Naaivaal Film Movement honours pioneers of Tamil cinema

Unsung Heroes

M. Senthamizhan’s documentary tells you who the real pioneers of Tamil cinema are..

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The invite had a long list of questions. Sample this: ‘Did you know that a man from your city travelled throughout the country 100 years ago to screen films? Do you know the interesting trivia surrounding Variety Hall Road? How did films initia lly pull in the crowds?’

Who could resist these? So, we promptly parked ourselves at Hotel Tamil Nadu for a documentary film screening organised by Naaivaal Film Movement. The film Pesaamozhi (Silent Language), directed by Chennai-based M. Senthamizhan was to provide answers to all those questions. And, it did.

The documentary traces the journey of Tamil silent movies, the masters behind them and seeks to crack riddles hitherto unexplained. It is sprinkled with interesting nuggets, interspersed with observations and opinions of experts.

In 1905, Swamikannu Vincent, a draughtsman in the Railways from Coimbatore, bought a projector from a Frenchman in Tiruchi, to become South India’s first exhibitor.

And, this was to cause a dramatic change in the entertainment arena of the nation. He set up a touring cinema that went around small towns and villages in the country. In fact, he went as far as Rangoon, Peshawar, Lahore and Mumbai with his touring cinema.

Crowd-puller

It was a hit among the public. There were no tickets. Instead, it was barter system: the audience emptied a bag of grains for viewing a show. As the films were silent, a storyteller explained them to an astonished audience. He was their god. They ensured all his requirements were met.

Unfortunately, storytellers were to wane into nothingness when the era of silent movies ended with the birth of the talking movies.

Says film historian Theodore Baskaran: “Cinema brought about a social revolution, because unlike drama, the audience were not discriminated against. Anyone with an anna or two could watch them. However, this easy access to the public brought about nonchalance among the intellects. Victoria Public Hall was close to Sudesi Mithran’s (newspaper) office. But, not one film review was written by Bharathiar in 20 years.” This is why, there is nothing l eft of Coimbatore’s son Vincent, except a road named after the theatre he built: Variety Hall Road.

Similar fate encountered greats from other parts of the State such as Marudhamuthu Moopanar, and Nataraja Mudaliar who produced South India’s first silent movie Keechaka Vadham (1918).

Kittusamy, who runs the Welcome Saloon opposite Delite Theatre recalls how as a seven-year-old he saw his neighbour Vincent choosing a car from an assembly lined up at his house.

Nuggets

Another neighbour narrates how during Vincent’s funeral, the city experienced aalankatti mazhai. Director Senthamizhan’s fine touches throughout the film command mention: Be it a naked village boy gaping at a row of bullock carts or offbeat snapshots from the film shoot itself!

Senthamizhan calls for concerted efforts for garnering all possible details about these heroes who remain unsung in the annals of the Indian film industry.

If you have details on these heroes, or want to purchase the DVD (Rs. 250), contact the director at 98412-74384.

Sound bytes

Theodore Baskaran (Film historian)

“During the time of the touring cinemas, there were breaks between scenes, for the projector to cool a bit. To keep the audience engaged during such breaks, wrestling, comedy and concerts were introduced. These, perhaps, were the harbinger to the incongruent song, fight and comedy tracks in films today.”

Paavendhan (Researcher, Tamilology)

“Most of the records on films in the country give details on actors and directors. However, many fail to understand that theatre history, exhibitors, studios, and even the audience are very integral to the film industry. And, this is why we find very little details on these, even on the internet.”

Paamaran (Columnist)

“The recent celebration of Tamil film’s platinum jubilee took into account the first ‘talking’ movie Kalidasan (1931). This is a painful pointer to the fact that even the film industry and the Government have forgotten the doyens of the Tamil cinema, who had screened/produced silent movies since 1913.”

M. Senthamizhan (Director)

“Silent movies were ignored by the intellects in the State, who believed that a medium (silent films) that drew innumerable crowd could be of little consequence. This may be one of the chief reasons why none of the 130-odd Tamil silent movies or their documents remains today.”

Courtesy : The Hindu , Metroplus dated 30 07 2007.

02nd September 2007 : Magendran's Uthiri Pookkal

Uthiri Pookkal

A Film by J.Magendran
Tamil ; Year : 1979
Run Time : 143 minutes
2nd September 2007 at 5.45 pm
Venue : Ashwin Hospital Auditorium
Call : 94430 39630

Uthiri Pookkal is based on a short story by Pudumai Pithan,. It portrays village school head Sundara Vadivelu’s life , his lust and his arrogance. The sadistic character of Vadivelu portrayed by Vijayan is unforgettable. Fascinating characters, excellent performances make this movie a memorable one. Mani Ratnam said in a Hindu interview , “In ``Udhiri Pookkal'' the scattered images made fantastic poetry. If I get anywhere near what Mahendran did in ``Udhiri Pookkal'' I'll be a happy man.” That sum’s up the greatness of this movie.

Uthiri Pookkal and Tamil Cinema

Tamil cinema has completed 75 years. Tamil Film Industry holds an important position in film production in India . According to available data from Film News Anandan’s book, number of Tamil films produced till 2003 is a staggering 4003 . This figure does not include dubbed movies from other languages. Again from 2004 to 2006, another 241 Tamil films have been made. But how many of these films can be counted as ‘real cinema’ or ‘ good cinema ‘. Sadly, the number will be in single digit for any serious cinema lover. Very rarely , one or two film makers defy the existing norms and make memorable movies in Tamil despite all the odds. We must be ever thankful to them. Magendran happens to be one and his Uthiri Pookkal is one such film – a rare masterpiece.

