"City on the Water" & "Bidesia in Bambai" at "THE fd ZONE" on 20th July 2013, Sat 4 pm @ Films Division, Mumbai
Karishma Pais
WELCOME TO THE 53RD EDITION OF “THE fd ZONE” !
Curatorial note :
The island city of Bombay/Mumbai/Bambai has been at the center of deep academic interest and discourse, which finds expression in the two films that we will screen at The FD Zone this week. “City on the Water” directed by architect Charles Correa, for Films Division in 1975, sets up the context for Surabhi Sharma’s new film, “Bidesia in Bambai”. Both the films reflect on the city in their own distinct ways.
The first film mulls over the city already bursting at the seams in the mid-70's and talks of the proposed extension to a new city, New Bombay (or Navi Mumbai as we now know it), to decongest it and make it more livable. Formally, the film revels in the iconic images of an iconic city that never tires of being photographed, filmed and represented.
The second film, which is shot almost 40 years later, is interested in the lives and subcultures that thrive among the migrant inhabitants of the “new iconic” landscapes of the furthest suburbs and extensions of the city - places which were not really on the radar at the time the first film was made.
The film's protagonists are musicians whose music embeds many stories pertaining to living in a place far away from the Bhojpuri-speaking areas of eastern U.P. and Bihar that they come from.
The two films make an interesting study together - one proposing a vision for the future (in 1975) and the other reflecting on the much-layered and vibrant present, involving the lives of the largest migrant community in the city of Bombay.
This is the premiere screening of “Bidesia in Bambai”.
Architect, urban studies scholar and the deputy director of KRVIA (Kamla Raheja Vidyanidhi Institute for Architecture) Rohan Shivkumar will respond to the film and moderate the discussion.
Film details:
CITY ON THE WATER
English, 17 min, 35mm, Colour, 1975
Script and direction: Charles Correa
Camera: Purush Baokar
Sound: NS Krishna
Animation: MA Narvekar, MV Devidasan, DV Jog
Voices: Pearl Padamsee, Gerson Da Cunha
Editing: A Habib
Music: Vijay Raghav Rao
Production: Pramod Pati
Produced by: CIDCO and Govt. of Maharashtra
This film, written and directed by Charles Correa and photographed by Purush Baokar, is a cinematic meditation on images that we take for granted, but never tire of. The milling crowds at Bombay VT station (it was Bombay VT then); the lashing monsoon waves at Marine Drive and Worli Seaface, with children reveling in the splash; the cliched-but-ever-energetic image of the crowds on busy south Bombay roads along with archival footage from 1950s films on Bombay, which were much recycled in many FD documentaries. That is what iconic images are for anyway!
It is fascinating to watch this film so many years after it was made, with the awareness of the present-day realities of Bombay and New Bombay. The film forces us to reflect on the ever-changing and sometimes never-changing aspects of metropolitan life.
BIDESIA IN BAMBAI
Bhojpuri and Hindi with EST, 86 min, HD video, Colour, 2013
Produced and directed by: Surabhi Sharma
Cinematography: Avijit Mukul Kishore
Additional Cinematography: Ajay Noronha
Sound: Suresh Rajamani
Editing: Monisha R. Baldawa
Sound Design: Mohandas VP
Titles and poster design: Chitra Venkatramani
"Bidesia" is Bhojpuri for "the one who leaves home".
One in four migrants in Mumbai is Bhojpuria, from the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar.“Bambai” is their name for Mumbai/Bombay.
Like most migrants in this ‘global city’, the “Bidesia” inhabits its remotest and sometimes most precarious edges. These are places that he tries to make his own and attempts to establish fragments of his own culture. This film follows a set of musicians who negotiate their way through the landscape of this city that was once alien to them, practicing their music – a music that is frequently sexually charged, often religious, sometimes lyrical and occasionally political.
The migrant is both the subject of, and the audience for this music. In the present day, mobile phones bridge a tenuous connection between home and the city, often interestingly becoming a motif in the music itself. This feature-length film attempts to make the migrant visible by celebrating the musical sphere that he inhabits, in a city that renders him illegal and unwanted.
About the film maker:
Surabhi Sharma studied film direction at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune. She completed a BA in Anthropology and Psychology from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai University.
She has worked on three feature length documentaries apart from many short films and documentaries. Surabhi Sharma has been making documentaries since 2000. Her key concern has been documenting cities in transition through the lens of labour, music and migration, and most recently reproductive labour.
Her films have been screened and awarded at international film festivals. Her film has been a part of film series screened at museums and at universities.
Date and time:
Saturday 20th July, 4 pm
Venue:
RR Theatre
10th Floor
Films Division
Pedder Road
Next week at The FD Zone:
27th July - The Rat Race by Miriam Chandy Menacherry
http://www.theratrace.co.in/
regards,
"THE fd ZONE" team
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