The Indian Film Festival hosted by the Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sport and the Indian Cultural Centre continues at the Umana Yana on Wednesday with the Malayalam film Oru Pennum Randaanum (A Climate for Crime) by Director Adoor Gopalkrishnan.
Oru Pennum Randaanum has four separate chapters based on four short stories written by Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai. The film is about four crimes of different nature that happen in different contexts and situations. The setting is the state of Travancore, South India in the 1940s. The stories in this film span crimes committed by the deprived as well as those who are privileged. The common theme is crime ranging from the simple stories of ordinary people, to complex stories of love, loyalty and morality.
Moutatthu ‘Adoor’ Gopalakrishnan Unnithan is a nine-time national award winning Indian film director, script writer, and producer. Adoor Gopalakrishnan had a major role in revolutionizing Malayalam cinema. Adoor’s first film Swayamvaram (1972) pioneered the new wave cinema movement in Kerala in India. Most of his films go to festivals around the world, and are released in Kerala. All the ten films he directed, from Swayamvaram to Oru Pennum Randaanum, were screened at several International film festivals and won him several National and International awards. Adoor received the Indian National civilian awards, the Padma Shree in 1984 and the Padma Vibhushan in 2006. The nation honoured Adoor for his valuable contributions to Indian cinema by awarding him the highest cinema award of India, the Dabasaheb Phalke Award for the year 2004. He is one among the very few Indian film makers who are well known in the international film fraternity. He has also been on the juries of several international film festivals.
On Friday, the Marathi language film Kaalchakra will be screened.
Kaalchakra is a film which deals with the stigma of HIV. Shekhar’s dreams come crashing down when he discovers that he is HIV positive. He loses his family, job and self respect. Shekhar is stigmatised and ridiculed and takes up drinking. A counsellor, Dr Rekha helps Shekhar to accept his condition and gradually acquire the will and determination to give himself a better future.
The film’s producer Avinash Onkar said that he was inspired to make Kaalchakra, a film that deals with the life situation of HIV + persons and how the society excludes them at large, after having personally witnessed the plight of some of the HIV positive persons known to him in real life. Vishal Bandhari did intensive research into the film saying that for six months he tried to imagine what it would be like if he was HIV positive, and saying that in the film, he turns the “negative into the positive.”
Admission is free, and all films start at 6 pm. The films have English subtitles.