A window to an unseen world

Film Screening

The Bangalore-based film club, called ‘tinyMouse’, recently screened two independent films — Aprajita by Ronak Gupta and ‘Local Kung Fu’ by Kenny Basumatary — at the Ashirvad Centre on St Mark’s Road.

The ‘tinyMouse’ Club was started nine months ago by Kapil Agarwal and Shivam Shrivastav, both IT professionals, and has screened five movies in the past at various locations like Jaaga and Rohan Vasant Auditorium. “We want to create a parallel cinema market for new, independent film-makers and provide a platform for them,” says Kapil. He points out that their venture also gives viewers an opportunity to view films of various genres. The club plans to screen films once every month, starting this month, to increase the popularity of short and feature films. “We have mentors like Hemant Gaba from the industry to assist us,” he adds.

Aprajita is a 30-minute Hindi film that deals with the relationship between a newly-married couple in an arranged marriage. It explores how their relationship gradually develops in the present society. It throws light on the various problems commonly faced by couples and their ways of overcoming the issues. Ronak Gupta, the director of the film who hails from Madhya Pradesh, explains, “Being a married woman, I faced a few problems initially and that was the main inspiration behind this film. I realised that there are other couples out there who would also come across these issues and so, I wanted to bring it to the forefront.” It took her a year to complete this film, which is her directorial debut.

“The film portrays strong feminity and it is very relateable,” says Indira, an actress present in the audience. “It was a good attempt and even though there were a few technical problems, they can be overlooked,” she adds. 

Kenny Basumatary’s ‘Local Kung Fu’ is a fun feature film set in Guwahati. It is a light, hyper-energetic and cheeky film with likeable gundas. “My uncle is into kung fu and the lack of a fine Indian kung fu movie motivated me to make the film,” says Kenny, who is an Assamese based in Mumbai. 

Rabi K, a film-maker at the screening, says, “Both the directors did a great job by selecting very unique themes for their movies. Aprajita was great for a debut film and Kenny’s choice of focussing on kung fu was very different from traditional Indian films.”

 He adds, “Ronak managed to bring in a personal touch to the film and ‘Local Kung Fu’ showcased high-quality humour through satire, which was both subtle and clean.” Priyam Joshi, a degree student at the screening, says, “This is a good platform for independent films and interaction between film-makers and viewers.”

 In his opinion, being able to talk directly to the directors and give them prompt feedback brought the audience closer to the film.