J.Magendran

Born in 1939 in Tamil Nadu . Magendran's first film (as director) ‘Mullum Malarum' was released in 1978. Then Uthiri Pookkal was released in 1979. Magendran has directed 11 films till 1992. His recent project Saasanam, with funds from NFDC is yet to be released properly. It is very hard for any original, talented filmmaker to survive in our Tamil Film Industry. Same has happened to this wonderful, talented original director. Magendran has almost disappeared from the scene and is almost forgotten.

To read this part in Tamil , please use Internet Explorer Browser.

தமிழ் சினிமா

"நல்ல சினிமா என்பது நல்ல புத்தகம் போல என்பது என் கருத்து. நல்ல படங்களைப் பார்த்துதான் படம் சம்பந்தப்பட்ட என் அறிவை வளர்த்துக் கொண்டேன். எனது அறிவு புத்தகங்கள் படித்து வந்தது இல்லை. ஷேக்ஸ்பியரையும் , சார்லஸ் டிக்கன்ஸையும், ஆஸ்கர் வைல்டையும், டென்னசி வில்லியம்சையும், ஆர்தர் மில்லரையும் நான் படங்கள் வழியேதான் பயின்றேன். ஏனென்றால் எனது இளமைக்காலம் படங்களின் யுகமாக இருந்தது. ஆனால் தமிழ் சினிமா அன்றும் இன்றும் அதே கீழ் நிலையிலேயே இருக்கிறது. நமது சரித்திரப் பெருமையையோ, நமது மண்ணின் கலாசாரப் பெருமையையோ அவை எடுத்துச் சொல்ல முன்வந்ததில்லை. அதைப்பற்றி நமது தமிழ் சினிமா ஏதாவது பேசியிருக்குமேயானாலும் அவை வெற்றுப் பம்மாத்துக்களாகவே
இருக்கின்றன. "
- ஜெயகாந்தன்
நன்றி : http://www.tamilcinema.com/

Hindu write up by K.Jeshi on Konangal's 19th August tribute to Bergman & Antonioni

Masterminds in action

Contemporary filmmakers Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni explored the dynamics of human relationships and redefined cinematic language in a vocabulary, all their own. K. Jeshi writes on Konangal’s tribute to them

Photos: S. Siva Saravanan

Bibi Andersson

“My creativity is terribly childish … it is a dialogue with my childhood,” says Ingmar Bergman in a recorded interview. For those who love Bergman, his work is poetry. He deliberately wipes a couple of lines in-betwee n so that you can fill in the blanks and enjoy the poem. The European master directed theatre and opera for 60 years and penned 50 original scripts. He passed away on July 30 in Sweden, and the void left behind is hard to fill. His films are completely personal and deal with the complexities of human mind and search for answers. Konangal Film Society made the tribute a memorable experience. Bergman’s classic, The Virgin Spring (1960) that fetched him his first Academy award, and the masterpiece Persona (1966) were screened at Kasturi Sreenivasan Art Gallery. A documentary on Bergman brought him closer to his fans.

Towards enlightenment

Liv Ullman

Adapted from a 14th century Swedish legend by screenwriter and novelist Ulla Isaksson, The Virgin Spring affirms faith, humanity and atonement. Bergman narrates the conditions in the transitional era of the Middle Ages. It begins with Karin (Birgitta Petersson) and Ingeri (Gunnel Lindblom) who are sent to church by their mother (Birgitta Valberg) and father (Von Sydow), strict Christians.

Ingeri is jealous of the attention lavished on Karin and tricks her naïve stepsister into continuing the journey alone. Karin encounters two herdsmen who rape, and kill her. A boy is witness to the crime. Eventually, the girl’s father takes revenge and as penance, vows to build a church. “He juxtaposes contradictions and opposing views only for our interpretation and intellectual progress,” says D. Anandan, film buff. He shows two levels of violence — the physical one of the herdsmen and the human meanness between the sisters, a reminder that we are always under threat of such violence. Another film buff said the film raised the question, ‘Should I believe in God or not?’

“It captured the conflict between religions and the way of life then,” said Rajeev Kamineni of Oxford Bookstore. The cinematography of Sven Nykvist captured the ruggedness of the polar country.

Persona, considered one of his central works on Modernism, explores an encounter between two women — Elisabet Vogler (Liv Ullman) , a successful actress who has become mute during a performance of Electra, and sister Alma played by Bibi Andersson (Alma means soul in Spanish and Portuguese), the nurse who cares for her. Bergman had said: “Persona saved my life — that is no exaggeration. If I had not found the strength to make that film, I would probably have been all washed up. One significant point: for the first time I did not care in the least whether the result would be a commercial success...”

Noted film critic Susan Sontag had called it “Bergman’s masterpiece”. Though the film has been variously interpreted, critics agree that it explores the intricacies of the doctor-patient relationship, in particular the phenomenon of transference. While Elisabet is ostensibly the patient, her silence suggests a reversal — in psychoanalysis the doctor is silent and the patient speaks. Thus Alma might be seen as the patient and Elisabet, the silent analyst. The interpretation that the two are the same is shown in a famous shot, the juxtaposition of Alma’s and Elisabet’s faces to form one image. The prevalent use of single camera shots throughout film helps the audience study the characters’ faces and the extremely tight close-ups illustrate the theme of psychological deconstruction.

Studying minds

When Pon. Chandran of Konangal said: “As the movie progresses, we start wondering if Alma is the patient,” many in the audience agreed. “His filmmaking is a blend of cinema and theatre; one complements and supplements the other beautifully. In Persona, he exposes the conflict between the inner complexities and outside appearances.”

The face is the index of the mind and the film captures this, said another film lover. “The compassion they share is so strong that one person loosens up to accommodate the other inside her to give peace,” he added.

