December 3rd-5th and December 7th-8th at 11:30 pm
November 30, 2001: For the first time ever, this December Zee Cinema will be showcasing films, directed by a new wave of independent film makers. These films have never been aired on a channel before, most are in Hindi, but for the first time on Zee Cinema, they will air movies in English as well.
All these films have been captured on digital video, heralding a breath of fresh air and startling innovation onto the movie scene. The four films making their debut for the first time ever on the small screen are Divya Dristi, Ramlila, My Friend Su, A Perfect Day and the URF Professor.
Below are the movies that will be aired on Zee Cinema as well as a brief note on the directors.
Divya Drishti
Divya Drishti is set in the seemingly desultory environs of suburban Mumbai. A charlatan sadhu sits at Raju s chai shop, drinking cheap country liquor and hoodwinking eager if not innocent workers and housewives who come to him for advice. The neighbourhood he counsels is tied together in a complex net of sexual betrayal, unfulfilled desire and blind faith in the sadhu s healing power.
One day, however, the sadhu begins to lose his eyesight. The doctors tell him the cause is his alcoholism, but he knows better: his imminent blindness brings with it a new vision , cataclysmic nightmares, hallucinations and finally, the truth. Thus, the film examines the very nature of truth and belief, pitting blindness against vision and fact against fiction to create a tragic, and perhaps cathartic, climax.
The Filmmaker
Sidharth Srinivasan graduated from St. Stephen s College with a degree in Economics. Siddharth s first independently written, produced and directed The Tightrope Walker, made when he was 24,was screened in competition at the 57th Venice International Film Festival. This is his first full-length feature film.
Ramlila
The legend of Lord Rama and his Vanarsena the story of the demon King with ten heads and a tale that relates the adventures and misadventures of the exiled prince,over a period of 14 long years.
This film is the result of collaboration between three friends with scant experience in Digital Video. They come together to make a touching and comic portrayal that all Indians will be able to identify with. Directed by Subhash Kapoor, Sanjay Pande and Anant Shridhar.
My Friend Su
My Friend Su is a documentary about a man , his thoughts and trauma. The protagonist feels that outwardly he is male but inside he is a female. He feels that he does not exist, and somebody else is inside him while he just watches his own life.
The Filmmaker
Neeraj Bhasin is working as a consultant in a Software development company. He studied Direction and Scriptwriting from the Sri Aurobindo Institute of Mass Communication.
A Perfect Day
A Perfect Day details, ironically, the most imperfect day possible. Sukesh and Madhavi were in love, then they fell out of love. On a day like any other, when he longer thinks of her, Sukesh realises that it s Madhavi s birthday. All the old memories come flooding back, leaving him too distraught to do anything except wander through Delhi reminiscing and getting increasingly drunk. Ending up at her house, only to find she is out shopping, for the party later that night. He decided to attend:there is something he must tell her, something he must ask her.
The Filmmaker
Nishit Saran studied filmmaking at Harvard where he made the critically acclaimed documentary Summer in my Veins. He then made Project Flower on the street children in Nizammudin, New Delhi, recently premiered at the World AIDS Conference in Durban. A Perfect Day is his first feature.
URF Professor
Nobody knows the Professor s real name. He wears a no-nonsense safari suit,looks like an accountant, is absentminded and a little clumsy,loves to read but ,being shortsighted,needs glasses to do so. He is good at what does,yet dreams of winning the lottery so he can retire and give his books exclusive attention. He is the only hit man in town who belongs to a public library!
The Filmmaker
Pankaj Advani created Bheja Fry, a series of madcap, short, silent fiction films for Channel V. He has made a children s film, Sunday, for the Children s Film Society of India, which won two National Awards and has been at several festivals. He also co-wrote Kabhi Haan Kabhi Naa with Kundan Shah.
Why digital video?
Filmmaking has never been more accessible and affordable. New digital technologies are empowering a wave of independent filmmakers-allowing them to make the cinema that is closest to their ideas. They no longer have to devote time and energy to protracted and often fruitless attempts to find finance. They no longer have to cede creative control to financiers. Because digital video(DV) budgets are so much lower, filmmakers can make films more often, take more risks, and keep practising their craft. DV allows filmmakers to take greater creative risks. Given the costof production, they have little to lose by experimenting, and a lot to gain if they can make a truly original film. DV is shifting power from financiers to filmmakers, who no longer need their money, permission or approval.
There is a revolution in the air.
This subversive little videotape format has achieved much in the last few years. Much work has been created on DV, not all of it good. Much debate has been centered on fallacious comparisons of film with DV. Many festivals have shown DV films, mostly only when the DV is converted, at great cost, to celluloid.
But, most importantly, DV has thrown up a whole range of new and exciting possibilities in storytelling and aesthetics. There is an excitement at hand-that of discovery of a whole new format in image making-a realization that if DV isn t film, it certainly isn t video either.
DV work is unfettered,artisanal, renegade, and very hip. It may not be replacing film, but it is certainly making many people sit up a take notice.