

TAMIL/ENGLISH / 75 MIN.

SCRIPT / DIRECTION : K.P.SREEKRISHNAN

PRODUCER : DILIP NARAYANAN

CAMERA : PRAKASHAN

EDIT : SAJITH UNNIKRISHNAN

MUSIC : RAJESH DASS

three young men, hailing from different social backgrounds with

different vistas and predilections on a single mission is thesituation pursued by 'the way to be'through a non-linear treatment, the pursuit brings forth how anindigenous tribe that preserves and practices a primitivemethod of gold mining, can trigger a violent chain reaction ofevents that are both unconnected and connected.a christian missionary rebelling against the church establishment,a spry and over ambitious journalist girl, a vigilante intellectualweb community, a philanthropist library in a provincial city,an editor of a little magazine, an opinionated geologist are allenmeshed in this entanglement.the nascent and thus fragile nature of Indian democracy, which cannoteven absorb and factor in a primitive livelihood into itspolitical and economic structure results in the origin and spreadof political extremism and violence.

So Heddan So Hoddan

screening on 20th August 2011, 6 pm, at nanappa art gallery, cochin-11, followed by "meet the directors".

Like Here Like There

A Film by Anjali Monteiro and KP Jayasankar
52 mins, Sindhi, Kachchhi and Hindustani with English subtitles, 2011,
A Public Service Broadcasting Trust Production

Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, a medieval Sufi poet, is an iconic figure in the cultural history of Sindh. Bhitai’s /Shah Ji Risalo/ is a remarkable collection of poems which are sung by many communities in Kachchh and across the border in Sindh (now in Pakistan). Many of the poems draw on the eternal love stories of /Umar-Marui/ and /Sasui-Punhu/, among others. These songs speak of the pain of parting, of the inevitability of loss and of deep grief that takes one to unknown and mysterious terrains.

Umar Haji Suleiman of Abdasa, in Kachchh, Gujarat, is a self taught Sufi scholar; once a cattle herder, now a farmer, he lives his life through the poetry of Bhitai. Umar’s cousin, Mustafa Jatt sings the Bheths of Bhitai. He is accompanied on the Surando, by his cousin Usman Jatt. Usman is a truck driver, who owns and plays one of the last surviving Surandos in the region. The Surando is a peacock shaped, five-stringed instrument from Sindh. The film explores the life worlds of the three cousins, their families and the Fakirani Jat community to which they belong.

Before the Partition the Maldhari (pastoralist) Jatts moved freely across the Rann, between Sindh (now in Pakistan) and Kutch. As pastoral ways of living have given way to settlement, borders and industrialisation, the older generation struggles to keep alive the rich syncretic legacy of Shah Bhitai, that celebrates diversity and non-difference, suffering and transcendence, transience and survival. These marginal visions of negotiating difference in creative ways resist cultural politics based on tight notions of nation-state and national culture; they open up the windows of our national imaginary.

About the Directors

Anjali Monteiro and K.P. Jayasankar are Professors at the Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai. Monteiro has a Masters degree in Economics and a Ph.D. in Sociology. Jayasankar has an M.A. in German language and a Ph.D. in Humanities and Social Sciences. Both of them are involved in media production, teaching and research. A presiding thematic of much of their work has been a problematising of notions of self and the other, of normality and deviance, of the local and the global, through the exploration of diverse narratives and rituals. These range from the stories and paintings of indigenous peoples to the poetry of prison inmates. Jointly they have won twenty two national and international awards for their films. These include the Prix Futura Berlin 1995 Asia Prize for Identity- The Construction of Selfhood, Best Innovation, Astra Film Festival 1998, Sibiu, Romania for YCP 1997, Best documentary award at the IV Three Continents International Festival of Documentaries 2005, Venezuela, for SheWrite ,Certificate of Merit, Mumbai International Film Festival 2008, Indian Documentary Producers Associuation (IDPA) Gold for Best Sound Design, Gold for Best Script and Silver for Editing for the film Our Family. Their most recent award is the commendation for Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair) in the Intangible Culture (Music-Dance-Performance) category at the 12th RAI International Festival of Ethnographic Film . Vibgyor Film Festival, Kerala and Bangalore Film Society have organised retrospectives of their work in 2006 and 2010, respectively. So Heddan So Hoddan is the second in the series films set in Kachchh that they have made; Do Din Ka Mela (A Two Day Fair) was the first film http://atwodayfair.wordpress.com/

They have several papers in the area of media and cultural studies and have contributed to scholarly journals such as Cultural Studies. They are both recipients of the Howard Thomas Memorial Fellowship in Media Studies, and have been attached to Goldsmith’s College, London and the University of Western Sydney. Monteiro was a Fulbright visiting lecturer in 2006-07 at the University of California, Berkeley. They also serve as visiting faculty to several leading media and design institutions in India and abroad. They are both actively involved in ‘Vikalp‘ , which is collective of documentary filmmakers campaigning for freedom of expression. They are also associated with various media and voluntary organisations.