D. Anandan pointed out that as said by Susan, the director merges reality and fantasy seamlessly. “He withholds the signals; so it becomes insufficient to read the film.” He sees the ending as another state of nothingness. “Elisabet creates a void with her silence and Alma falls into the void, and enters a fantasy world. Finally, both are cured and get back to work.”

Reality check

A few hours after Bergman’s death came another blow to the film world; the death of Italian Michelangelo Antonioni, one of the distinctive filmmakers of the 20th century, known for his ‘neo-realist’ style. In Blow- up (1966), Antonioni’s protagonist, an emotionally isolated, light-eyed star photographer Thomas (David Hemmings) shoots pictures in a park. When he blows up and interprets his pictures, he discovers a dead body in the frame. A m urder has taken place, but when he goes back to investigate, there is nothing there. Carlo Di Palma’s camerawork, setting and editing rhythm lend stylish elements to the film. A tennis match in the finale became a reference point of 60s cinema. “A group of mime artistes enters the film, and two of them mime a tennis match with the rest cheering. Suddenly, the imaginary ball bounces off court and the photographer throws it back. Antonioni challenges the audience to re-examine the world around and understand reality,” says Rakesh S. Katarey of Amrita School of Communication.

K. Jeshi

Courtesy : Hindu Metroplus dated 25 08 2007

We thank all the film lovers who participated in the full day tribute to the masters, Ingmar Bergman and Michelangelo Antonioni on 19th August 2007 at Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium.
We thank the press and all our well wishers for all the support.

Do share with us your feed back on the screenings and discussions. Mail us to konangal@gmail.com

On 19 th August 2007 , Konangal pays full day tribute to Ingmar Bergman and Michalangelo Antonioni

Rest in peace, dear auteurs

Konangal will host a full day tribute to Bergman and Antonioni with their films on Sunday 19th August 2007 from morning 9 .45 to evening 6.30 at Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium , Peelamedu , Coimbatore.

When ‘immortals’ die
The passing of Ingmar Bergman in Sweden and Michelangelo Antonioni in Italy only hours apart of each other on the same day, July 30, left a vacuum in the film world that cannot be filled for decades to come. They straddled world cinema like colossuses—two of the top 10 filmmakers of all time.















Ingmar Bergman
14h july 1918 - 30th July 2007

Bergman and Antonioni were among those who redefined cinematic language in the 1950s and thus gave birth to the art film. Now that they’re gone, those who are left of that generation of golden pioneers, Andrzej Wajda of Poland , Manoel de Oliveira of Portugal, that perpetual iconoclast Jean-luc Godard, standing along with Eric Rhomer and Claude Chabrol .

Click here to watch this video tribute to Ingmar Bergman




















Michelangelo Antonioni
29th Sept. 1912 - 30th July 2007

Their deaths came only a few months after the passing of the godfather of American independent filmmaking, Robert Altman, adding to our considerable sorrow. Bergman and Antonioni explored similar themes, each using his distinctive film vocabulary. Again and again each returned to the same themes, elaborated on the same topics, elucidated the same problems.

Click here to watch Bergman talks about Antonioni

Their exploration of the dynamics of human relationships can hardly be equaled. They found the malaise of modern society rooted in either lack of faith, loss of identity, or noncommunication among humans—and while Antonioni traces this mostly to alienation and ennui, Bergman directly puts the blame on the absence, if not the death, of God.Bergman could be philosophizing but Antonioni was the more cerebral, the master of modernist complexity, the “hero of the highbrows.”

We will be screening Bergman's much talked about films , Virgin Spring and Persona and Antonioni's masterpiece, Blow Up .

Blow Up

Year :1966 ; Run time 111 minutes

"The photographer in Blow Up, who is not a philosopher, wants to see things closer up. But it so happens that, by enlarging too far, the object itself decomposes and disappears. Hence there's a moment in which we grasp reality, but then the moment passes. This was in part of the meaning of Blow Up"
—Antonioni On Blow Up

In the hip culture of 1960s London, Thomas is a famous fashion photographer whose disillusionment is reflected in his expressionless, mannequin-like models. His technical directions have no meaning - they only serve as a means to fill the silence. He is constantly surrounded by people - celebrities, groupies, mod scene acquaintances - but is emotionally isolated. He weaves through drug parties and casual sex with the same pervasive mechanical detachment that he shows in his work. Perhaps, his only source of true intimacy comes from his brief meetings with an ex-girlfriend who has since married someone else, and can only offer abbreviated words and exchange enigmatic, knowing glances


Thomas secretly takes photos of a couple he sees embracing in a park. Through a series of blow-ups of the many exposures he snaps, he find clues to a murder. Taking a new direction with a new language, setting and editing rhythm, Antonioni makes an intriguing statement on the ambiguous nature of the film medium itself. Neither a portrait of Swinging London nor a bona fide thriller, Blow Up questions the maxim that the camera never lies and sets out into a virtually abstract examination of subjectivity and perception. Carlo Di Palma's camerwork leavens the brew, while the film's finale—a ballless tennis match—became a reference point of the 60's cinema.
Click here to watch 'Blow Up' trailer.
Click here for 'Blow Up' photo shoot session !

Like many of Antonioni's films, Blowup is a parable of answered prayers: the idea that the distraction of wealth and fame cannot fill the void of loneliness, nor substitute for a soul's unrequited passion


The Virgin Spring

Year : 1960 ; Run time 89 mins. ; Swedish with English subtitles

One of the few films that Ingmar Bergman directed but did not write. Oscar winning Bergman classic The Virgin Spring begins with Karin (Birgitta Petersson) and Ingeri ( Gunnel Lindblom )being sent on a journey to church by their mother (Birgitta Valberg) and father (von Sydow), who are very strict Christians. Ingeri is jealous of all the attention lavished on the spoilt but innocent Karin and tricks her naïve stepsister into continuing the journey to church alone. Karin soon meets two herdsmen (Axel Düberg and Tor Isedal) and a boy (Ove Porath), and offers to share a meal with them. However, events quickly take a horrific turn.

