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Surmayee
Shaam
(Approx
Duration: 130 minutes)
Without
memory, we are nothing
--
Louis Bunuel
Surmayee
Shaam
tells the story of a talented and successful but broken
family, which comes together at a time when family crisis is
at its worst. At the center of this is a larger-than-life
character of Srikant Joshi, who is struck with Alzheimer's
Disease and has started losing memory.
The
way two completely different personality types, the father-son
duo, come around is remarkable in its poignancy. Equally
touching is the unstated bond between the father-in-law and
the daughter-in-law, both of whom have been terribly lonely in
the family.
All
his life, amidst a remarkable professional achievement, Joshi
has always played around with myth and reality, fact and
fiction. With the onset and progress of Alzheimer's, these
elements acquire ironic dimensions. When Srikant Joshi is
awarded the highest civilian award in the country, the Padma
Bibhushan, a great story teller all his life, he is barely
able to speak or even understand the honor bestowed upon him.
The entire family, however, rises to the occasion, helping him
carry off the show with dignity and honor.
Towards
the end, his son (who has resisted his father's grand romantic
vision all his life), takes on even the task of weaving tales
and completing his father's story, the last part of which he
has never told to anyone.
Ek
Aur Bachpan
(A Different Childhood)
(Approx
Duration: 120 minutes)
Slotted
for production under filmmaker Praksh Jha's banner, Ek Aur
Bachpan (A Different Childhood) takes up the story of a nine
year old girl, Chanda, in search of her younger brother,
against the insidious backdrop of bonded child labor, in which
they both are viciously trapped.
In
the process, Chanda encounters a series of insurmountable
odds, which she must tackle to find out and rescue her seven
year old brother. The film aims to explore some of the
compelling situations that perpetuate this pervasive and
exploitative practice and generate outrage (as well as
possible solutions) to deal with this malignant social
reality.
Seedha
Raasta Tedhi Chaal
(Approx
Duration: 130 minutes)
Set
against the backdrop of an idyllic Health Spa, Seedha
Rastaa Tedhi Chaal is a chilling and entertaining
portrayal of characters swept up in an accelerating dance of a
farcical murder-mystery. Lives and stories get seamlessly
intertwined and play out a small portion of the human
condition in the form of a light and entertaining comedy.
A
pretty nurse and her motor-mechanic boyfriend; an oddball
gynecologist; a charming ex-army guy (at once saint and Don
Juan); a popular rock star and his beautiful but
obsessively jealous wife; a disillusioned urbanite about to
start a new life in his village and his young woman ward at
the Spa --- through their individual stories that interweave
and oscillate between the sublime and the ridiculous, this
comedy of erotic possibilities makes us see the world we
inhabit, with a blasphemous lightness.
The
Dream Teller
Prayers
are our thoughts to the Universe …
Dreams
and Intuitions are the Universe’s thoughts to us
…
Ruchi,
a single mother and struggling artist living in Berkeley,
California, has always been vaguely aware of her own mother's
unusual gift--- the ability to interpret dreams. Between
juggling a laundry list of other priorities, keeping her
floundering tea shop afloat after a Starbucks-esque super café
moves in across the street, battling her ex-husband for their
daughter's affections, finding her artistic voice, Ruchi longs
to know more about her mother's past and her own hazy Indian
heritage.
After
a mysterious car accident claims her mother's life, Ruchi,
with her father's help, sets out to decipher her mother, Mrs.
Das's dream journals in hopes of unlocking the secrets of her
mother’s peculiar double life.
The
story of Mrs Das gradually starts to unfold as Ruchi's father
interprets the Bengali scripted dream journals for his
daughter and for himself. When she fell in love with Ruchi's
father, she defied the sect of elders who trained exceptional
women like her in hidden mountain caves. Leaving India behind,
she traveled to America and found herself unable to control an
increasingly erratic clairvoyance. As her gift began to fade,
she discovered that she had to choose between physical love
with her husband and the ability to interpret dreams. She
sacrificed marital joy to continue her mysterious life as a
seer.
Caught
beneath the burden of her own mixed-up past, Ruchi slowly
attempts to divine her identity even when haunted by living
nightmares like the aftermath of 9/11 towards the colored
skin. As recompense, Ruchi’s finds unexpected blessings: the
possibility of new love and understanding for her
family.
Chaak
Chale Chaak
(Approx
Duration: 150 minutes)
A
family saga of a quasi-royal family from the beginning of the
20th century till the current times, Chaak Chale Chaak
attempts to explore the nation's (India) history through three
love stories spread over three generations --- all of which
are inescapably connected with a flower tree in the family
campus.
In
the process, the film aims to examine the complex ethical and
moral issues involved with power, love and lust --- the way it
has changed through the past decades.
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