Bombay Movie
Directed by Alexandra Eaton.
USA 2013, 58 Minutes, English.
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Vijay Raaz, Arjun Mathur
Post-screening discussion with director Alexandra Eaton and actor Arjun Mathur (Barah Anna).

Bombay Movie is the story of Raja Menon, an independent filmmaker living in the shadow of Bollywood. Inspired by his watchman to make a film about the city's overlooked working poor, Raja enlists a two foreign producers and a star cast to make the gritty realist film of his dreams.

and


The Human Factor
Directed by Rudradeep Bhattacharjee.
India 2012. 76 mins. English.
U. S. Premiere.
Cast- The Lord Family.

This documentary investigates song and music in the context of the Indian filmic experience. Although singers, music directors, the lyricists are all publicly celebrated for their work and have attained almost legendary status in popular culture, many unseen - and uncredited - musicians make up the orchestras that played on those songs and the background scores. The Human Factor focuses closely in on the story of the Lords, a family of Parsi musicians whose contribution to Hindi film music parallels that of any of the great music directors or singers, yet is widely unknown. But the story of the Lords is not theirs alone, but represents thousands of other composers. This documentary is crucial to providing an obscure chapter in the history of Indian cinema, replete with rare archival material, which provides viewers with a subaltern history of Bollywood.


Director’s Bio: Rudradeep Bhattacharjee was born in Shillong, Meghalaya, and obtained his postgraduate diploma in Film and Television Production from Xavier Institute of Communications, in Mumbai, where he has lived for the past twelve years working as an Independent Filmmaker. A self-described generalist, he does not have any hobbies.

Garam Hawa
Directed by M.S. Sathyu.
India 1973. 146 mins. Hindi, Urdu with English subtitles.
Cast: Balraj Sahni, Shaukat Azmi, Gita Siddharth, Farooque Shaikh.

Based on an unpublished Urdu short story by Ismat Chughtai and adapted for screen by Kaifi Azmi, who also wrote its lyrics, this film deals with the plight of a North Indian Muslim family, in the post-partition India of 1947, as the film's protagonist grapples with the dilemma of moving to Pakistan or not. The Mirzas, a Muslim family living in a large ancestral house and running a shoe manufacturing business in the city of Agra in the United Provinces of northern India (now Uttar Pradesh) is headed by two brothers; Salim, who guides the family business, and his elder brother Halim, who is engaged in politics and acts as a major leader in the provincial branch of the All India Muslim League, which led the demand for the creation of a separate Muslim state of Pakistan.


Director’s Bio: M.S. Sathyu a leading film director, stage designer and art director from India, and one of the patrons of Indian People’s Theatre Association, otherwise known as IPTA. He received the Padma Shri in 1975, and currently focuses mainly on television and stage.

Sikh Formaggio
Directed by Kate Wise.
Italy, USA 21 mins.

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Baavra Mann
Directed by Jaideep Varma.
India . 127 mins. Hindi with English subtitles.
World Premiere.
Cast- Sudhir Mishra.
Post-screening discussion with director Jaideep Varma.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZsbJHABESjE

This documentary uses the life of filmmaker Sudhir Mishra and his varied work to throw light on the declining creative and cultural scene in India. Also, including interviews with people as diverse as Naseeruddin Shah, Saeed Mirza, Kundan Shah, Jaideep Sahni, Pritish Nandy, Swanand Kirkire, Chitrangda Singh, Kaykay Menon, MJ Akbar, Vinod Dua and many more the film paints a picture of environments that haven't entirely fulfilled their potential.


Director’s Bio: Jaideep Varma has made two feature films - Hulla (2008, fiction) and Leaving Home - the Life & Music of Indian Ocean (2010, non-fiction). The second opened the Goa International Film Festival in 2010 and won the National Award in 2011. Before that, he published a novel (Local) in 2005. He is also the creator of a Moneyball-like system in cricket called Impact Index, considered by some to be the best stats system in the game today. This is his second full-length documentary film.

Kalpana
Directed by Uday Shanker.
India 1948. 160 mins. Hindi with English subtitles.
Cast: Uday Shankar, Padmini, Usha Kiran, Amala Shankar, Lakshmi Kanta.

Part soap opera, ballet, and political treatise, Kalpana blends surrealism with the high art of Indian classical dance to tell a story loosely based on director Uday Shankar’s own experiences trying to found a dance academy. The film opens with an earnest film director who pitches a screenplay to the owner of a production company. The producer rebuffs the director, claiming he is only interested in films that will net the highest possible box office rather than works with cultural integrity. The director begs him to at least hear him out, and thus the story of Kalpana begins to unfold. Kalpana centers on Udayan, a boy who, despite a difficult childhood, becomes a great dancer. Udayan dreams of opening a dance academy, but must overcome a series of professional challenges, including a crooked theatre promoter, and navigate the competing affections of two women, Uma and Kamini. Dance is used as the primary tool of expression throughout the film, lending Kalpana a unique style that is still unrivaled in Indian cinema.


Director’s Bio: Uday Shankar studied under Sir William Rothstein in the Royal College of Art. A dancer by trade, he had a profound impact in the history of Indian dance. Known for liberating Indian dance from convention to create a pioneering style that was classical in spirit yet innovative in form, he incorporated western theatrical techniques to his classical training. In 1962, India's National Academy for Music, Dance and Drama presented Shankar with the Sangeet Natak Akademi Fellowship award for lifetime achievement, its highest honor. Almost a decade later, in 1971, the Government of India presented Shankar with its second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan. Kalpana is the only film Shankar directed.

Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro
Directed by Kundan Shah.
India 1983. 132 mins. Hindi with English subtitles .
Cast- Naseeruddin Shah, Ravi Baswani, Om Puri, Pankaj Kapur, Satish Shah, Bhakti Barve, Satish Kaushik, Ashok Banthia, Neena Gupta.

Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csslHKrvzlk

Professional photographers Vinod Chopra and Sudhir Mishra open a photo studio in the prestigious Haji Ali area in Mumbai, in the hopes of making enough money to sustain themselves. After a disastrous start, they are given some work by the editor of “Khabardar,” a publication that exposes the scandalous lives of the rich and the famous. They accept it and start working with the editor, Shobha Sen, on a story to expose the dealings between an unscrupulous builder, Tarneja, and corrupt Municipal Commissioner D'Mello. While working on their story, Sudhir and Vinod decide to enter a photography contest, taking photos all over the city. On developing their pictures, they notice a man shooting someone, and get caught up in a murder case that ends with them in prison. In the final scene, Vinod and Sudhir are shown several years later being released, still in their prison clothes. They turn to the camera and make a cut-throat gesture, signifying the death of justice and truth in an age of corruption.


Director’s Bio: Kundan Shah studied direction at the Film and Television Institute of India in Pune, where he developed an interest in various expressions of comedy. He is instrumental in introducing slapstick humor into the Indian filmic experience, with his cult hit Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro, and has worked in both film and television.

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