Adapted from a fourteenth century Swedish legend by screenwriter and novelist Ulla Isaksson, The Virgin Spring is a harrowing, yet ultimately affirming portrait of faith, humanity, and atonement. Using chiaroscuro imagery that interplays light and shadows, Ingmar Bergman reflects the process of spiritual illumination in the transitional era of the Middle Ages where mysticism, amorality, and paganism coexisted with the period of intellectual, artistic, and religious enlightenment.

Persona

Year : 1966 –Run time 85 minutes – Swedish with English sub titles.

Persona is often considered to be Bergman’s masterpiece and is often described as one of the central works of Modernism. Bergman himself claimed that this film ‘touched wordless secrets only the cinema can discover’. Persona is arguably Ingmar Bergman's most challenging film. Elisabeth Vogler (Liv Ullman) is an accomplished stage actress who, in the middle of performing Elektra, ceases to speak. Sister Alma (Bibi Andersson), the young nurse assigned to care for her, learns that there is nothing physically or even psychologically wrong with Elisabeth - she has simply, consciously decided not to speak. Alma (the name, not accidentally, is the Spanish word for soul) describes her initial impressions of Elisabeth as gentle and childlike, but with strict eyes. She takes Elisabeth to the attending physician's remote summer house to facilitate her recuperation. At first, the two seem ideally suited: a talkative, candid, and inexperienced nurse, and a sophisticated, enigmatic, and silent patient. They take long walks, bask in the sun, and read together. It is obvious that their isolation has cultivated a sense of intimacy between them, albeit one-sided.

Click here for Persona video clip

Persona is a provocative, highly cerebral, and artistically complex depiction of human frailty, cruelty, and identity. Bergman uses minimal composition and extremely tight close-ups to illustrate the theme of psychological deconstruction. You may note the prevalent use of single camera shots throughout the duration of a scene. The lack of camera movement forces us to study the characters' faces. Persona, after all, as the title suggests, is not about who the person actually is, but the different identities, or facades, that the person projects.

Screening at Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium , Peelamedu , Cbe.
9.45 am to 6.30 pm on Sunday 19th August 2007.
Age limit 18 years. For refreshmnets and lunch Rs.50
You are welcome to contribute more and support our efforts in popularising good cinema.
Call :94430 39630 Email : konangal@gmail.com

Cinema Giant Ingmar Bergman dies aged 89

NO ONE MADE FILMS

LIKE HIM

A Legend Passes Away


Ingmar Bergman 1918 - 2007

One of the most legendary filmmakers in cinema history, Ingmar Bergman, died on Monday - 30th July 2007, at his home on Faro island off the coast of Sweden. According to his daughter, Eve, the director of The Seventh Seal and Persona died peacefully in his sleep. He was 89.

The influence and importance of Ernst Ingmar Bergman, who died Monday, to the language and art of cinema remains as solid today as it did when he first splashed onto the international stage some six decades ago. Bergman is undisputed colossus of the 'art' cinema whose work astonished with its recognition of cruelty, death and above all the torment of doubt.

Konangal celebrated this master of Cinema with it's very first one day Film Festival on 11th February 2007 . A retrospective of Ingmar Bergman's three all time classics , Seventh Seal , Hour Of The Wolf and Cries and Whispers were screened at Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium. . Again Konangal screened Bergman's ' Wild Strawberries ' on 20th May 2007.

Like Virginia Woolf and James Joyce in literature, Bergman strove to capture and illuminate the mystery, ecstasy and fullness of life, by concentrating on individual consciousness and essential moments. His achievement is unsurpassed. He is one of the few filmmakers that can be spoken of in the same breath with those artists and with other supreme figures of other disciplines. Bergman is at the pinnacle. He is in the pantheon. Without question, Bergman was one of the 20th century's greatest artists. He was sort of a poet of anguish whose best-known movies were existential meditations on the meaning of life. His films will continue
to inspire the current and future generations. Bergman will be greatly missed

And now, with his passing at the age of 89, the last legitimate old-school cinematic giant has fallen. He follows other luminaries into the realm of legend, and eventually through time, into the epiphany of myth.








Click here for link to view Ingmar Bergman's greatest scenes. Remind yourselves of the great Swedish film-maker's finest moments with these clips.

On 5th August 2007: Salaam Bombay !

If We Don't Tell Our Own Stories,

Nobody Else Will

Salaam Bombay! - A Film by Mira Nair
Nominated for Oscar | Won 25 International awards
35 mm | Color | 113 minutes | 1988
Hindi with English Subtitles
Venue : Ashwin Hospital Auditorium , Ganapathy , Coimbatore
5th August 2007 , Sunday at 5.45 pm.

The history of the making of Mira Nair’s "Salaam Bombay!" is almost as interesting as the film itself. The filmmakers gathered a group of the street children of Bombay and talked with them about their experiences, visiting the streets and train stations, bazaars and red-light districts where many of them lived. Out of these interviews emerged a screenplay that was a composite of several lives. Then many of the children were enlisted for weeks in a daily workshop, not to teach them "acting" (for that they already knew from hundreds of overacted Indian film melodramas), but to teach them how to behave naturally in front of the camera. Out of those workshops a cast gradually emerged. Shooting on actual locations in Bombay, director Mira Nair has been able to make a film that has the everyday, unforced reality of documentary, and yet the emotional power of great drama.

