[Reader-list] [Announcements] Mumbai Release on 6 October

[7 Islands and a Metro]

Dear Friends:

SEVEN ISLANDS AND A METRO, a non-fiction feature film by Madhusree
Datta, will be theatrically released in Mumbai at INOX (Nariman Point),
Fame Adlabs (Malad) and Fun Republic (Andheri) on FRIDAY 6 OCTOBER
2006. 

For show timings and more details, please contact Majlis at 101,
Christina Apartments, near Police Post, Kalina-Kurla Road, Kalina
Market, Mumbai 400098, Phone +91.22.5601.7723. For more information on
the film, please visit http://7islandsfilm.googlepages.com


ABOUT THE FILM

A frayed rug round his shoulders,
My father came down the Sahyadris
And stood at your doorstep, 
With only his  labour in his hands.

-- from “Mumbai” by Narayan Surve

The multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of intolerance, the Bombay of closed
mills, of popular culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts,
the metropolis of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado. This film is a tale
of the cities of Bom Bahia / Bombay / Mumbai, through a tapestry of
fiction, cinema vérité, art objects, found footage, sound installation
and literary texts. The non-fiction feature film is structured around
imaginary debates between Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Manto, the two
legendary writers who lived in this metropolis, over the art of
chronicling these multi-layered overlapping cities. Shot mainly during
the monsoon the film portrays some extremely beautiful yet ruthlessly
violent features of Bombay which, generally, are not part of the popular
narratives.

By Madhusree Dutta
Duration 100 minutes
Format: DVcam / DG Beta
Languages: English, Hindi, Urdu, Marathi and Bombayia

Actors: Harish Khanna / Vibha Chibbar
Camera: Avijit Mukul Kishore 
Editing: Reena Mohan / Shyamal Karmakar  
Dialogue: Sara Rai
Sound Design: Boby John
Music: Arjun Sen

Available with English and French subtitles



MORE ABOUT THE FILM

‘Seven Islands and a Metro’ is a hard-hitting, yet lyrical take on
Mumbai’s turbulent story. Where the city’s islands become touchstones
for seven significant moments in its life to generate a tantalizing mix
of images, anecdotes and information.  

Waves of migration, regularly hitting the city’s muddy shores all
through the centuries, have left behind memories and mind-sets that
still influence Mumbai. The film explores them through a touch of
poetry, a bit of drama and mostly through unsettling conversations with
its citizens. To reveal the contrary worldviews that make up Mumbai’s
rambling public sphere. One that is as fragmented - and islanded – as it
is cohesive - glued together by an abstract affection for the city.  

‘Seven Islands and a Metro’ takes you through Mumbai’s streets so
intimately you can smell them. It uncovers secrets from the past and
constructs riddles for the present in a way that each frame surprises,
puzzles and intrigues. Graveyards speak, application forms torment,
Bombay ducks glisten, fisherwomen grumble, disembodied maps of the city
haunt, futuristic vehicles rumble through the night, nights dance
crazily and dancer’s bristle with indignation. Two extraordinary
storytellers gather these tumultuous moments to re-tell their stories.
After all, the city hasn’t changed that much – it still erupts into
violence; people riot, the poor are destroyed, women get a raw deal –
and stories have to be repeated, once again.

The film pays a rich obeisance to the goddesses that guard Mumbai’s
porous boundaries and personify its unpredictable moods, even though it
disapproves of their cruel ways. After all, at the end of the day, the
goddesses remain, like the resilient city itself, extraordinarily
powerful. But each citizen, like the film, maintains the right to
disobey.   

(from a review by Rahul Srivastava, social scientist based in Mumbai and
Goa). 



ABOUT THE FILM-MAKER

Madhusree Dutta is an alumnus of the National School of Drama, India,
and has been making non-fiction films since 1993. Gender, identity and
marginalisation are her chosen areas of work. She is the executive
director of Majlis, a centre initiating multicultural projects in
Mumbai, India. The centre is engaged in campaigning for cultural
literacy among students and other youth groups, mobilizing artists
around contemporary issues and in producing plays, films and
multidisciplinary art works.  Madhusree has designed a number of
pedagogical courses on multiculturalism both for social movements and
academic institutions. She has also curated and coordinated several art
and cultural festivals, among others, Expressions, the first women’s art
festival in India in 1990; India Sabka, a youth festival on
multiculturalism in 2002; Substitute City, a multidisciplinary event on
Bombay/Mumbai for Volksbuehne theatre, Berlin in 2003; Culture at WSF, the
art component for the World Social Forum, 2004. Madhusree has co-edited,
along with Flavia Agnes and Neera Adarkar, The Nation, The State and
Indian Identity, an anthology of essays published in 1994. She has
received several citizens’ honors among others the Salaam Mumbai award,
Bharat Nirman award and Stree Shakti Sanman. 




_____

CRIT (Collective Research Initiatives Trust), Mumbai
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