The Hindu : New Delhi News : Treat for cinema lovers in New Delhi

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jul 11, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Treat for cinema lovers in New Delhi

New Delhi: With little more than a week to go for the opening of the ninth edition of Osian’s Cinefan, a festival of Asian and Arab Cinema in Delhi, cinema lovers can look forward to a wide range of films that take a peek into significant historical moments and culture of the participating countries.

To commemorate the 150th anniversary of India’s First War of Independence in 1857, the organisers have decided to screen Aamir Khan’s “Mangal Pandey: The Rising” and Satyajit Ray’s classic “Shatranj Ke Khiladi”.

While Aamir’s film presents the life of Mangal Pandey, whose refusal to take orders from his British officers triggered off the events of 1857, Ray’s film shies away from the war and casts light on Lucknow’s aristocracy during that period.

A special exhibition titled “A Historical Epic II: 1850-1880s” focusing on the specific period and laying special emphasis on the 1857 uprising in India will also be held. It will showcase some rare pictures, chromolithographs, photographic stills and hand-painted photographic stills.

The festival will not only screen Indian films that depict anti-colonial struggles, but also foreign films that take viewers into the struggle for freedom in Asia and the Arab world. A wide array of movies presenting the relationship between wars for independence and history will be screened during the ten-day-long festival that opens on July 20.

Nine Indian films that will see the debut of five directors – Suhail Tatari ( “Bhairavi”), Suman Ghosh ( “Footsteps”), Shivaji Chandrabhushan ( “Frozen”), Navdeep Singh ( “Manorama Six Feet Under”) and Arindam Mitra ( “Zero Zone”) - will also be screened.

While Suhail describes his film ``Bhairavi” as “a journey of the lead character through the world of Indian classical music”, Arindam’s “Zero Zone” is a dream-like journey into the soul of a tarnished cricket captain.

The festival will draw to a close on July 29.

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