Click here to watch video clips from 'Salaam Bombay'

Chaipau is an intelligent boy, stubborn and wily, and he finds a job as a runner for a man who runs a tea stall in the street. Chaipau's job is to race up flights of tenement stairs with trays of tea, and in the tenements he finds a world of poverty, sweatshops, prostitution and drug dealing. One of the friends he makes is a pathetic 16-year-old girl who was sold or kidnapped away from her native village, and is being held captive by a rapacious madam who plans to sell her virginity to the highest bidder. The other characters in the neighborhood include a hopeless drunk and addict, who befriends the children as best he can.

One of the subplots of the film involves the relationship between a drug dealer and the prostitute who is his common-law wife. She lives for her child, and exists in daily fear that the child will be taken from her because of the life she leads. Nair treats this woman with such sensitivity that we feel great sympathy for her when the child is threatened, and this illustrates one of the underlying beliefs of "Salaam Bombay!": That the street life, however hard, is preferable to what happens to people once they are identified by the law and become the victims of official institutions.

It is remarkable how well Nair creates this street world and tells us its rules without seeming to force her story. One of her secrets is location shooting; not a single scene in this movie was shot on a set or in a studio, and some of the scenes - including a funeral procession - were shot with hidden cameras, to capture the unrehearsed behavior of the spectators.
Courtesy - RogerEbert.Com


Mira Nair



Mira Nair loves to tell a good story, no matter what the genre. From the gritty urban realism of her debut feature, Salaam Bombay!, to the gilded world of 19th-century England in Vanity Fair and the intricacies of romance, love, and family in her smash hit, Monsoon Wedding, she's a director who has continually defied easy categorization.

Accomplished Film Director/Writer/Producer Mira Nair was born in Bhubaneswar, India in 1957. Educated at both Delhi University and Harvard University, Nair began her artistic career as an actor before turning her attention to film. She found incipient success as a documentary filmmaker, winning awards for ' So Far From India ' and ' India Cabaret' . In 1988, Nair’s debut feature, Salaam Bombay!, was nominated for an Academy Award, Golden Globe, and BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It also won the Camera D'Or (for best first feature) and the Prix du Publique (for most popular entry) at the Cannes Film Festival as well as 25 other international awards.

Nair’s next film, Mississippi Masala, an interracial love story set in the American South and Uganda, starring Denzel Washington and Sarita Choudhury, won three awards at the Venice Film Festival including Best Screenplay and The Audience Choice Award. Subsequent films include The Perez Family (with Marisa Tomei, Anjelica Huston, Alfred Molina and Chazz Palminteri), about an exiled Cuban family in Miami; and the sensuous Kama Sutra: A Tale of Love, which she directed and co-wrote.

Nair directed My Own Country based on Dr. Abraham Verghese's best-selling memoir about a young immigrant doctor dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Made in 1998, My Own Country starred Naveen Andrews, Glenne Headly, Marisa Tomei, Swoosie Kurtz, and Hal Holbrook, and was awarded the NAACP award for best fiction feature.

Nair returned to the documentary form in August1999 with The Laughing Club of India, which was awarded The Special Jury Prize in the Festival International de Programmes Audiovisuels 2000.

In the summer of 2000, Nair shot Monsoon Wedding in 30 days, a story of a Punjabi wedding starring Naseeruddin Shah and an ensemble of Indian actors. The film opened to tremendous critical acclaim and commercial success and went on to win the Golden Lion at the 2001 Venice Film Festival and receive Golden Globe and BAFTA nominations for Best Foreign Language Film.

Nair’s next film, Hysterical Blindness, gave HBO its highest original film ratings in three years. Set in working class New Jersey in 1987, the film stars Uma Thurman, Juliette Lewis, Gena Rowlands, and Ben Gazarra. Over 15 million viewers watched Blindness on HBO and critics recognized the film with a Golden Globe for Uma Thurman and three Emmy Awards (including Best Supporting Actress for Rowlands and Best Supporting Actor for Gazarra).

Following the tragic events of September 11, 2001, Nair joined a group of 11 renowned filmmakers, each commissioned to direct a film that was 11 minutes, 9 seconds and one frame long. In 2003, Nair produced “Still the Children Are Here,” an intimate documentary by Dinaz Stafford about the Garo peoples of Meghalaya, India.

In May 2003, Nair directed the Focus Features production of the William Thackeray classic, Vanity Fair, a provocative period tale set in Georgian England, filmed entirely on location in the UK and India. Nair was appointed as the mentor in film by the prestigious Rolex Protégé Arts Initiative, joining fellow mentors Jessye Norman, Sir Peter Hall, David Hockney, Mario Vargas Llosa, and Saburo Teshigawara to help guide young artists in critical stages of their development.Mira Nair has so far directed 18 features which include documentaries.

Nair currently lives in New York City with her husband and son.

Courtesy:MirabaiFilms.Com

On 15th July 2007 - Man On The Train

A Film by Patrice Leconte
Year 2002. Runtime 90 minutes .
French with English subtitles.
Venue ; Ashwin Hospital Auditorium , Ganapathy
15th July 2007 Sunday at 5.45 pm.

In this elegant French mystery, two strangers – meet late in life. One is a retired literature teacher. The other is a bank robber. Both are approaching a rendezvous with destiny. By chance, they spend some time together. Each begins to wish he could have lived the other's life.
From this simple premise, Patrice Leconte has made one of his most elegant films. It proceeds as if completely by accident and yet foreordained, and the two men--who come from such different worlds--get along well because both have the instinctive reticence and tact of born gentlemen. It is rare that a film looks unflinchingly at a friendship between men without placing sex, money, or power as roadblocks to overcome.

