My affair with Osian started in the year 2004. Osian's- Connoisseurs of Art as they call was established in 2000 as a pioneering art institution in India. it comes with a film festival by Osian's cine fan where they primarily screen movies from the Asian Arab region. the festival invites entries from freelance movie makers, reputed producers and showcases movies which otherwise would have been lost in this global commercial world. According to them"the unique space was carved out for aspiring film makers to meet, listen and interact with stalwarts like Christopher Doyle, the Makhmalbafs, Aparna sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Jean claude Carriere, Nasiruddin shah and many others."
Osian has been dedicatedly bringing to India and elsewhere films from Turkey, Korea, Indonesia, digital film from Malayasia, Japan, Egypt etc..they range from short documentaries of 3- 20 minutes to full length cinema of 90 minutes.
When i went for the Osian for the first time in 2004, I was overwhelmed at the number of films and the multitude of countries one had access to in a span of 10 days; coupled with it was the awe in actually meeting reputed personalities, critics and also listen to them and discuss with them!! I was really grateful that such a thing as Osian was happening. Before it i had limited access to the world of cinema other than the Bollywood, Tollywood and Hollywood. Well films from the southern India also came in the rung once in a while but that was it. Now with the recent UTV world movies we do have a chance to explore movies from other countries other than the popular Hollywood!
well i would like to recount some of the movies that i have seen in Osian for all these years. I don't remember all but i had written down tit bits about some movies after i saw them..
1. Nice Girls:- A film by Nimisha pandey. It is a 15 min documentary. The movie shows the life of eunuchs as prostitutes. It is basically factual giving us a sneak peek into the survival strategies of this 3rd sex. The movie shows how young eunuchs are taught the tricks of the trade. Eunuchs have penis half the size of normal men. In order so that they can enter this business they are castrated and hormonal injections are given for breast development. A 40 days rigorous diet, cleaning of the area, oiling etc takes place..A male eunuch will feel womanly right from the beginning. He will also be weak physically his strength matching no more than that of a average girl. Now when this eunuch lures a customer they try and make the customer concentrate on the breasts so that the customer dont realise its not a girl. They also keep their fingers near their thigh to fake the
At the max these people get Rs. 30 - Rs 50 per customer and too is snatched away if the customer come to know their true identity. Of course there is the predominant abuses that they have to bear with, the danger of catching STD because the customers don't generally want to use condoms and similar problems.
The movie ends with an appeal for respect, better understanding and also a universal plea to respect women in general. They call this profession bad which is quite understandable in lieu of the insults and abuses that they have to live up with everyday!
2. Grain of Ear:- A korean film .Directed by Jang Ryul, released in the year 2006. Deals with the life of Cui Shunji, a Korean Chinese woman with a young son to support. She is Korean and she has left home to come to China with her son. They live in a colony nest to thes
e sex workers who are called chicken by the people in the trade. Cui Shunji supports her living by selling kimchis. Initially she did not have a permit and she use to run away the moment she would spot a cop. But finally her stall is legalised by this kind cop. She is betrayed in her life by her husband. then here in china she meets this another man. He is married. This man again betrays her when he is caught red handed by his wife by calling her a prostitute and reducing
their affair to none other than that of a client and service provider!! Her only anchor in life was her son. but fate had some other plans for him. the son dies in an accident where he falls from the roof trying to fly a kite. The movie ends with Cui revolting and taking a dark revenge on fate by poising the kimchis she is supposed to prepare for the police officer's wedding. What did Cui get out of murdering so many innocent people i cannot say but may be that was her reply to life which had been nothing but cruel to her, her reply to the men who had use d her, her act of power where it was she who was commanding and not at the receiving end.Well i have not seen many Korean movies but of the few that i have seen there seems to be a disturbing silence hanging over the entire plot. There is not much dialogue but more of actions, gestures, symbolic references. Even here Cui is not a very flashy character. She is very subdued, mellow. At times she seems more like a spectator to what is happening around her rather than being an actor herself.
3. The Bong connection:-
Directed by the stalwart Anjan dutta- one of my favourite music composers (listen to his priyo bondhu album if you get a chance). The cast consists of Victor Banarjee(Gary), Peeys rai Chowdhary(Rita), Samrat Chakrabarti (Rakesh), Sayan Munshi and the adorable Raima Sen. One pair, one musician trying to search his roots, Kolkata and U.S....Raima's boy freind, apu leaves for U.S. for a fat job but starts getting frustrated by the behaviour of his boss who fires an employee because he is homosexual. Apparently he shares his apartment with Chris, this homosexual whom Apu had difficulty adjusting with initially. U.S. suddenly does not seem the mecca that he was hoping to find it. He is suddenly very lonely away from the secure confines of home which he had so dreamily left in pursuit of the international dream all of us are sooner or later are lured to. Running parallely is another plot of Sayan Munshi who comes to India in the hope of producing music using the classical Indian instruments, but the lackadiasical attitude at the recording studios and the inter rivalry of the bands make him disillusioned. He is saddened by the dying local music and it being replaced by something he cannot comprehend as any better to what initially was! He meets Raima who shows him around the city. An amaple amount of morali
ty is thrown in in the form of the argument he has with his jaitha(father's brother) who wants to sell off the ancestral house to be demolished. Sayan does not want that to happen. For him the house is a symbol of what they had, of the beautiful past that he had known as Kolkata. He is frustrated by the mediocrity and the momentary pleasure that everybody around him is seeking, frgetting what they actually are capable of.
The movie is thrown in with lot of humor and is carried gracefully by all the young actors. Though it deals with heavy issues like dreams, cultural fragmentation, Sayan, raima and piya are a treat to the eyes. the music (as expected of Anjan Dutta) is awesome. It is interspersed by some lovely baul and folk music and the new age tantra. One of my personal favourite is "Pagla hawa, Badol bhora, Pagol amar mon bhese uthe"... the song is also picturized beautifully with Riama and Sayan and Riama adds the illusionary touch needed by the song.
hmmn...well..the blog is not done yet..i still have many movies to go into tht list but right nw i m posting it as it is..will add others later!!
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