vikalp

the screening room

yesterday was the birthday of the alternative film venue- vikalp. i don’t know how many of you know of the genesis of vikalp- but it was born when the official film festival rejected a number of films that were controversial in nature- that spoke about the gujarat riots, etc.

as a reaction to this, film makers decided to start an alternative film festival just opposite the ravindra natya mandir where the official film festival was taking place in a building called the ‘bhupesh gupta bhavan’. this building i am sure has some strange history which has led to it becoming an icon in the left-wing world of the city, with che guevara posters, etc. this building was also the center of the world social forum in mumbai. anyways, all this low cost left wing ness is not very comfortable. the ‘auditorium’- if you can call it that is this multipurpose room where makeshift arrangements are made to see the films. it is extremely hot and the sound isnt very good. in spite of all of this, the auditorium was full and the films were all interesting.

paro commiting hara kiri after the screening

the controversy around the development of the mill lands was covered by more than one film, ‘a tale of two cities’ was one – pretty much straightforward issue documentary, madhu’s amitabh bachchan film was i guess also looking at similar issues but with far more sophistication and humour. there were two films made by the children of mill workers that were also shown- one about hair cutting saloons in the area and another about the impending demolition of the only marathi language theater of the area ‘bharat mata’.

paro showed two films – one on the mill lands and another on the new trend of 'vegetarian only' high rises in south mumbai with her and renuka shahane dressed up as godesses by tushar. hmm.. and then there were the others.. a film on dhol players living off azad maidan (very interesting), one two shot film about ‘what goes around comes around’ ('right here, right now'), one nri tribute to his mother by showing how samosas are made (?) and one black and white film noir tribute that looked like it was american- ‘the incredible shrinking woman’ which according to me was trite. the last film was on the slum demolitions mentioned in an earlier post- but it was so hot inside i could not wait anymore and spent most of the film outside in the slightly less sweltering lift lobby waiting for the film to end.

later cakes were cut and birthday candles were blown before which i emotionally blackmailed kalpit into contributing to abeers collection box for the continued survival of ‘vikalp' and am asking all of you to do so too. hopefully they will afford air conditioning one day- but will it be politically correct? will we feel the trauma of mill workers if we are not sweating, i wonder. am i being too flippant? have we lost our sense of humour?

a 'go vikalp' cake