The real draw to "Man on the Train" are the believable characters created by the pen of scenarist Claude Klotz and the nicely textured spin put on them by Rochefort and Hallyday. The two actors establish their characters as three-dimensional beings that, after their long respective careers, crave a life completely different than they have known.

The dialogue of "Man on the Train" is minimal, especially for Hallyday, with periods of silence between the two men as meaningful as their spoken words.

Leconte paces his film like two trains gaining speed for a head-on collision, technically merging Manesquier and Milan's distinct color and sound themes until a swirl of surgeon's masks and stocking-faced robbers seal the men's fates together. A fantastical conclusion might be seen as an unearned happy ending that blunts the irony of where the men's original plans take them

The cinematographer, Jean-Marie Dreujou, has given the film an unusually rich look, all autumnal browns and golds.


Leconte brings his film to transcendent closure without relying on stale plot devices or the clanking of the plot. He resorts to a kind of poetry. After the film is over, you want to sigh with joy, that in this rude world such civilization is still possible

Man on the Train is a gorgeous reminder to know what you want, but also to appreciate what you have. Watching "Man on the Train" is like coming across one of those threadbare Persian rugs you see on public tours of private homes. Its elegance is more comfortable than cold, and it carries its worn, battered mien proudly .

The film provides a coherent end to both characters’ poems, and a little for us to ponder as we leave. Man on the Train is a journey well worth taking.

Patrice Leconte, Unlikely Auteur
a master of encounters

















"For me, there's nothing more enthralling than starting from reality - my inspiration always comes from reality, from ordinary people - and then going beyond it."

Director of Man On The Train , French filmmaker Patrice Leconte is as notable for his refusal to be easily categorized as he is for his long and productive career. Since making his major directorial debut in 1975 with Les Vécés Étaient Fermés de L'Intérieur, Leconte has established himself as one of France's most respected directors, at ease tackling subjects ranging from mental illness to sexuality to canny deconstructions of wit and society. He received particular acclaim for his 1996 film Ridicule, winning the admiration of an international audience while furthering his reputation as one of the French cinema's most treasured figures.

A native Parisian, Leconte was born on November 12, 1947. He decided to be a filmmaker at a very young age, and went on to attend France's most prestigious film school, I.D.H.E.C. During his education, constant visits to the Paris Cinémathèque aided in his understanding of cinematography culture. After graduating from I.D.H.E.C. in 1969, Leconte went against the cinematic grain, becoming a cartoonist for the French magazine Pilote. He made his living from cartooning until 1975, all the while shooting comic-fantasy shorts. The brand of humor he developed while making these shorts would later become the trademark of his most personal comedies.
In 1975, Leconte collaborated with Pilote colleague Marcel Gotlib to write Les Vécés Étaient Fermés de L'Intérieur (The Toilets Were Locked From the Inside). However, Leconte found greater success with his next feature, Les Bronzés (or French Fried Vacation). The 1978 film was the result of his involvement with the famed theater company, Le Splendid, where he wrote comedy and worked with actors like Michel Blanc, Josiane Balasko, and Thierry Lhermitte .

His next two films, in fact, proved to be compelling explorations of different types of madness, whether this madness assumed the form of murder and obsession or was irrevocably linked to sexual desire. The first of these films, 1989's Monsieur Hire, and the subsequent effort, Le Mari de la Coiffeuse (The Hairdresser's Husband) (1990), was also a critical success. Leconte's next major project was 1993's Tango, a black comedy . The film was a considerable success, unlike Leconte's next two major features, Le Parfum d'Yvonne (1994) and Les Grands Ducs (1996). The relative critical and commercial disappointments of these films, however, were to be more than made up for by his 1996 Ridicule, which was filmed while Les Grands Ducs was being edited.Ridicule was tremendously popular, chosen as the opening film at the 1996 Cannes Festival. It went on to win four Césars, including Best Film and Best Director.
Leconte is a director who knew his element, regardless of the period, style, or content of the films he made.
~ Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide

Screening on 1st July 2007: KWAIDAN (Ghost Stories )

Since its release in 1964, KWAIDAN - an anthology film featuring four separate spooky tales - has earned a reputation in the West as one of the classic Japanese ghost movies. There had been a tradition of such films before, but with its lavish budget and production values, KWAIDAN was not just another routine genre item; it was clearly intended as high-class art.

Click here for TRAILER OF KWAIDAN

Directed by the Japanese master MASAKI KOBAYASHI and Winner of the Special Jury Prize at the 1965 Cannes Film Festival, Kwaidan represents a considerable departure from the works of its director, who made his initial fame with such socially conscious dramas as Black River (a study of corruption brought about by U.S. military bases in Japan) and The Human Condition (an expose of Japanese mistreatment of Chinese in POW camps). Shot almost entirely in enormous studio sets, with a completely post-synched and carefully controlled soundtrack, Kwaidan is about as far from moviemaking realism as it is possible to go. Yet in going to such dramatically ambitious lengths as adapting aspects of Kabuki and Bunaraku puppet theatre to filmmaking techniques, Kobayashi achieves a subtle synthesis of realism and stylization. He makes palpable a vision in which beauty and horror not only coexist but complement one another.

Click here for more on Kwaidan from IMDB

Kwaidan contains four distinct, separate stories
* In "Black Hair," a faithless samurai abandons his wife for a rich replacement. Later, filled with regret, he returns to his first wife, but he wakes up the next morning to find something else....

* "Woman in the Snow" - features two woodsmen caught in a snow storm. The older one dies at the hands of the title character, a kind of female demon, but she takes pity on the younger, letting him live in exchange for a promise never to reveal what happened.

