Bollywood and Beyond - Indian Alternative Cinema
Indian films showcased at Kunstmuseum Bern aptly underscore the theme ‘Narratives in Recent Indian Art’. [dated September 2007]
Contemporary Indian cinematic storytelling is on the cusp of change. This is illustrated by the fact that while Bollywood retains its basic strengths of colourful song and dance spectacle, it is slowly treading paths anew while Indian art-house cinema continues to plough its innovative furrow globally. The hugely entertaining yet thought provoking film selection this year aptly underscores the theme ‘Narratives in Recent Indian Art’ with every title illustrating a unique way of storytelling. The film selection then, proves the fact that while there might be myriad ways to tell a story, the story itself necessarily remains paramount.
- Naman Ramachandran
Ramachandran writes on South Asian cinema for Sight Sound and Total Film, is the UK/Ireland Correspondent for Cineuropa and the author of Lights Camera Masala: Making Movies in Mumbai
Screening schedule:
Shoonya
Saturday 22th September 6.00 pm Monday 24th September 6.00 pm Tuesday 25th September 8.30 pm
Unni
Monday 24th September 8.30 pm
Guru
Saturday 22th September 8.30 pm Sunday 23rd September 2.30 pm Tuesday 25th September 6.00 pm
Lagaan
Saturday 29th September 6.30 pm Monday 1st October 6.30 pm Sunday 7th October 5.30 pm
Veer-Zaara
Saturday 6th October 6.30 pm Sunday 7th October 1.30 pm Monday 8th October 6.30 pm
Nizhalkkuthu
Saturday 13th October 6.30 pm Sunday 14th October 2.00 pm Monday 15th October 6.30 pm
Omkara
Saturday 13th October 8.30 pm Sunday 14th October 4.00 pm Tuesday 16th October 8.30 pm
Dombivli Fast
Monday 15th October 8.30 pm Monday 22nd October 8.30 pm Tuesday 23rd October 8.30 pm
Black Friday
Saturday 20th October 5.00 pm Sunday 21st October 2.30 pm
Rang de Basanti
Saturday 20th October 8.30 pm Sunday 21st October 6.00 pm Saturday 27th October 9.00 pm
Vanaja
Monday 22nd October 6.00 pm Monday 29th October 6.00 pm Tuesday 30th October 6.00 pm
Naayi Neralu
Sunday 28th October 2.30 pm Tuesday 30th October 8.30 pm
Dosar
Saturday 27th October 6.30 pm Sunday 28th October 5.30 pm Monday 29th October 8.30 pm
Horn Please! Narratives from Contemporary Indian Art
‘Horn Please!’ an exhibition of contemporary Indian art at the Kunstmuseum Bern showcases works of Indian artists. [dated September 2007]
Horn Please!’ an exhibition of contemporary Indian art at the Kunstmuseum Bern showcases the works of 32 Indian artists. The exhibition has been curated by Bernhard Fibicher, a curator of contemporary art from Bern and Suman Gopinath, an independent curator from Bangalore. A special programme with films, literature and performances will accompany the exhibition, which will open to the public from September 20' 2007 to January 6' 2008
Horn Please! spans three decades from the 1980s to the present and is loosely constructed around four sections – Narrating Collisions, Re-imagining Places for People, Re-telling Stories/Telling Metaphor and Living in Alice-time. The stories weave back and forth across shifts in media and temporalities without tracing a history or lineage. The exhibition with its breaks in style, its digressions and diversions, its diversity in points of view and ‘narrators’, has a structure, which allows the viewer to reconstruct a different story with each reading.
Names of artists being showcased: Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Sarnat Banerjee, Jyothi Basu, Atul Dodiya, Anita Dube, Sunil Gupta, Sheela Gowda, Archana Hande, N S Harsha, Abhishek Hazra, Ranbir Kaleka, Jitish Kallat, Bhupen Khakhar, Sonia Khurana, Nalini Malani, Prabhavathi Meppayil, Surendran Nair, Sudhir Patwardhan, Justin Ponmany, Pushpamala N., Raqs Media Collective, K P Reji, Gigi Scaria, Mithu Sen, Gulammohammed Sheikh, Nilima Sheikh, Arpita Singh, Dayanita Singh, Vivan Sundaram, Surekha and Vasudha Thozhur
About rhythms, beats and forging friendships...
Indian percussionist Karthik S awarded studio residency with Swiss percussionist Lucas Niggli. [dated September 2007]
When Karthik S, a young and established percussionist from Bangalore, India met the immensely talented and eminent Swiss percussionist Lucas Niggli in Zurich this September, the bonding was instant and the atmosphere reverberated with the sounds of percussion instruments that hailed from across continents.
The two have a lot in similar. Karthik, like Lucas had an affinity to music, especially to percussion instruments, at a very young age. With a background in (Carnatic) South Indian classical music, Karthik has performed in various prestigious festivals in India, China, Spain, USA, Canada, and Australia.
Lucas Niggli, a Swiss music legend has toured through all of Europe with different musicians and played on stages in Russia and America, Egypt and Canada, China and South Africa and Taiwan. He performed on major Jazz festivals in Vancouver, Berlin, Moers, Saalfelden, Willisau, Rome, Nürnberg, Capetown, Le Mans, Münster and Zurich and at New Music Festivals like Huddersfield (UK), Donaueschingen ( D) , Ultima (N), MaerzMusik (D).
Keen to take his music to new and unexplored spaces, Karthik is very excited about his residency with Lucas Niggli.
