1st September 2013; Kiyoshi Kurosawa's TOKYO SONATA

Tokyo Sonata

A film by Kiyoshi Kurosawa

2008/Japan/Col/120 Min

1st September; 5.45pm

Perks Mini Theater

http://konangalfilmsociety.blogspot.in/

https://www.facebook.com/konangal.filmsociety

"Tokyo Sonata,"  opens on a note of routine, of a family so locked into their lives that they scarcely know one another. Ryuhei is a salaryman in a management job. His wife, Megumi, is a source of predictable domesticity, centering on cleaning, sewing and the preparation of meals. His older son, Takashi, and younger son, Kenji, are filled with unhappiness but seemingly well-disciplined. Ryuhei loses his job, joins hopeless queues at an employment office.

What we seem to have are the outlines of a traditional family drama, in which tensions are bottled up, revelations will occur and a crisis will result in either tragedy or resolution. But that's not what we're given by director Kiyoshi Kurosawa. It simply shows how lives torn apart by financial emergencies can be revealed as being damaged all along. Unemployment is the catalyst -- an unspoken reality that makes everyone in the family angrier than they already are. All of the performances have perfect pitch.

A sonata is a classical form in which two musical ideas are intercut. In the beginning, they are introduced. In the following sections, they are developed in passages revealing the secrets or potentials of both. The conclusion does not resolve them; instead, we return to look at them, knowing what we know now.

The "themes" in this movie are the father and his family. At the end, they feel the same tensions as at the beginning, but the facade has been destroyed, and they will have to proceed unprotected.   (Excerpts from Roger Ebert’s review)

Kiyoshi Kurosawa

Kiyoshi Kurosawa  was born in Kobe on July 19, 1955, (He is not related to director Akira Kurosawa). After studying at Rikkyo University in Tokyo under the guide of prominent film critic Shigehiko Hasumi,where he began making 8mm films, Kurosawa began directing commercially in the 1980s, working on pink films and low-budget V-Cinema (direct-to-video) productions such as formula yakuza films.

In the early 1990s, Kurosawa won a scholarship to the Sundance Institute and was able to study filmmaking in the United States, although he had been directing for nearly ten years professionally.

Kurosawa first achieved international acclaim with his 1997 crime thriller film Cure. This was followed by two thrillers back-to-back, Serpent's Path and Eyes of the Spider. His other films  Charisma, Pulse,  Bright Future , Doppelganger, Loft and Retribution followed.. With his 2008 film, Tokyo Sonata, Kurosawa was considered to step out of his usual horror genre and into family drama.

He has written a novelization of his own film Pulse, as well as a history of horror cinema with Makoto Shinozaki.

18th April 2013; TRIBUTE TO RITUPARNO GHOSH

 

Tribute To

RITUPARNO GHOSH

(1963 – 2013)

Screening of two films

UNISHE APRIL 

& 

ABOHOMAN

(Bengali with English subtitles)

18th August 2013, Sunday; 3.30pm to 8.30 pm

Convension Hall, PSG Institue of Management, Peelamedu

All are Welome; Admission Free

Presented by

Aruvi & Konangal Film Society

RITUPARNO GHOSH

August 31, 1963 - 30 May 2013

Ad and feature film maker, actor and director Rituparno Ghosh pushed the boundaries of Indian film-making, exploring personal relationships and issues of identity in a series of award winning films in Bengali, Hindi and English. From Unishe April in 1995 to the semi-biographical Chitrangada in 2013, he leaves behind a connoisseur’s collection.

A meticulous screenwriter-director whose films blended the classical literary traditions of his native Bengal with a new-age sensibility and craft that transcended the confines of region, Rituparno Ghosh was one of the most provocative voices of contemporary Indian cinema.

In a tragically brief but hugely eventful career, Ghosh made light of many divides through the means of his immaculately crafted films and on the strength of his own unique identity: art and commerce, regional and national, heterosexual and gay.

He was a rare Kolkata-based Bengali filmmaker who found ready acceptance among the biggest stars of mainstream Mumbai cinema.  More importantly, Ghosh was peerlessly gutsy in the manner in which he addressed issues of alternative sexuality in a series of three films made within a year of each other — Kaushik Ganguly’s Just Another Love Story (2011), Sanjoy Nag’s Memories in March (2011) and Chitrangada — The Crowning Wish (2012).

Rituparno was candid in openly challenging established social norms. Director Gautam Ghosh remarks," Rituparno stands out as one who stood for what he believed in. This is what I really appreciate in him … the confidence he had in his own point of view no matter what; a quiet but firmly independent spirit that found reflection in his various interactions, not to speak of his films.”

