At 7 p.m., Thursday, Feb. 22, the festival kicks off with Lage Raho
Munnabhai (Carry on Munna Bhai), a Bollywood blockbuster directed by
Rajkumar Hirani (www.lagerahomunnabhai.com). The film is a sequel to the
cult 2003 comedy hit Munnabhai M.B.B.S. The film is about a light-hearted
don who falls for a radio disc jockey. But to woo her, he has to study about
Mahatma Gandhi. This brings about a new change in him and he tries to change
the lives of people around him using Gandhi’s teachings. The film has had a
strong cultural impact in India, popularizing Gandhism anew. It is also the
first Hindi film to be screened at the United Nations and was praised by the
Prime Minister of India, Manmohan Singh, as capturing Gandhi’s “message
about the power of truth and humanism.”
Director: Rajkumar Hirani
Run length: 144 min
Music Director: Shantanu Moitra
Year of release: 2006
Official Site
7:00 PM
Thursday, February 22, 2007
McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall, SMU
Rang de Basanti (Paint It Yellow)
At 7 p.m., Friday, Feb. 23, the film Rang De Basanti (Paint It Yellow),
directed by Rakesh Omprakash Mehra, will be featured (www.rangdebasanti.net).
The plot concerns an English filmmaker who arrives in India and enlists a
gang of college students to participate in a documentary about India’s
freedom fighters. Initially, these students scoff at the ideals and people
of the past, but a sequence of events sets in motion a merging of the past
and present. The film’s score is by A.R. Rahman, who probably is best known
to Western audiences for his Broadway musical, Bombay Dreams. Rang De
Basanti was India’s entry for the Golden Globe Awards and the Academy Awards
in the Best Foreign Film category. It was also nominated for a BAFTA Film
Award.
Director: Rakesh Omprakash Mehra
Run length: 157 min
Music Director: A.R.Rahman
Year of release:2006
Official Site
7:00 PM
Friday, February 23, 2007
McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall, SMU
Thanmatra (Molecule)
At 7 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 24, the festival showcases the Malayalam film
Thanmatra (Molecule), a melodrama directed by Blessy and set in the society
of the southern Indian state of Kerala. The plot deals with the effects of
Alzheimer’s disease on a middle-class family. The film won the Kerala State
Film Award in 2005 for best actor, director and scriptwriter.
Ramesan Nair is a government secretariat employee, cocooned in his own
small world. An honest and sincere man, Ramesan's family consists of his
loving wife , son and daughter. His biggest ambition is to see that his son
gets into Indian Administrative Service, something he himself fails to
achieve despite being a brilliant student. All in all, they form the very
picture of a happy and loving family, with a bright future. However, fate
has other ideas. In the hospital, Ramesan is diagnosed with Alzheimer's
disease.The news comes as a rude shock for the happy family and turns their
world upside down.
Director: Blessy
Run length: 160 minutes
Music Director: Mohan Sitara
Year of release: Dec 2005
7:00 PM
Saturday, February 24, 2007
McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall, SMU
Omkara
The festival culminates at
2:30 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 25 with director Vishal Bharadwaj’s film Omkara,
based on William Shakespeare's 17th century classic, Othello. Regarded
as one of the Bard's finest plays about the human condition, it is
being brought to life in an Indian milieu for the first time in a
mainstream Hindi film.
Set
against the milieu of political warfare in the interiors of Uttar
Pradesh, Omkara follows one man's descent into sexual jealousy and the
final wreckage of his love at the altar of blind obsession. Love is
blind but jealousy is even blinder and can tear apart even the
strongest and bravest of warriors.
Omkara is a gifted
chieftain who heads a gang of outlaws, which include the crafty Langda
Tyagi and the dynamic Kesu amongst his chief cohorts. The story begins
when Omi appoints Kesu and not Langda as his chief lieutenant. Langda's
pride is slighted and raging with envy, he hatches a plot to falsely
implicate Omi's beautiful fiancé Dolly, in an illicit affair with Omi's
''favourite lieutenant'', Kesu. Using petty insinuations and lies,
Langda keeps poisoning Omi's mind till one day he snaps and goes amok
tearing up his secure world, leading up to a horrific tragedy at the
end of which Omi realizes the backlash of his actions but is it too
late.
In the original play, Othello's "tragic flaw" is his
jealousy, his inability to take things at face value, a quality that
Iago provokes to the hilt. Omkara, in spirit, stays true to that
central theme and weaves all other conflicts around it.
Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Run length: 155m
Music Director: Vishal Bharadwaj
Year of release: 2006
Official Site
2:30 PM
Sunday, February 25, 2007
McCord Auditorium, Dallas Hall, SMU