Conference on Literature and Films

This was a unique subject that I ventured into for the first time as a researcher. The conference was organised by the Humanities area of BITS (Goa campus).

My discourse was on Marathi films, which I found (to my pleasant surprise) have improved tremendously in quality, and on an average are better than Hindi films in some years. Apart from the fact that they were pioneers in film-making in India, particularly in the silent film era, when Dadasaheb Phalke made India's first feature-length film in 1912. His own story has been encapsulated in arecent biographical called Harishchandrachi Factory (named after Raja Harishchandra, the film he made in 1912).

An interesting experience, listening to a lot of research on films of all kinds-particularly delightful was a session on Indian documentaries (many made by Films Division and compulsorily screened) by Ravi Vasudevan. My own session had papers on Malayalam and Tamil cinema. There were various views expressed on adaptations as well.

When at IMT, we had hosted a Case Conference at Goa for four years. This was a deja vu kind of feeling, attending one.

City Lights- Film Review

There was the original Charlie Chaplin film by this name (remade in Hindi as 'Sunayana' starring Rameshwari and Naseeruddin Shah)- and this. This is a remake of a movie called Metro Manila, probably adapted to Mumbai.

The first fifteen minutes are boringly predictable, with the hero being forced to migrate to Mumbai and his being duly cheated out of a large amount of money on arrival. But thereafter, the movie picks up steam, and is unlike most Hindi films- because perhaps it is not a Hindi film originally.

There are pretty good twists and turns that keep you interested, and one man's (actually two, if you count the friend/partner) quest to better their lives, and the consequences (not pleasant for all concerned, but realistic under the circumstances) are worth a look. Patralekha is not bad, Manav Kaul (the partner) is very good. Rajkumar Rao is also pretty decent. One song is well-composed. Reminded me a bit of two films, Gharaonda and Piya ka ghar (with the brilliant song 'Yeh Jeevan hai, is jeevan ka, yehi hai, yehi hai rang roop, thode gham hain, thdi khushiyan') in the seventies and eighties, about Mumbai angst (about housing).

I would have given it a four if the pace initially had been better. As of now, it's a 3.5 on 5.