From young film-makers' perspective

Meaningful cinema

A three day film festival L ‘indiscrete was held at the Alliance Francaise De Bangalore last week. The object of the festival was to view India through the eyes of its young film-makers and to get a perspective on the direction in which these new film-makers are moving towards.

Twenty-five short films, fictions, animation and documentaries from eight Indian film and media schools were  screened over a period of three days. The films made in regional languages had been subtitled in French by Indian students from all over the country and will be screened later at international film festivals.

The topics were very diverse and interesting and focus on different aspects of Indian rural and urban life. Raah, a short seven-minute film briefly peeped into the dreams and aspirations of a young, handicapped village boy who boards a train to go and seek his fortune elsewhere. While waiting at the station, his imagination and thoughts soar with the wild birds that nest in his village. Despite his handicap he boards the train and sets out to face an uncertain future.

Plain Sita, a 35-minute film in Tamil wove a fictional tale about a young married couple, who elope and start their married life together. While he goes to Singapore to work she is left behind in Chennai. When a crisis hits she has to rely on the good offices of an auto driver to come to her aid.

From dysfunctional family relationships to quirky animated tales about two naughty school boys, the film festival covered vignettes of life from across the Indian diaspora in a fresh and innovative fashion.

Arun Vijayan, a documentary film-maker says, “Although young film-makers work on very small budgets, with very little technical support it is interesting to know what topics capture their imagination and interest. Hopefully initiatives like these will provide them with a platform to air their ideas and become instruments of change through the medium of film.”