In less than two decades, Ghosh made nearly 20 films, the last being the incomplete Satyanweshi (Seeker of Truth), his take on an adventure of the fictional sleuth Byomkesh Bakshi that he finished shooting days before his death.

Born on August 31, 1963, Ghosh studied economics at Kolkata’s Jadavpur University. He learnt the ropes from his documentary filmmaker-father, Sunil Ghosh, before branching out on his own in the world of advertising.  Ghosh’s directorial debut was the nondescript children’s film Hirer Angti (The Diamond Ring), made in the early 1990s but released only in 1994. It was with the Bergmanesque Unishe April (April 19) that he burst on the scene.

Ghosh left a deep imprint with everything he did as a man and a filmmaker. There has never been, and is unlikely to be, anyone quite like him in Indian cinema. Within the short period of time he was among us, he has inspired us to think independently, express our views without fear and to hold an intense emotional-spiritual bond with everyone around us. May his soul rest in peace.

(Excerpts from  tribute article  by Arun Chatopadhyay)

UNISHE APRIL

(1994/Col/133 min)

Rituparna Ghosh truly arrived on the national scene with Unishe April.  it won Best Film and Best Actress (Debashree Roy) at the 1994 National Awards.

Sarojini, a dancer utterly devoted to her craft, keeps her daughter Aditi at arm’s length. Aditi, having lost her father to a heart attack and her mother to dance, is the bhadralok version of a rebellious teen: she is studying to be a doctor, and gets on her mother’s nerves by being excessively polite. Early on in Unishe April, Sarojini learns that she’s been selected for a prestigious award, resulting in her making immediate travel plans. This triggers off Aditi’s long-repressed feelings of abandonment, and when her mother unexpectedly returns that night, the resentment spills over.

Ghosh displays great assuredness for someone at the start of his filmmaking career. He patiently layers long, dialogue-heavy scenes one onto another, until the cumulative effect starts to show its power. At times one wishes that the visual flourishes – like the beautiful first shot where the camera pans away from the dancers, or the silhouette of Aditi lit by a single candle - were more frequent. The performances, however, keep one from straying. Roy gives Aditi a complexity often missing in such roles – her change in demeanour from the time she demands that her boyfriend call her long-distance to her break-down when he does, underlines the illusory nature of control. And Aparna Sen goes from affected to affecting as her character’s past is illuminated. Films made in this country often have teary endings, but few earn them the way this one does..   

( review fromhttp://fanapart.blogspot.in) 

 

ABOHOMAN

2009/Col/ 118 Min

ABOHOMAAN means “Like Weather” – something that’s Eternal and yet never Constant. Like weather that’s interspersed by streaks of sunlight and sudden bursts of rain, life is never a uniform journey of either happiness or grief. Ritu Da presented the same ephemeral quality of life through the non-linear reels of his film that traces the life of an ageing filmmaker and the repercussions of his ‘scandalous’ affair with a young actress, on his life and his family.

The point to be noted here is that though the word ‘scandal’ has been used many a time during the course of the film, there is nothing really blasphemous about the relation. In fact, what could have been another film about infidelity from Ritu Da’s armoury turns out to be a subtle tale of an artist and his muse – reflecting on the fact that our society is often myopic enough to misconstrue this relation to being an amorous one.

The story seamlessly links three layers of incidents: the aftermath of Aniket Mazumder’s death, his earlier days with his family and the straining relation between him and his wife Dipti & son Apratim, and his pioneering film “Noti Binodini” that starred debut actress Shikha, escalating her career to fame and nurturing rumours of Aniket’s affair with Shikha.

Abohomaan remains one of his more “original” works – where he could wield his creativity to the full extent and come out with flying colours. When you make films about relationships repeatedly, it gets very difficult to ensure that you don’t get repetitive. And here’s a man presenting an absolutely fresh perspective about inter-character duels – a view so fresh and so appealing that you wonder why people don’t think so much about relationships as he does!

(Review by Souvik Gupta )

3rd August 2013; LEENA MANIMEKALI 's Mathamma & Goddesses

Mathamma & Goddesses

Two documentary films by

TAMIL STUDIO’S 2013 LENIN AWARD WINNER

 LEENA MANIMEKALI

3^rd August; 6 pm.  Perks Mini Theater

 

Mathamma (2003)

16 　minute documentary capturing a peculiar practice of devoting the girl children to the deity of the folks of Arundhatiyar community in Mangattucheri village near Arokonam, Chennai.　Mathamma triggered a successful video participatory movement, which demanded the immediate government intervention, securing protection to women who were exploited in the name of "culture". Film braved against the defamation cases filed by few political outfits alleging it as a disgrace to the community's pride and traditions and facilitated as a tool for advocacy by gender and women rights movements.