* "Hoichi the Earless" is about a musician who is summoned to sing his songs about an ancient battle. It turns out his audience consists of the ghosts of those who perished in the battle. A priest protects Hoichi by covering his bodies with tattoos that hide him from the spirits.

* "In a Cup of Tea" - the author tells us - is an unfinished fragment of a tale of what befalls someone who drinks a cup of tea with a "soul" in it, leading to ghostly visitations. The film ends with something similar happening to the author...

"Kwaidan" is a symphony of color and sound that is truly past compare. It is also well acted in a technique of Japanese gestures by a large and orderly cast, the most conspicuous and memorable of whom is Katsuo Nakamura as the blind ballad singer. It is a film that commends itself mainly to those viewers who can appreciate rare subtlety and grace.

Masaki Kobayashi

Masaki Kobayashi is considered one of the great cinematic masters of the Japanese immediate post-war era No one of that generation of filmmakers was affected quite as strongly by the war as Kobayashi. His most acclaimed films are unflinching explorations into the dark side of Japanese culture, the side that drove men to commit gory suicide for the name of honor and commit horrific atrocities in the name of the Emperor. Kobayashi's exacting professionalism makes his films a visually and emotionally power experience.
Born in February, 1916, in Japan's northern-most island Hokkaido, Kobayashi entered prestigious Waseda University in 1933 . Kobayashi eventually left Waseda to enter Shochiku's Ofuna studios. Kobayashi worked as an assistant for a mere eight months before he was drafted and sent to the front in Manchuria. Opposed to the war, which he viewed as senseless, he refused to rise above the position of private. In 1944, he was transferred to the southern Ryukyu Islands, where he witnessed the war's final bloody tumult. There he was captured by the U.S. and held for a year in a detention camp in Okinawa. In the fall of 1946, Kobayashi returned to Shochiku and served for six years as an assistant director under Keisuke Kinoshita.

He garnered international acclaim and a prestigious San Giorgio prize at the Venice Film Festival in 1960 for his Human Condition I: No Greater Love (1958), the first installment of sweeping trilogy about the war. Kobayashi's films brought to life by the masterful performances of Nakadai in such Kobayashi classics as Harakiri (1962), Kwaidan (1964), and Rebellion (1967).With the acclaimed Kwaidan, his first color film, he pushed this emphasis on composition with his expressionistic use of color. Kobayashi died in of a heart attack in 1996.

Screening at Ashwin Hospital Auditorium, Ganapathy , Kovai.
On 01 07 2007 at 5.45 pm
Call 94430 39630 Email konangal@gmail.com

The realism of Ritwik Ghatak

Pankaja Srinivasan's write up on the Ritwik Ghatak Film Festival conducted by Konangal published in Hindu Metroplus dated 21 06 2007

Retrospective / Cinema

Never known to sugarcoat his films, Ritwik Ghatak’s in-your-face portrayal of life still wields tremendous impact, writes Pankaja Srinivasan

Idealism Vs Realism

Stills from Subarnarekha, which Ritwik Ghatak called his most philosophical film

Ritwik Ghatak was born in 1925, and came of age during the great Bengal Famine, the Second World War and, the upheaval when twice, Bengal was “physically rent apart—in 1947 by the Partition … and in 1971 by the Bangladeshi War of In dependence”.

Like millions of others, he had to leave home in Dhaka, and the uprooted, the dispossessed and the homeless became the leitmotif of most of his films, including the three — Subarnarekha, Meghey Dhaka Taara a nd Komal Gandhaar — that were screened at the Ritwik Ghatak retrospective by Konangal Film Society.

Brilliantly erratic

Inevitably, Ritwik Ghatak was compared with Satyajit Ray. But, while Ray was the toast of town and the blue-eyed boy of Indian films, Ghatak didn’t quite make the cut.

He was as in-your-face, unpredictable, and uncomfortable to be with as Ray was refined, suave and one of the boys.

Says writer-activist Jacob Levich: “Viewing Ghatak is an edgy, intimate experience, an engagement with a brilliantly erratic intelligence in an atmosphere of inquiry, experimentation, and disconcerting honesty. The feeling can be invigorating, but it’s never comfortable.”

Ghatak is “like an undesirable guest: he lacks respect, has ‘views’, makes a mess and disdains decorum”.

So in Subarnarekha, idealism always comes a poor second to realism. In a flush of enthusiastic patriotism, schoolteacher Hariprasad wants to start a new life in Calcutta for himself and his fellow refugees from East Pakistan. But, t he protagonist Ishwar wants no part of it, and he accepts a job in a foundry elsewhere, and moves with his sister Sita and a little boy Abhiram (who is separated from his mother in the chaos after partition). Hariprasad calls Ishwar a ‘deserter’.

Ishwar prides himself on being upright and principled, but is unwilling to let his sister marry Abhiram who is from a lower caste. Abhiram spurns a lucrative offer to go abroad in order to write, but abandons his idealism and becomes a bus driver for survival after he elopes with Sita to Calcutta. However, he dies in an accident.

Meanwhile, Ishwar, devastated by the hand life has dealt him, along with his erstwhile friend Hariprasad (who has since discovered lofty ideals get one no where, and that there is no distinction between being noble or cowardly), decides to live it up in Calcutta.

In search of carnal pleasures, Ishwar lands up with a woman who is soliciting a customer for the first time. And, in one horrifying sequence she takes a machete and kills herself. She is none other than his sister Sita.

There aren’t too many sunshine moments in Ghatak’s works. In Meghey Dhaka Tara, it is a bleak house all the way.

Neeta’s story

Neeta is the sole breadwinner of a family. The father does no more than quote Keats and Yeats; a brother does endless riyaaz hoping to become a renowned musician; another gets a job, but contributes nothing to the house. Neeta’ ;s younger sister only has new clothes and romance in her head. The mother sees nothing wrong in marrying off her younger daughter to the man Neeta loves. How will the family survive without Neeta’s money, asks the mother.

