THEfdZONE ON 29 03 2014

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• published: 24 Dec 2014
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THE 85TH EDITION OF “THE fd ZONE” Part I Curator’s note Let us not call Mumbai just one city. It is many cities in one big metro. Madhusree Dutta’s feature-length documentary ‘Seven Islands And A Metro’ made in 2006 is a hard-hitting and lyrical take on Mumbai’s turbulent story, where the city’s islands become metaphors for seven significant moments in its life to generate a provocative mix of images, anecdotes and information. The film is structured around imaginary conversations and debates between its narrators, Ismat Chugtai and Saadat Hasan Manto – the two legendary writers who lived and worked in the metropolis. With them as the anchor and often referring to their literary works, the film explores the various hues of the city’s landscape and culture as reflected in the everyday life of the citizen and the historical acts over the 400 years of the city’s existence that have shaped and informed this citizenry. The film is a celebration of formal cinematic experimentation as a tool of political film making, bringing together eminent writers, visual artists and mainstream political figures. The film was theatrically released in Mumbai in 2006 and has been widely screened at film festivals and on international television. We thought it fitting to screen this film with “And the Stars Look On”, a 1968 gem of experimentation in the documentary format, directed by Omprakash Arora. This film, shot entirely at night in the city of Mumbai (which was then Bombay), creates a collage of the contradictions and disparities that our cities live with. Both films effortlessly mix elements that are fictional, cinema-verite, observational, experimental etc to play with the artificial divides between documentary and fiction film making. Parmesh Shahani, the director of India Culture Lab, Godrej Industries was in conversation with Madhusree Dutta. PROGRAMME AND THE STARS LOOK ON Music, B/W, 12 min, 1968 Night comes to give peace and rest to the tired soul. But in modern cities hubbing with industrial activities it is not rest for all. How different sections of the community spend their hard-earned and well-deserved rest is depicted in this film. Direction: Omprakash Sharma Camera: Keki Mistry, B Khosla, HR Doreswamy Sound: SW Deshpande Music: Vijay Raghav Rao Editing: Noor Bagban Production: Dilip Jamdar SEVEN ISLANDS AND A METRO Hindi, English, Urdu and Bombaiyya, Colour, 100 min, 2006 To the seven goddesses who reign over Bom Bahia / Bombay / Mumbai. The multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of closed mills, of popular culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts, the metropolis of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado. A tale of the city through a tapestry of fiction, cinema vérité, art objects, found footage, sound installation and literary texts. The narrative is structured around imaginary debates between Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Manto over the art of chronicling these multi-layered overlapping cities. Shot mainly during the monsoon the film portrays some extremely beautiful yet ruthlessly violent features of Bombay which, generally, are not part of the popular narratives. Direction: Madhusree Dutta Executive Producer: Flavia Agnes Dialogue: Sara Rai Cast: Harish Khanna (as Saadat Hasan Manto) and Vibha Chibbar (as Ismat Chugtai) Camera: Avijit Mukul Kishore Editing: Reena Mohan and Shyamal Karmakar Location Sound: Gissy Michael and Anita Kushwaha Sound Design: Boby John Music: Arjun Sen Research: Renu Sawant Art Director: Tushar Joag Graphics: Pryas Gupta Assistant Directors: Vibha Nijhawan and Abeer Gupta Trailer of Seven Island and a Metro: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9KSGbkfyhvo Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/1418168628439758/