Gantumoote, fallaciousness of the (fe)male gaze
S Viswanath | Dec 24
Objectification, commodification, stalking and sexual harassment of heroines in cinema all in the name of professing love, saving the damsel in distress, heroine giving in to the ministrations of the hero, has long been a bane, the world over.
That, in majority cases, women, with aspirations, become willing participants looking to a glitz and glamourous career in the instant stardom providing industry, becoming putty in the hands of directors or film makers and producers, is another matter.
More so, it is an accepted belief that, if it is a man behind the camera, he, all the more ensures his female characters become lascivious objects of male gaze to drool upon. Giving play to the lurid imagination of voyeuristic audiences that takes its own flight of fancy as pro-active participants in the vapid visual narratives that unveil before them.
However, what is worrisome, and disconcerting is, that even women directors brook no bones being no better than their male counterparts when it comes to exploiting their own ilk, exceptions notwithstanding.
They are equally easily culpable when it comes to depiction of women and their subtle exploitation, all in the garb of championing feminist’s cause, providing a feminine perspective, intended at empowerment and emancipation. In the guise of tackling bold and women-centric concerns, women directors too, under this convenient ruse of giving voice to womenfolk, have no qualms conspiratorially playing to the gallery, driven by the vicious dictates of market economics.
Protima Bedi — ultimate enfant terrible, model, Odissi dancer, sanyasi
Joy Bimal Roy | Dec 12
Protima was an attention seeker. She made sure she was in the news by doing one outrageous thing after the other. But the biggest scoop she created was when she married Kabir Bedi. Kabir was the other person every Bombayite of our generation had heard of. And some lucky people had the good fortune to see: in a loin cloth…
… Protima did not have particularly good features but as she danced she transformed herself into a Goddess. Her voluptuous figure transformed the sensuous moves into a temple statue come alive. Ma and I were mesmerized. She had started learning the dance form from the doyen of Odissi Kellucharan Mohapatra at the age of 27 and in a year’s time she was ready for her first public performance.
Hrid Majhare
Dipsikha Bhagawati | Dec 25
Adapts the stroke of ineludible destiny, precisely, the pithy maxim “character is destiny” effectuated by Shakespeare… The twisted narrative leads from one thing to the other and the protagonist’s settled life soon stares at traumatic fragmentation. When logic seems to bow its head to the power of fate, the two vulnerable souls fight hardhanded against the inescapable. Sempiternal love gets catechised, trust glimmers, and jealousy raises its vile head, making them victims of their own choices.
Talks
Siladitya Sen, Premendra Mazumder, Madhu Eravanakara, et al at FIPRESCI open forum, IFFK | Kerala
Premendra Mazumder, et al at a panel discussion on subtitling of films in regional languages, IFFK | Kerala
Premchand at the FIPRESCI - India Mentoring Workshop on Film Criticism | Kozhikode
Siladitya Sen releases Amitava Naag's book on cinema, 'Smriti Satta, Cinema' | Kolkata
Amitava Naag at a book launch, speaks on translation options in cinema | Kolkata
National Film Award
Amborish Roychoudhury wins the National Film Award for Best Book on Cinema – Special Mention for his book ‘In a Cult of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office’.
Utpal Borpujari is the chairman of this jury.
DISCUSSION: trends in 2019
Ashameera Aiyappan, Baradwaj Rangan, et al, talk about trends and topics of Indian Cinema from 2019.
INTERVIEW: Amit Khanna
Amit Khanna, former Chairman of Reliance Entertainment talks about his latest book on Indian cinema.
INTERVIEW: Vijay Deverakonda
Baradwaj Rangan gets Vijay Deverakonda talking on the Arjun Reddy criticism & other such things.
INTERVIEW: Volker Schlondorff
Siladitya Sen in conversation with a filmmaker from the Neuer Deutscher Film movement.
INTERVIEW: Utpal Borpujari
Utpal Borpujari, National Film Awards chairman of the jury for Best Writing in Cinema speaks.
CEREMONY: National Film Awards
Amborish Roychoudhary receives the National Film Award for Best Writing on Cinema.
Smile International Film Festival for Children & Youth (SIFFCY), New Delhi
Abas Aram’s Here My Village is the winner of the Film Critics Circle of India (FCCI) Award for the Best Children’s Film at SIFFCY. FCCI also confers a Special Mention Award upon Johan Timmer’s Fight Girl.
Ratnottama Sengupta (chair), Johnson Thomas, and Utpal Datta comprised the 3-member critics jury.