Film lovers of town are in for a treat as the Hyderabad Film Club, in association with the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, is holding the Lensight Film Festival (Diploma Films) on 14th and 15th April, at the Prasad Labs Preview Theatre. 16 short films shot by the students of the 2004-05 batch will be screened.
Today, the second and last day, Sanshodhan (The Amendment) will be the second film to be screened. This Hindi short film is scripted and directed by Shilpi Dasgupta. This film is an expose into the nature of the collective psyche in contemporary Indian Society. In its denouncement, it indicates that individual effort is often crushed by societal defence mechanisms, one that places itself on higher ground and ultimately prevails over what it recognises to be anomalies in the system.
Set in the days that lead up to the festival of Ram Navami (the birth of Lord Rama) in a middle class Indian chawl (tenement), the film revolves around an individual's effort to cultivate a more inclusive society. In a sense, Padma attempts to create a social correction, one that is at odds with deep-rooted social wisdom. What she does not realise is that she has sparked off a collective correction mechanism into motion, one that will clinically demolish any opposing force in its wake.
Ultimately, Sanshodhan deals with value systems of the society, and how it legitimises it through the sue of God. It is a stark reminder of the blurry line that separates man from God, right from wrong and the known from the unknown.
Lensight is the name of the journal published by FTII. The festival has been held in Delhi and Mumbai before this. A diploma film is a final year project that brings together students of all the disciplines and calls upon them to put their best foot forward in terms of demonstrating the learning they have acquired.
Diploma films celebrate the spirit of cinema. These films, many of which have been acclaimed as being amongst the finest works in the medium, reflect the composite learning acquired by the students at the institute, as also their professional potential. These films, in a way, are points of departure for discourse amongst the next generation of film professionals.
FTTI is based in Pune and boasts of some renowned personalities of cine world as its alumni, like Jaya Bachchan, Shabana Azmi, Subhash Ghai, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Saeed Mirza, Vinod Chopra, Kundan Shan, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Anil Mehta and David Dhawan amongst others. From our state, in addition to Devadas Kanakala, Suresh Oberoi and Talluri Rameshwari, there are G Krishna Rao who has edited a number of films directed by K Vishwanath, and K Ramachandra Rao who has been the professor of editing at the FTII since 1960.
The DVDs of these films are available at the venue for sale on the 15th of April. The entry for all the films is free. For further details, please contact Bh S S Prakash Reddy of the Hyderabad Film Club at 2373-0841/93910-20243.
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