SAIIER 2016:Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema

Attending Goa International Film Festival of India		Auroville Library
Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema A project of Aurofilm

Preparing for the festival

The preparations for the 8th Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema in Auroville started during the IFFI in Goa in November 2015, when Surya, Gerard and Susanna of the Entity::Aurofilm team went to Goa to watch many movies, select the ones to be screened at the Panorama, and make contacts with film personalities and film-related institutions. Once the movies were selected, the team got in contact with the DFF and started preparing the brochures and posters for the upcoming Panorama. As the festival came closer, the last preparations, such as buying flowers and snacks for the audience and decorating the Auditorium, were done.

This year's Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema

This 3-day film event started on February 12th at the Sri Aurobindo Auditorium, Bharat Nivas. Surya inaugurated the event at 5:00 pm with an introduction, and Louisa, an enthusiastic volunteer with Aurofilm, gave the audience some background on the director Kaushik Ganguly and his Bengali movie Cinemawala (a movie about a father-son relationship against the backdrop of cinema, which focuses on the sad state of single-screen theatres in India).

After the movie ended, the audience and the Aurofilm team had a tea break before the next movie to be screened: Ottaal (The Trap), an engaging Malayalam movie about a little boy and his grandfather, his only living relative. It shows their daily lives filled with nature, simple beauty and problems; the terrible shadow of child labour is subtly brought in this otherwise very sweet film. This movie was directed by Jayaraj and shot in a small village in Kerala with non-professional actors as main characters.

On Saturday the 13th the Festival day started with the Bengali movie Kadambari, by Suman Ghosh. This period movie eloquently tells the story of Kadambari Devi, one of Rabindranath Tagore’s sisters-in-law. She was his muse from the moment she entered the Tagore household at 9 years old (with Rabindranath just a little younger), until the day she committed suicide in 1883. It is a film showing great care in aesthetic locations, sets and costumes, great music and lyrics, and superb acting (Konkona Sen Sharma shines as Kadambari from the first moment we see her as a teenager and grown-up young lady!)

After this film the audience was invited to have tea, biscuits and samosas in the foyer of the Auditorium. The Tamil movie Radiopetti was then presented by its young film director Hari Viswanath, a Chennai-based filmmaker who came at our invitation for the screening. The movie tells the story of an old man, his love for a radio set that was given to him by his father, and the difficulties he has to face. After the movie ended the director came on stage to answer questions that were asked by the audience.

The last day of the 8th Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema, February 14th, started with the English and Kui language documentary I cannot give you my forest, directed by Nandan Saxena and Kavita Bahl. It documents the lives of the Kondh women living in the Niyamgiri forest in Odisha, their knowledge and natural living together with the forest, as well as the problems they face nowadays due to deforestation and a mining company. Afterwards the documentary Benegal’s New Cinema by Iram Ghufran was screened. The movie shows the time, ethos and concerns of the New Cinema Movement in India (1980) based on extensive interviews with Shyam Benegal and the people he worked with, such as actress Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, and playwrite Girish Karnad.

After a little break the Bengali film Natoker Moto (Like a play), directed by Debesh Chatterjee was screened. By watching this movie, the audience could accompany Kheya, a famous theatre actress, housewife, daughter and extraordinarily strong woman, in her struggles during the 1950s to 1970s in Kolkata. The story is based on a real life legendary Bengali actress. Afterwards the audience was again invited to have syrup and snacks in the Foyer. The last movie screened at the festival was the Marathi movie Court by Chaitanya Tamhane, the film of a trial that unfolds in a lower court in Mumbai. It follows all the involved people through their daily lives (we see the accused old man, his lawyer, the court lawyer and the judge, witnesses…) away from the disturbing trial in a distant and objective way.

Outcomes

The festival was a 3-day-event with the intention of showcasing a good variety of films produced in contemporary Indian cinema to the Aurovilians and their guests. The film screenings and talks over the three days, as well as the publication of a brochure on the films shown, served this purpose. A short film about the event was recorded and edited in 2 versions: one of 7 minutes and one of 10 minutes long.

Reflections

This annual 3-day Panorama of Contemporary Indian Cinema is getting recognition and has its own success. It might have been a little difficult to establish it in the beginning, for the audience was not prepared and maybe not ready to this particular initiative; and it is possible that our selection in the first years was not always so discerning. But over the years, we have learned how to choose the films and present them in a more attractive way to the interest the audience.

Conclusion

The 8th Panorama of contemporary Indian cinema was a success for the Aurofilm team because of the numerous visitors, the smooth running and the positive feedback of the audience, which had the opportunity to watch new Indian films. The interaction with the Tamil film director was also interesting and for this young man, it was a good chance to present his production to an international audience.

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