Tuesday, December 1, 2020

22nd Madurai Film Festival 2020 : Student films

22nd Madurai Film Festival 2020 

Student films  : FTII, Pune


1) Bhija Neel Terpal / Wet Blue Tarpaulin
Dir : Anunay Barbhuiya; 25 min; Sylheti, Marathi, Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019

A migrant from Assam working in a Marathi restaurant in Pune has to make a forged ID to continue working in the city while struggling to contact his wife back in Assam.

2) Aashaon Ke Paar / Beyond Hope
Dir : Rohit Kumar; 23 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2020

A migrant labourer in India’s cosmopolis who works for a construction company is struggling to meet up to his aspiration. The crisis deepens him more when his newlywed wife arrives in the city to stay with him. Set in an environment where economic division is high and political atmosphere is charged, the film tells a story of hope and despair.

3) Shantabai
Dir: Pratiik Gupta; 11.43 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019

I have tried to use this film as a tool to explore Dombari community from a point of view of an 85 year old lady. My approach during the making of this film was to give an inside view of the Dombari community to the society. Shantabai (85) is a member of this community who has lived her life contributing and preserving the art of Dombari khel (street performance), a performing art that is on the verge of extinction.

Shantabai remains one of the last remaining proponents of this dying art form. I have attempted to explore this community through her perspective that spans over 80 years of lived experience.

4) NEELA KUTHIRA / The Blue Horse
Dir : Himanshu Singh; 12.49 min; Malayalam, Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019

The film centers around Krishnan- a nine year old boy whose grandmother has just come to visit him in Pune from Kerala. The grandmother agrees to tell him a story from Mahabharata.

The boy is fascinated with the story of Barbarik, a prince from Mahabharata who could end the war in a minute but was not allowed by Lord Krishna to fight the war. The boy hunts around this complex and fascinating myth of Barbarik in real world who he believes owns a blue horse and has lotus marks under his feet.

The boy creates his own world and wanders to find Barbarik’s blue horse. The way myth and religion drive our lives in India, Krishnan’s life is also driven by the myth as told to him by his grandmother and he believes that reaching Barbarik would help him solve the problems between his father and the mother. The blue horse becomes the metaphor of the little boy’s view of the world.

At a point the myth and reality of the little boy collide.

5) In Shadows We Hide
Dir: Malyaj Awasthi; 25 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2019

The film is a modern day tale set in Urban India, portraying the turmoil of city life through the protagonist’s eyes. Arjun, an unemployed youth, is looking for an ATM to withdraw money, where he rushes an unconscious man, a stranger, to the hospital. What transpires is a day of reckoning for him and his relationship with people in his life and around him. As Arjun tries to cope up with the reality of a failed marriage and a lost family, a single day in his life gives us a glimpse of the solace urban life.

6) Songs For Babasaheb
Dir : Aranya Sahay; 11.49 min; Marathi, Hindi, English with Eng subtitles; 2019

‘Songs For Babasaheb’ attempts to explore the tradition of Shahiri (poetry & music) in Mahrashtra and various other art forms that have been fundamental to the expression of Dalits in Maharashtra.

7) Songs From Farway Land
Dir: Tuhinabha Majumdar; 24 min; Hindi with Eng subtitles; 2020

Three siblings, brother Dinu and two sisters Anu and Buri meet on a seashore one morning after their mother’s death. They reminiscence about their mother and her relentless journey in search of home. Gradually as they dwell through their personal memories of ‘mother’ they unknowingly enter into unknown dark zones of mother and there own lives. The spirits of their ancestors too become part of their stories as the two sisters preform their memories. Dreams, fantasies, memories and reality starts to overlap to form a complex image of ‘mother’ in search of home.

8) Whispers of the Henna Tree
Dir : Soumyajit Ghosh Dastidar; 20 min; Marathi, Bengali with Eng subtitles; 2020

The late autumn days finally see white clouds, after an extended monsoon wreaked havoc in the vineyards. From a purple diary of memories, we look at images of three generations of women who work in the fields.

In the pleasant morning breeze, Ambika dresses up her daughters reflecting on her childhood, carving an impression of womanhood - from mother to daughter and from the daughter to her offsprings, a cycle of maternal nature. Meanwhile, a submerged henna tree whispers out an indelible tale. As the evening sky hums a lullaby - the chimney lets out smoke and the yellow tarpaulin roof sways in the wind. The winter ambience starts settling; Ambika reminisces an intimate memory of her father’s handwoven blue wedding saree.

9) Vaavtal
Dir : Suraj Uddhav Madhale; 15.29 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; 2019

Akshay is a simple middle-class person who has recently started working as a driver at an industrialist. Akshay’s boss likes to display his luxury possessions and hence sends Akshay to the new client with his BMW car.Akshay finishes the work & on the way back decides to visit his grandma - who lives in a nearby village.

His mind gets nostalgic by the villageous environment And Grandma too is very happy to see him. While they are engaged in talking, a girl comes running and informs him about the scratch made by a kid on the car. Akshay can’t afford to repair it, but can’t lose the job also. Then starts his struggle to collect money for repairing. He tries his best and somehow manages to collect some amount. But scratch doesn’t get repaired.Within a day his life gets deformed.

‘Vavtaal’ is a story how the life of an ordinary worker can get into a tangle by a small problem.

10) VALAN / A TURN
Dir : Kaushikkumar Kiranbhai Garasiya; 12.38 min; Marathi with Eng subtitles; 2019

This film is about how an incident turns a tempo driver’s life and he needs to take another turn to bring his life back on track.

Anil a hardworking tempo driver is satisfied with his life and lives happily with his supportive wife and 10 years old daughter. He goes to Pune city everyday for transport work, also teaches his daughter in a city english medium school. One day while traveling to Pune city for work, an incident occurs on a turn and it takes his life upside down.

The whole film revolves around the fear and guilt that Anil goes through.

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