THE CALL

A one month long film camp was organized by Cochin Film Society at Rajagiri Public School as part of their vacation camp." The call", 5 minute long short film , produced by the students attended the camp, received laud applause.

SHWAAS

Shwaas

2004 / 107 min /India / Marathi

Directed by Sandeep Sawant

Starring Arun Nalavade,Ashwin Chitale,Sandeep Kulkarni,Amruta Subhash

Music by Bhaskar Chandavarkar

Cinematography Sanjay Manane

Editing by Neeraj Voralia

An old villager (Vichare) brings his 8 year old grandson Parshuraam (also known as Paarsha) to a doctor in Mumbai to diagnose the child's eyes. They are accompanied by child's maternal uncle Diwarkar. On the first day Vichare is asked to sign usual papers before admission in hospital. Upon asking, he learns that the papers say the doctor would not be responsible if anything goes wrong. Vichare, the rustic grandfather finds these terms unacceptable. A medical social worker named Asawari who is present there, quickly comes in and explains the practice to Vichare. She calms down Vichare and accompanies them during the first appointment with the doctor. Dr. Sane quickly diagnoses child as a victim of the rare retinoblastoma - a rare retinal cancer. After consulting with other colleagues in US and UK doctor finds that only way to save child's life is to perform an operation that will leave the child blind. As per rule, doctor explains this and insists child be informed of this before surgery. He cannot be operated without this knowledge as it was against ethics. Asawari (Amruta Subhash) who helps the doctor in convincing the grandfather and the grandson, tries to keep track of Vichare and persuades him not fall prey to other doctors promising false medicines. She tries to befriend Parshya in order to explain him what is going to happen. However, she finds it is too difficult to explain to him that he will turn blind.

The film then depicts the grandfather's struggle to accept the reality that the only way to save his grandson is at the cost of his eyesight. He tries various ways to come to terms with the situation and his personal agony is shown in scenes, like taking second opinion, explaining his grandson the reality and his desire to show him everything possible before his grandson loses his eyesight. For some reason, the surgery has to be postponed by a day. That afternoon, grandfather and grandson disappear from the hospital ward and a frantic search follows. Confronted by an angry surgeon on their return, the grandfather states quite simply that he wanted to show Parshya the sights of the city for one last time.

The film has been applauded for scenes which depict the difficulty faced by the doctors to explain to grandfather and Parshya that nothing can be done and the truth is but inevitable. It shows the medical fraternity in a very positive light, with the doctors and nurses being extremely supportive and doing the best they can, and helping the village with the best facilities. The last shot where Parshya returns home wearing dark glasses, waving to his family and friends from the boat was widely appreciated by film critics

The film received numerous awards at both national and state level. It won the Maharashtra State Film Award and then India's highest National Film Award, bringing the coveted Golden Lotus to Marathi cinema for the first time since 1954. Ashwin Chitale won the best child artist award. The film was India's official entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film in 77th Academy Awards (the Oscar Awards), 2004.

HONEY

Honey / Bal

2010/ 103 minutes/Turkey,Germany / Turkish

Directed by Semih Kaplanoğlu

Starring Erdal Beşikçioğlu

Cinematography Barış Özbiçer

Editing by Ayhan Ergürsel,Suzan Hande Güneri,Semih Kaplanoğlu

Bal was the winner of the 60th Berlinale in 2010. What the jury saw in this film by Turkish director Semih Kaplanoglu was a poetic exploration of childhood in rural Turkey, told by images and sounds capturing the pure nature of it surroundings without any artificial interventions.

Yusuf is a boy living with his parents in the forest in the country side of Turkey. He has trouble at school where he spends his recess time alone and he has a close relationship with his father, a beekeeper whose job is to collect honey in dangerous tall trees. Yusuf accompanies his father in this tasks until some plague has scared the bees away and Yusuf´s father must look for the honey somewhere else. During this time Yusuf is left alone with his mother, but she fails to connect with his own boy. When Yusuf´s father is gone missing from his honey seeking trek, they depart to look for him without success.

The story is told in a very slow, passive and patient rhythm, relying solely on the inner conflicts of its characters without following any contrived plot. There is no music score and the dialogue is stripped down to the minimum. The soundtrack is provided by sounds of birds, wind blowing, trees, fire cracking and other natural sounds. We are witnesses of the routine of rural Turkey and their customs and we connect to Yusuf in an intimate way by coming into his quiet, simple and unspoiled world.

This is not a movie for the masses, there is no action, dramatic structure, music, effects, sex or any other element we can found in modern films. This is a movie for the patient, for the reflective, the curious and unrushed. The one who will connect to the stunning beauty of the landscapes portrayed by Baris Ozbicer´s beautiful cinematography.

