[Reader-list] August 2015 FD Zone Delhi screening

[Amit Mahanti]

Apologies for cross-posting...

*FD Zone Delhi Screenings*



*on Wednesday, August 12, 2015, 7 p.m.*



*Gulmohar Hall, India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Road, New Delhi*



In the August 2015 edition of FD Zone Delhi screenings, we bring you a
National Award winning film from Films Division - *Kapila*. Directed by
Sanju Surendran, the film is a dream-like abstract portrait of Kapila Venu,
one of the youngest actor-performers of Kuttiyatam, one of the oldest forms
of theatre. With special jury mentions at Visions du Reel and the
International Documentary and Short Film Festival of Kerala, *Kapila *is a
near hypnotic, hyper-sensorial look at a thousand year-old arts practice
from Kerala.



*Kapila (2015)*

*Director: Sanju Surendran *

*Duration: 62 minutes*



As a student, Surendran was struck by something his teacher, the inimitable
Mani Kaul told him - an ideal film, he said, is like a Koodiyattam
performance, where gestures communicate and silence speaks. Years later, he
explored that same idea using cinema as a medium - and with a talented
Kootiyattam artist as his protagonist. *Kapila *moves at a pace as detailed
as any description in Koodiyattam, leaving the artist and her craft, the
ambience of her kalari, the silence, percussion music, the picturesque
frames and even the rain, to unravel the nuances of the art form.



*Director's Note: *



It was a few years back that I saw a Kutiyattam performance by Kapila. And
I was thunderstruck! It was a performance like no other that I have
witnessed in recent times. The mizhav drums thunderclap creating an
ambience of antiquity in the atmosphere. Flames dance in a backdrop of red
and white. Mystical chants brew an ancient dream… Then arose a desire to
make a film on Kapila - a contemporary woman practicing the ancient art
form of Kutiyattam and exploring the genius of an actress through her
performances, rehearsals, memories and desires.

*About Sanju Surendran*


Sanju, who hails from Thrissur, works as an assistant professor at the
Department of Screenwriting and Direction, at K.R. Narayanan National
Institute of Visual Science and Arts, Kottayam. He studied film at FTII. He
has made a series of critically acclaimed documentaries and shorts
such as *Kandal
Pokkudan*, *Expressway*, *Scribbles*, *Theeram*, *Gundert- The Man, The
Language*, to name a few, apart from the signature film of the 14th
International Film Festival of Kerala.





FD Zone, Delhi
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