Women in Director's Chair Film Festival, Chicago, 2004, World Socialist Youth Forum, Venezuala, 2005, CDIT National Video Film Festival, Trivandrum, 2003, Kolkata International Film festival, 2004

Excerpt :　http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJJpk1Pe484

Goddesses (2008)

Notes　from the lives of three extra ordinary women –　a funeral singer; a fisherwoman; a graveyard workerHere is the story of three ordinary women who live extra ordinary lives surviving darkest of times and gone against society's norms to live and work according to the rules they have set for themselves.

Lakshmi, a professional 'funeral singer': She visits death houses with a troop of drummers and for a measly pay, she wails and laments and shares the grief of the other mourners. The throb of the drums and her ankle　bells resonate in the house long after she has left.

Krishnaveni, the ‘grave-digger’: Dead unknown earn her the daily meal. Veni accepts unclaimed bodies from the local Police and gives them a decent burial or cremation, digging and maintaining the graves herself.

Sethuraku, the ‘fisherwoman’: What is normally considered as taboo for women is confidently done by this lady. She goes out to sea, every morning with a few fellow fisherwomen to collect fish and prawns, singing to welcome the day.

Nominated for Horizon Award,　Munich International Film festival, 2008,
Mention,　IAWRT International Documentary Film Competition, Women Building Peace, Nairobi, Kenya 2007,
Jury Award,　John Abraham National Awards for Cinema Of Resistance, SIGNS 2007, Trivandrum, Kerala.
Best Documentary, National Competition,　One Billion Eyes Documentary Film Festival　2008
Official Selection, International Competition,　Tri Continental Film Festival, South Africa 2008
Official Selection, International Factual Competition,　Roma Fiction Film Festival, Rome, 2008
Official Selection, National Competition,　International Video Film Festival of Kerala, 2008
Nomination,　Asia Pacific Awards, Brisbane, Australia, 2008
Official Selection,　Birds Eye View Film Festival, London, March 2009
Official Selection,　Belgrade Documentary Film Festival, May 2009

 

Leena Manimekalai

Leena Manimekalai is an independant Filmmaker,Poet and actor based in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. She has nine documentary films and a feature film to her credits. She has acted in several of her movies and has published three anthologies of poems. She is also a much acclaimed street theatre artist. Kanavupattarai is her publication house through which she has published 25 titles on world cinema and literature.

Leena was born in Maharajapuram, Virudhunagar, Tamil Nadu, India. She lost her father Prof.Dr. R. Raghupathy at a very early age and was brought up by her mother Rama. She attended Kamaraj University, where she obtained a graduate degree in engineering.

In her quest to contribute and raring to go, she has penetrated her land, state and nationwide, screening her films in more than thousand and odd forums and spaces.Women Movements, Mass Movements, Dalit Movements, Grassroot NGO's, Civil Rights Societies, Educational Institutions, Film Societies, Film Festivals etc. across the states have showed her films initiating a participatory dialogue and interventions.And she is able to relate across the line and cadre with humility and modesty having had the privilege of invitation screenings in international platforms and conferences across United States, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Norway, South Africa, Kenya, Finland, Venezuela, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Belgrade etc..

 After a brief period as an apprentice Director with mainstream filmmakers and an extensive experience as a Television Producer and Anchor, she debuted in 2001 with the short documentary film Mathamma.  Her other films too deal with the issues of the marginalized. Parai is a film on violence against Dalit women. She is road with her films across thousands of villages serving her videos a tool for participatory dialogue with the masses on compelling issues.Break the Shackles is about the effects of globalisation on rural Tamil villages. Love Lost is about changing relationships in urban space.  Leena was inspired to do this project while she was serving as a volunteer in tsunami-hit regions of Tamil Nadu doing art therapy workshops for children. Altar is a documentary intervention on child marriage customs prevailing in the Kambalathu Naicker community in the central parts of Tamil Nadu. Goddesses follows the lives of three extraordinary women who go against norms to succeed in usually male-oriented careers: a fisherwoman, a gravedigger and a funeral singer. A Hole In The Bucket takes a look at the dynamics of water crisis in the city of Chennai in the context of families with different income levels. A Hole in the Bucket was showcased at International Water Symposium, Stockholm, 2007.

Her first feature film Sengadal completed production in 2011. The film shows how the ethnic war in Sri Lanka had affected the lives of fishermen in Dhanushkodi. The censor board has initially refused clearance certificate to the film, stating that it made denigrating political remarks about the governments of Sri Lanka and India, and uses unparliamentary words.She had appealed to the Appellate Tribunal authorities and contested the case legally for several months and finally got it cleared by July 2011 without any cuts.

(Wikipedia)