Komal Gandhar, often referred to as Ghatak’s favourite, portrays the rivalry and jealousy between two rival theatre groups as they struggle to put up a joint production. A Rabindranath Tagore poem is the inspiration for the t itle where a girl is compared to a musical note, which in turn, is likened to Bengal.

In the film, Anasuya mirrors the divided leadership of the People’s Theatre Movement, and ultimately, a divided Bengal.

Symbolism and metaphors abound in all three films. The debris of an aircraft, an abandoned runway, a truncated railway track, wastelands, snatches of music that are abruptly interrupted, all go towards depicting loss, helplessness and hopeless yearning.

Hope not lost

Ghatak’s films were a stinging critique of modernity. For, the euphoria that erupted after independence slowly turned into ashes for many.

Instead of an improved life, existence became even worse. Industrialisation dehumanised values, and cynicism and pessimism smothered patriotic fervour and optimism. But, Ghatak’s films did not cut off hope altogether. The filmmaker leaves the door a little ajar, for a ray of hope to enter.

Ritwik Ghatak Film Festival

We thank all cinema lovers who attended Ritwik Ghatak Film Festival at Kasthuri Sreenivasan Auditorium on 17th July.
We thank all our well wishers who are helping us with our efforts in popularising good cinema.
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RITWIK GHATAK FILM FESTIVAL ON 17th JUNE 2007

(Venue : Kasthuri Srinivasan Auditorium .Please scroll down this post for full details of screening )

REINVENTING THE CINEMA

RITWIK GHATAK
1925 – 1976

In an age when film makers masquarade as reformers , it is only apt that one remembers the flag bearers of the REAL New Wave in Indian Cinema that had its inception in the early ’50s through the mid ’70s. A beacon of this New Wave was Ritwik Ghatak. The Anarchist. The Rebel. The quintessential Bengali Intellectual. The man who influenced a generation of film makers.

Ritwik Ghatak was born in Dhaka in East Bengal (now Bangladesh). He belonged to an illustrious family. Ghatak and his family formed part of the massive exodus from East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to Kolkata owing to Partition of 1947 - the tragedy that haunted him all his life and kept coming back as a recurring theme in his films. Heavily influenced by Sergei Eisenstein and Berltolt Brecht, he had always intended his cinema to be harbinger of social change.

In 1948, Ghatak wrote his first play Kalo sayar (The Dark Lake), and participated in a revival of the landmark play Nabanna. In 1951, Ghatak joined the Indian People's Theatre Association ( IPTA ). He wrote, directed and acted in plays and translated Bertolt Brecht and Gogol into Bengali. In 1957, he wrote and directed his last play Jwala (The Burning).

Ghatak entered film industry with Nemai Ghosh's Chinnamul (1950) as actor and assistant director. Chinnamul was followed two years later by Ghatak's first completed film Nagarik (1952), both major break-throughs for the Indian cinema. Ritwik Ghatak directed eight full-length films.

He taught at FTII, Pune , and his legacy lived on through the works of his illustrious students - Mani kaul, Kumar Sahani, Ketan Mehta and John Abraham.

THE TRILOGY OF GHATAK

The 3 films chosen for our retrospective are his best-known films, Meghe Dhaka Tara (The Cloud-Capped Star) (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961), and Subarnarekha (1962), a trilogy based in Calcutta .

Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960 ) Considered Ghatak’s masterpiece, this powerful and innovative melodrama revolves around a refugee family from East Bengal, victims of the Partition, who struggle for survival on the outskirts of Calcutta. Ghatak captures the complex play of creative and destructive forces at work in the attempt of each family member to survive. At the center of this domestic tragedy is the self-sacrificing Neeta, the family’s eldest daughter and provider for all, who struggles away at her job in the city. Closer to home, an elder brother practices to become a singer, while a younger one turns to factory work. The father realizes the worthlessness of his liberal education in a modern world that has no place for Yeats or Milton and no regard for the ideals of nineteenth-century Bengali liberalism.
Runtime : 120 min / Bengali with English subtitles.

Komal Gandhar (1961) Said to be Ghatak’s favorite film, the quasi-autobiographical Komal Ghandar portrays the People’s Theater Movement of the late 1940s, agonizing over its jealousies and schisms as two rival groups seek to put on a joint production. The title comes from a Tagore poem in which a girl is compared with a particular melody and the melody, in turn, with Bengal. The script has an equally elaborate structure in which the divided mind of the film’s heroine, Anasuya, mirrors the divided leadership of the People’s Theater and, ultimately, a divided Bengal.

Runtime : 110 minBengali with English subtitles

Subarnarekha (1962)

In Subarnarekha, Ritwik Ghatak takes the stuff of melodrama and turns it into a piercing political cry. Set in Calcutta after the partition of Bengal, the film focuses on two Bengali refugees, Ishwar and his younger sister Seeta, who are reduced to living in dire poverty on the banks of the river Subarnarekha. Amidst a floating population of refugees building temporary homes, they are joined by many other uprooted Bengalis, including an abandoned boy they attempt to educate and an idealistic school teacher and his family. Ghatak’s characters are emblematic of the trail of human debris left by colonialism in an increasingly industrialized, post-independence society. Still, as with all Ghatak’s films, Subarnarekha ends on a note of optimism, however frail.

Runtime : 125 min / Bengali with English subtitles.

Venue : Kasturi Srinivasan Auditorium - near Aravind Eye Hospital , Peelamedu, Coimbatore

Time : 17 06 2007 , Sunday 9.45 am to 6.30 pm

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