The Riddle Of Auto Shankar - A Short Film: Events in Hyderabad

REVIEW FOR THE RIDDLE OF AUTO...

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 first day, The Riddle Of Auto Shankar will be the 4th film to be screened. This Hindi short film is directed by Raaghav Dar, and here is a synopsis by the maker:

"Where do I begin? At the very beginning or at the end? The answer to a riddle is a story or a riddle. What happens when a screenplay writer gets caught in the maze of his mind and the characters get lost in the riddle of the story? Who is Auto Shankar? Where did the auto go? What do fishing and dreams have in common? Why does a woman love a man? Can two people have the same face yet not the same blood? I am suffering from a dangerous astrological condition. Welcome to my mind. Enjoy the ride."

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.