Department of Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences South Asian University
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Department of Sociology Faculty of Social Sciences South Asian University Cinema and Society: A Film Discussion Forum ‘Cinema and Society’ is a young sociologists’ discussion forum, under the aegis of the Department of Sociology, South Asian University. The objective of this forum is to provide students an opportunity to discuss films as young social scientists and to engage with cinematic texts and forms. The forum conducts regular screenings and discussions. The screenings are primarily organized for the students of the Department of Sociology. And for them, attendance is mandatory. But, students and faculty from other departments and faculties are also welcome to participate. The films chosen for the Monsoon semester are on the theme 'Films on Film in South Asia.' Cinema has enjoyed a central place in public culture of South Asia for a century now. There has simultaneously grown a fairly well established critical tradition on cinema in South Asia, both in mass media as well as more recently in academia. There also by now exists an important body of work within the various worlds of South Asian cinema that reflect on the histories and politics of cinema in the region. This semester, we shall view a selection of such films. The specific themes would include histories of cinema, politics of gender, dilemmas of representation, subcultures of film production, circulation and consumption, and their relations to spatiality, national as well as urban. This of course, is the ‘intellectual’ aspect of the program. We expect participants to simply ‘enjoy’ the whole experience. Faculty Coordinator: Dr. Anuj Bhuwania Student Coordinators: Ratan Kumar Roy, Sandhya Nair, Avanti Chhatre, Sabari Girisan, Amrita Sachdeva, Bipasha Nath, Asif Bin Ali Schedule of Cinema and Society 2014 Monsoon Semester Venue: FSI Hall, SAU Screenings begin at 2:15pm 27th August: Harishchandra's factory (2009, Director: Paresh Mokashi) Plot Summary: The film, shot in the style of the movies made in Dadasaheb Phalke's days, is the story about the beginning of the Indian film industry. Set in 1913, the story witnesses’ two business partners fall out, resulting in one leaving the company. As the family struggle to survive, Phalke (Nandu Madhav) decides to make his own silent motion picture with the support of his family. He travels to England to learn about the new medium and, after he returns, brings together a team of actors and technicians to produce his first film about the story of Raja Harishchandra. Through all the hard work, the movie becomes a hit — marking the beginning of one of the world's biggest film industries. 9th September: Bhumika (1977, Director: Shyam Benegal) Plot Summary: This film is broadly based on the memoirs of the well-known Marathi stage and screen actress of the 1940’s Hansa Wadkar, who led a flamboyant and unconventional life, and focuses on an individual's search for identity and self-fulfillment. Smita Patil delivers a bold performance of transforming from a vivacious teenager to a wiser but deeply wounded middle- aged woman. 16th September: Akaler Sandhane (1980, Director: Mrinal Sen) Plot Summary: This is a movie about making a movie. A young, idealistic director arrives in a village to make a picture set during the Great Bengal Famine. It's a film that he hopes will reveal the problems and privations still current in rural India. Once in the village, everything begins to go wrong. 21st October: Clap Trap ( Director: Jill Misquitta, 1993) Plot Summary: “Junior Artist” is the self-adopted euphemism for the so-called ‘Extras’ in the Bombay film industry: the actors and actresses who flesh out the background, make up the group scenes, fill in as party celebrants, mourners or on-lookers to the antics of the hero and heroine. We observe them at work on the set, in their union offices, and at home while trying to cope with the larger realities of living in the city still called Bombay. 28th October: Videokaaran (Director: Kavalmaniyam Jagannathan Krishnan, 2011) Plot Summary: This film takes viewers into the gritty world of illegal video theatres where pirated DVDs are self-edited by the owners. We are transported into this world through the documentary’s central character Sagai, the former owner of such a theatre in Rahul Nagar, a slum pocket located near the railway tracks in Chembur East, Mumbai. In Sagai, who was supposed to be the documentary’s camera man, Krishnan found the ideal “character”, one whose real life story makes for more compelling viewing than some of the fictional tales we’re subjected to. 11th November: Supermen of Malegaon (Director: Faiza Ahmad Khan, 2012) Plot Summary: Supermen of Malegaon is a hilarious, poignant and well-researched take on one of the dozens of local film industries existing in India. A film crew follows Sheikh Nasir, a resident of Malegaon, as he tries to make a parody of Superman called Malegaon Ka Superman with actors, cast, technicians and props sourced from his town, a place fraught with communal tensions, poverty and hardship. .