IN
A celebration of the work of singer/composer Shankar Mahadevan with interviews from various Indian celebrities.
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Centred around a film festival of Indian films in China, the Film reflects on the dominant as well as alternative impressions of cultures – people, histories and landscapes – brought to us by cinema, playfully examining the idea of the cinematic image as an integral part of cultural propagation.
Jan 2015
Until recent years, the Santhali tribe of India did not have its own written language. Their stories and myths were preserved and passed on verbally through the generations. Each narration has a different form, much like the rocks of a nearby hill that come in various hues. While a woman from the community narrates a tale about the origin of creation and how their first house was built, the village prepares for an annual ritual.
Feb 2019
They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.
Sep 2019
An impressionistic film that paints a picture of Kozhikode in North Kerala and the spiritual immersion of its ordinary town-dwellers in music. A reflective essay traversing a music culture that is cosmopolitan, having strong local and global influences, it explores the music and memories of the city and its people.
Apr 2019
Tales from Napa is the remarkable story of a little village that resisted the forces of Hindu fundamentalism during the 2002 anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat, India. Set in the village of Napa, the film investigates the role played by local Hindus and Muslims and their social institutions in maintaining the peace, in the context of a history of economic interdependence, communal harmony and syncretism.
Jan 2011
Bajrangi Bhaijaan explores how ideas of masculinity in India are tied to Salman Khan fandom. It tries to understand what eco-blockbuster-manufactured machismo has on the Indian male already struggling with his identity in a globalized world. The story of a Salman Khan look-alike Shan Ghosh, and his two fans Balram and Bhaskar
Sep 2014
Lovely Villa explores the relationship between architecture, everyday life, family, desire and the idea of ‘home’. Director Rohan Shivkumar grew up in the titular apartment block, located in Borivali —an affluent coastal suburb of Mumbai. The building was designed by Charles Correa to house different communities within one edifice, as an articulation of the ideal environment for the Indian middle classes. Rohan, whose parents lived in the colony for over 40 years, explores its architecture with the aid of found materials, including old photographs and drawings, as well as personal narratives both factual and semi-fictional.
The contemporary relevance and future of oldest classical music.
Jan 2002
Schizophrenia. It may be one word, but it immediately conjures up multiple connotations. Mad. Incurable. Violent. Suicidal. Chemical imbalances. Crazy. A lifelong condition. Inevitable dependency on Medicines. Dark. Terrible. 'A Drop of Sunshine' challenges these notions. It questions the mainstream view of the condition and seeks alternate ways of recovering from it. Through the powerful story of its young and gutsy protagonist, Reshma Valiappan, it seeks to give viewers a new vocabulary to address the stigmatized mental illness. The film proposes that the only treatment method that can work in Schizophrenia is one where the so-called 'patient' is encouraged and empowered to become an equal partner in the process of healing.
Aug 2011
A free-flowing and intimate documentary on a maverick character from the Tollywood film industry, Kolkata, who has been in the doldrums because of serious addiction issues.
Jan 2018
The ten anthologies and eight long poems of the Sangam age are the oldest and most distinguished body of secular poetry extant in India, of which women poets were a very strong presence.
Oct 2012
A film about home and belonging, tracing the filmmaker's personal journey to understand what it means to be a Muslim in India today.
Jan 2005
In the world's only deaf-mute village where silence reigns, tension mounts as Misra Khatoon approaches childbirth. The villagers surround her home and beat drums seeking a response from the newborn.
Oct 2024
An impressionistic sketch of ‘the public’ as created by our cinema and its relationship with cinema itself.
Jan 2009
The film celebrates the beauty of plural India through the genre of the road movie.
May 2012
Rediscovering the intricately designed puppets of the Marathi legend Vishnudas Bhave. Screened at Atlanta and Milan.
Jun 2001
Story of the filmmaker's journey with Uma, a certified scuba diver, exploring the underwater world and the threat to coral reefs of Gulf of Mannar, India. Born in a traditional family in Tamil Nadu, 53 year old Uma, a homemaker, has been trying to bring attention to this alarming environmental issue through her paintings. It is, in fact, these corals that inspired Uma to learn how to swim, dive and paint in her 50s.
Vipin Vijay's Palace of the Winds is a poetic essay about that "Holy Little Box," the radio, conceived of as a ghostly transmitter of Indian cultural artifacts.
Jan 2003
This documentary is the first public documentation of the concept of love jihad. Filmed in Meerut following a televised moral policing event termed Operation Majnu, the film tracks the birth of a language of television news which has today become a norm of sensationalism and witch-hunts.
May 2007