Vikalp@Alliance screening: Forever Young, June 15

The Vikalp Archive, Mumbai presents the Bombay premiere of Ranjan Palit’s film on one man’s passion for another man’s music:

FOREVER YOUNG
(India / MiniDV / 2008 / English, Khasi / 75min.)


WHEN: Monday, JUNE 15th, 6.30 pm
WHERE: Alliance Francaise, Theosophy Hall, 40 New Marine Lines, Next to Nirmala Niketan College, Churchgate,Mumbai 400 020, Tel: 22036187

Please come and circulate this widely

ABOUT THE FILM

FOREVER YOUNG
(India / MiniDV / 2008 / English, Khasi / 75min.)

CREDITS
Direction and Writing: RANJAN PALLIT; Camera: RANU GHOSH, SETU and RANJAN PALIT, Editing: AVISHEK GHOSH; Sound: SURESH RAJAMANI

For the past decade every year in Shillong, 62-year-old hippie Lou Majaw and his band Ace of Spades has been performing a tribute concert with their rendering of Dylan songs.

The film is about this man and how his annual celebration of Dylan's music has made him into a small-town hero in the rock capital of the country.


“Forever Young can be called a cinematic version of a Dylan song, evocative and allusive, and to some extent purposefully ambiguous.”
-The Indian Express

“The film takes the audience through Majaw’s energetic gigs to his escape to Calcutta and falling in and out of love. The camera steals a few private moments — of Majaw sitting by himself, or with his wife Tina and son who he has named Christopher Dylan. …. And ends with schoolgirls dancing to Majaw’s music”
-The Telegraph

Vikalp Archive Screening: The Other Song by Saba Dewan

VIKALP, MUMBAI presents the Bombay premiere of Saba Dawan’s new film on music, sexuality, censorship and the enigmatic world of the courtesan.

“THE OTHER SONG”

WHEN: Friday, May 15th, 6.30 pm
WHERE: Alliance Francaise, Theosophy Hall, 40 New Marine Lines, Next to Nirmala Niketan College, Churchgate,Mumbai 400 020, Tel: 22036187


The filmmaker will be present for the screening.
Entrance is free and open to all. Do come and let others know!



ABOUT THE FILM

The Other Song
(120 minutes Hindi / Urdu / English / English subtitles)


In 1935 Rasoolan Bai the well known singer from Varanasi recorded for the gramaphone a thumri that she would never sing again - Lagat jobanwa ma chot, phool gendwa na maar (My breasts are wounded, don't throw flowers at me).A variation of her more famous bhairavi thumri - Lagat karejwa ma chot,
phool gendwa na maar (My heart is wounded, don't throw flowers at me), the 1935 recording, never to be repeated, faded from public memory and eventually got lost.

More than seventy years later the film undertakes a journey through Varanasi,Lucknow and Muzzafarpur in Bihar to search for the forgotten thumri.This journey opens a Pandora's box of life stories, memories, half remembered songs and histories that for long have been banished into oblivion. It brings the film face to face with the enigmatic figure of the tawaif, courtesan, bai ji and the contested terrain of her art practise and lifestyle. To understand the past and present of the tawaif the film must unravel the significant transitions that took place in late 19th
and early 20th century around the control, censorship and moral policing of female sexualities and cultural expression.


CREDITS
Directed by: Saba Dewan
Camera: Rahul Roy
Editing: Reena Mohan / Khushboo Agarwal / Mahadeb Shi / Anupama Chandra
Sound: Asheesh Pandya / Gissy Michael / Vipin Bhati
For more information: sabadewan@gmail.com
Supported by: India Foundation of the Arts and Hivos