1- Wednesday, May 1, 2013, 4:00 pm
Theatre 1 at Tribeca Cinemas
The Human Factor
Directed by Rudradeep Bhattacharjee - India, 2012, 76 mins, English
World Premiere
Cast - The Lord Family
This documentary investigates song and music in the context of the Indian filmic experience. Although singers, music directors, the lyricists are all publicly celebrated for their work and have attained almost legendary status in popular culture, many unseen - and uncredited - musicians make up the orchestras that played on those songs and the background scores. The Human Factor focuses closely in on the story of the Lords, a family of Parsi musicians whose contribution to Hindi film music parallels that of any of the great music directors or singers, yet is widely unknown. But the story of the Lords is not theirs alone, but represents thousands of other composers. This documentary is crucial to providing an obscure chapter in the history of Indian cinema, replete with rare archival
material, which provides viewers with a subaltern history of Bollywood. The film features works by classic Indian composers such at SD Burman who blended Indian classical and western compositions and instruments to create a unique sound.
2- Saturday, May 4, 2013, 2:30 pm
Theatre 2 at Tribeca Cinemas
Kalpana
Directed by Uday Shanker
India, 1948, 160 mins, Hindi with English subtitles
Cast: Uday Shankar, Padmini, Usha Kiran, Amala Shankar, Lakshmi Kanta
Part soap opera, ballet, and political treatise, Kalpana blends surrealism with the high art of Indian classical dance to tell a story loosely based on director Uday Shankar's (brother of Ravi Shankar) own experiences trying to found a dance academy. The film opens with an earnest film director who pitches a screenplay to the owner of a production company. The producer rebuffs the director, claiming he is only interested in films that will net the highest possible box office rather than works with cultural integrity. The director begs him to at least hear him out, and thus the story of Kalpana begins to unfold. Kalpana centers on Udayan, a boy who, despite a difficult childhood, becomes a great dancer. Udayan dreams of opening a dance academy, but must overcome a series of professional
challenges, including a crooked theatre promoter, and navigate the competing affections of two women, Uma and Kamini. Dance is used as the primary tool of expression throughout the film, lending Kalpana a unique style that is still unrivaled in Indian cinema.
The film's music is composed by classical musician Vishnudas Shirali, a renowned sitar player who was part of Uday Shankar's dance troupe. In fact, Ravi Shankar remembered him to be a very "versatile musician"
