Rashtriy Kheer And Desiy Salad - A Short Film By N Pushpamala

The Alliance Française of Hyderabad, in collaboration with Goethe Zentrum Hyderabad and the Vidyasagar Art Center, is presenting two experimental short films, Paris Autumn and Rashtriy Kheer And Desiy Salad, by N Pushpamala, on 7th December, at the Vidyasagar Art Center in Domalguda.

Rashtriy Kheer And Desiy Salad is the film that will be screened first, and is a playful and ironic look at the modern Indian family as it imagined itself soon after independence. It uses excerpts from the 1950s and 1960s recipe books of the artist's mother and mother-in-law, to create a montage of text, visuals and music between the military notes of the father, a Lt. Colonel in the army, the recipes and domestic notes of the heavily pregnant mother and the school boy - all found on the pages of these scrap books.

The title of the film comes from two 1950s Independence Day recipes based on the colors of the Indian flag. It begins and ends with the Indian national anthem. The artist plays the role of the mother in the film.

Pushpamala is an alumnus of the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University of Baroda, where she trained as a sculptor. She has been collaborating with photographers to produce photo-performance artworks - narratives conceived and directed by her in which she 'acts' as the protagonist. She has also made experimental video films.

Since 1996, Pushpamala has exhibited in major shows nationally and internationally, and is acknowledged as one of India's most significant contemporary artists. This multi-skilled artist took part in numerous famous international group exhibitions, in New Delhi, Los Angeles, Paris, Vienna, Vancouver, Toronto, Mexico, London and Berlin.

She won the Gold Medal in the VIth Biennale in New Delhi, and received rewards after her residencies in the Charles Wallace Trust Residency in London, in the French Embassy ASAC artist residency in Paris, and in the Rockefeller artist residency at Bellagio study center. In autumn 2005, she stayed in Paris, within the context of an Indo-French program of artist residencies. There she was inspired by the place she lived in, and created Paris Autumn, a short film.

Please contact Alliance Francaise at 2770-0736/2770-0738 or Goethe-Zentrum at 6552-6443/2324-1791 for further details.