Panaji
This week, the Cinephile film club will celebrate International Women’s Day with the screening of Across the Universe directed by Julie Taymor on Thursday 7th March at 6.30 pm and a retrospective of acclaimed filmmaker Sai Paranjpye from 8th to 10th March, in the presence of the director. Sparsh (1980), Katha (1983), Disha (1990) and Saaz (1997) are the films which will be screened. The details are as given below.
Film: Across the Universe (English,2007)
Directed by: Julie Taymor
Duration: 2 hrs 10 mins
Date: Thursday 7th March, 6.30 pm
Julie Taymor’s breathtaking musical romantic drama features the Beatles songs as a backdrop. Based on an original screenplay co-written by Taymor, the film was nominated for the Academy Awards (Best costume design) and Golden Globe (Best motion picture. Set in the 1960s, the story is about the romance between a Liverpool artist and an American woman during the Vietnam war. Practically all the popular songs by the Beatles feature in the film, sung by the actors – Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood Timmy Mitchum and more.
On International Women’s Day 8th March (Friday), a retrospective of Sai Paranjpye will be inaugurated in her presence with the screening of Sparsh, followed by a Q&A. Paranjpye is a National award-winning director with several well-known films to her credit like Chashme Baddor, Katha, Papeeha, Disha and Saaz. A graduate from the National School of Drama, she was awarded the Padma Bhushan for her contribution to the field of arts. Here are the details of the films to be screened –
Film: Sparsh (Hindi with English subtitles)
Cast: Nasseruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi
Duration: 2 hr 15 mins
Date:8th March – 6.30 pm
Winner of the National award for Best Feature film (Hindi), it also won Sai Paranjpye Best Screenplay and Nasseruddin Shah won the Best Actor for his performance as a visually impaired head in a school for the blind. At the Filmfare awards, it won the Best, Film, Best Director and Best Dialogues.
Film: Katha (Hindi with English subtitles)
Cast: Naseeruddin Shah, Farooque Shaikh, Deepti Naval
Duration: 2 hrs 18 mins
Date: 9th March – 6.30 pm
Based on the Marathi play Sasa ani Kasaav (The hare and the tortoise) by S.G.Sathye, the film has Rajaram (Naseeruddin Shah) as the tortoise with Bashu (Farooque Shaikh) as his competitor trying to woo Sandhya (Deepti Naval) with cameos by other well-known actors.
Film: Saaz (Hindi with English subtitles)
Cast: Shabani Azmi, Aruna Irani, Zakir Hussain
Duration: 2 hrs 25 mins
Date: 10th March – 4.00 pm
Saaz is a tale of two sisters, played by Aruna Irani and Shabana Azmi who are both singers, with rivalry between them since childhood. Raghuvir Yadav plays their father while tabla maestri Zakir Hussain is seen in a cameo.
Film: Disha (Hindi with English subtitles)
Cast: Shabana Azmi, Nana Patekar, Om Puri
Duration: 2hrs 10 mins
Date: 10th March – 6.30 pm
While migration continues to be a highly discussed subject, Paranjye dealt with it way back in 1990. The story revolves around two farmers from a village in Maharashtra who decide to migrate to Bombay as it was known then, in search of a better life. They realize it the hard way that life is not a bed of roses in the city also.