FILM REVIEW

Lavoura Arcaica (To the Left of the Father) (2001)


* Director:
* Luiz Fernando Carvalho
* Writers:
* Luiz Fernando Carvalho, Raduan Nassar

* Actors:
* Selton Mello,
* Raul Cortez,
* Juliana Carneiro da Cunha,
* Simone Spoladore,
* Leonardo Medeiros


This poignant universal story,adapted after Raduan Nassar's book, presents the parable of the Prodigal Son, seen through the lenses of Carvalho, in a deep, passionate, tragic and at the same time, poetical narrative.The photography evolves accompanying the story, in a crescendo - from the monotonous familiar countryside farm journey chores, presented in pastel tones, until the climax,in bright luxuriant brazilian landscape colors, as the rythm of passion rises, intermingled by interior candle- light chiaro scuros,all punctuated by a vigorous and vibrant music.

FILM REVIEW

Three Monkeys (Üç Maymun)
Directed by Nuri Bilge Ceylan Produced by Zeynep Özbatur Written by Ebru Ceylan Nuri Bilge Ceylan Ercan Kesal Starring Yavuz Bingöl Hatice Aslan Ahmet Rıfat Şungar Ercan Kesal Cinematography Gökhan Tiryaki Editing by Ayhan Ergürsel Nuri Bilge Ceylan Running time 109 minutes
A family is dislocated when small failings become extravagant lies. The film opens as a wealthy businessman, Servet, running a campaign for the upcoming election, is driving in his car alone and sleepy, struggling to keep his eyes open. Seconds later he hits and kills a pedestrian in the middle of the road. Servet panics when another car with a couple inside approaches. He sneaks away.

Eyüp, a man living in a slum at the Yedikule neighborhood in İstanbul, with his wife and only son, is the driver of Servet. He wakes up in the middle of the night with his cell phone ringing. It's his boss, telling Eyüp to meet him immediately. Shivering in shock, Servet explains the current events to his driver. His excuse is if the fatal accident comes out in press it would terminate his political career, so he proposes Eyüp to take over the penalty and stay in prison for a brief period of time in exchange for a lump sum payment upon his release, whilst still paying his salary to his family so they can get by. Eyüp accepts the deal.

An unspecified time passes, summer arrives, and Eyüp's son İsmail fails to enter college again. His mother, Hacer, who works in the catering division of a factory, starts worrying about her son after unpleasant events, and tries to convince him to get a job. İsmail suggests driving children between home and school but of course they don't have any financial source for this kind of an enterprise. İsmail asks his mother to request an advance payment from Servet without consulting Eyüp. Hacer meets with Servet, in his office after the election (which he lost), and requests the money. After Hacer leaves the office and starts waiting for a bus at the stop Servet persuades Hacer to accept a lift from him back to her home.

More unspecified time passes, and İsmail intends to visit his father. Things take a poor turn when he finds his mother having an affair with Servet. İsmail stands passive. After serving nine months in prison, Eyüp is released. He senses things are "a little peculiar" inside his home. Hacer is in love with Servet and insists on maintaining their affair. Servet disagrees. That night, Hacer and Eyüp are invited to the police station and informed that Servet has been murdered. Police officers interrogate the two and Eyüp finds out that Hacer was cheating on him. He denies knowing anything about it. İsmail confesses to his mother that he murdered Servet. Eyüp calms down when he pays a visit to a mosque. Afterwards, Eyüp goes on to speak with a very poor man who works and sleeps inside a tea house in the neighborhood. Eyüp makes the same proposition to the poor man, Bayram, that Servet made to him: to claim the crime committed by his son. Bayram agrees. The last scene shows Eyüp at his home's balcony, staring at the Sea of Marmara, and along with thunder it starts to rain.

FILM REVIEW

Buried Secrets

Dowaha

Country: Tunisia, Switzerland, France

Production year: 2009

Director: Raja Amari

Producer: Dora Bouchoucha, Nicolas Wadimoff, Serge Lalou

Cast: Hafsia Herzi, Sondos Belhassen, Wassila Dari, Rim El Benna, Dhafer L'abidine

Duration: 91 min

A strict Tunisian woman and her two daughters live secretly in the servants' quarters of an abandoned estate. They stay hidden and find a way to be self-sustaining while being completely off the grid. One day a free-spirited couple moves into the house and the youngest daughter becomes enthralled by their way of life, putting her own family at risk and leading to unexpected consequences. The plot is equal parts family psychodrama, coming-of-age melodrama, and contemporary thriller. Anchored by a stunning cast of actresses, the film is a slow-burning parable of a woman's - and a generation's - awakening desire for freedom, sexuality, and modernity.

Raja Amari:

Born in Tunis in 1971. She studied French literature in her native Tunis and then Paris. She directed her first short film 'Le Bouquet' in 1995. Her feature debut 'Satin Rouge' (2002) was selected for the Berlinale Forum.

(http://www.wff.pl/en/filmy/dowaha/)