Film Reviews – October 2011
Scope: An Online Journal of Film and Television Studies Issue 21 October 2011 Film Reviews – October 2011 Table of Contents I AM: Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu and Omar A Review by Rohit K Dasgupta ............................................................... 2 Phineas and Ferb A Review by Derek Jones ....................................................................... 7 The Turin Horse A Review by Philip Phillis ..................................................................... 11 The Monk A Review by Simon Dawes ................................................................... 17 That Girl in Yellow Boots A Review by Sukhmani Khorana ........................................................... 22 1 Film Reviews I AM: Afia, Megha, Abhimanyu and Omar Dir: Onir, India, 2011 A Review by Rohit K Dasgupta, University of the Arts, London Indian films outside the rubric of 'Popular Indian Cinema' are little seen or heard of abroad. Some are celebrated at film festivals but few are shown in mainstream theatres. Onir's entry into Bollywood, in 2005, with My brother Nikhil, heralded a new beginning, being the first mainstream film dealing with queer identity and HIV issues in a sensitive manner. His latest film I Am, a portmanteau film looks at issues around child sexual abuse, Queer Rights, artificial insemination and racial tensions in Kashmir through four interconnected short films. The film rejects the generic conventions and aesthetics of Bombay Cinema instead creating something new. From the very beginning, the film works on a narrative of loss. The first story Afia, shot in Kolkata, looks at and critiques the idea of motherhood. It is a reminder of the discriminatory structure within Indian society and problematises the very categories which society has thrust upon the creation of the 'ideal Indian woman'. Nandita Das plays Afia, a woman who has been rejected by her lover and thinks the only way she can be complete is to embrace motherhood.
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