Master Strokes

Suman:<, b>The passage from adolescence to youth is a phase during which a girl emerges from a distinctive period of her life to another significant phase. Most often there is a synchronous transition in her physical state with that of her emotional state of mind. This film poignantly depicts such a transition in a girl's life. Her changing attitudes towards her playmates, and objects around are brought out very vividly in this film.

Vilaap:<, b>In the interior of a forest, a tree is being felled. An ordinary event, an event like the shooting of a bird or a rabbit in a forest or the violation of a girl in a lonely forest. It is an ordinary human event. The film humanizes the event of the cutting of a tree in a forest. When one tree is cut (killed, violated) the woodcutter passes on to the next tree to be cut (killed, violated?). This must go on!

A Day With The Builders:<, b>The film captures the grim struggle for existence of a family of unskilled laboreworking on the construction of a new building.

Teevra Madhyam:<, b>Shama and Ravi are membeof a Marxist Party. Shama loves classical Indian music, a luxury of a few, and Ravi is in love with quotations and the philosophy of Marx - a need of the masses. Due to a strike, Ravi is compelled to work full-time for the party. Shama decides to give up music reluctantly and joins Ravi.

Awashesh:<, b>Hari is a little boy who is neglected and isolated. While all the inmates of the house are busy in their own activities he is not able to play hide and seek with Munna. Granny, the eldest member of the family, is also neglected and not cared for. In the evening, Hari goes to the temple but does not meet any friends. Ignored by his parents in the night, he goes to Granny who showeaffection on him.

Bonga:<, b>This film is based on the American gangster genre and attempts to bring out the poetry of this tradition in cinema. It makes use of the familiar elements from a typical gangster film such as a bank robbery, the get-away car, the deserted refuge in a jungle, but on a different level: the human and the comic.

Murder At Monkey Hill:<, b>The situation is sparse and simple. A killer is hired to murder a girl in a lonely spot. But he has moments of indecision when confronted with the girl. The film satirically portrays this situation in the idiom of a typical commercial Hindi film.

Man Vs Man:<, b>Man-pulled rickshaws, which have served Calcutta for over eight decades face virtual extinction as a result of legislation introduced by the State Government in 1981. This would rob over 100,000 people of a living. The film analyzes the critical situation, and on the basis of concrete facts and figures, questions whether such a step would be fruitful at all. The image of a man pulling a man is a depressing and a negative one - but not more negative than that of the image of a man going without food.

Bodhvriksha (Wisdom Tree):<, b>The eighty year old grandmother is perceptibly decaying. The granddaughter who nurses her becomes conscious of a kind of grace, something pure and holy, which seems to grow in her as the old woman's body witheaway. The grandmother's son uses her as a means to achieve his own spiritual catharsis. This film is a powerful meditation on decay and redemption from physical suffering.

The Eight Column Affair:<, b>What happens when a photograph on the front page of a newspaper wants to meet a photograph on the last page? To do this, he must necessarily pass through several pages of the paper. He comes alive and so does the entire newspaper. Meet Robi, a marathon runner on the front page. And Shireen, a tennis champ on the last page. in The Eight Column Affair - a zany love story set in a newspaper.

Joyce:<, b>A married woman abandons her husband. She wandein the night through the city. One of her points of solace is an old church where the nuns are in a spiritual world of their own. They follow one another in the long passage chanting their prayers. There is a shadow of doubt on the face of the wandering woman. Will she go back? The film tries to capture the mood of the place that ultimately influences the woman to shape her future.

Hypnothesis:<, b>A man leaves his house. Another applies for leave in his office. A third finishes his tea. Another gets himself shaved. All four are fresh entrants in the world of crime; kidnapping to be more precise. But the father of the kidnapped boy refuses to pay up. The son has already played this trick before and collected good ransom. The father does not believe this time it is a real thing. The kidnappeget desperate. The son has an idea. The plot thickens.

Yeh Woh Shehar To Nahin:<, b>The city is in the grip of communal clashes between Hindus and Muslims. An old Hindu man and an old Muslim man, unknown to, and independent of each other, are searching for their lost sons. After a night long futile search, while returning home, they come across a pool of blood on a bridge and sit down beside it, brooding.

Jam Invalid:<, b>Ambika has just come to know that she has failed once again, and she will not be given any more chances. At first, Ambika is relieved to get away. She leaves the city for her home in another city. The chaotic state of her mind and the fear of facing her parents, makes her spend the night out in the city, which at first, provides her with a sense of release. But very soon the city takes over and her confusions return even more intensely this time.

Let's Talk A While:<, b>A cynical young man and a romantic young woman encountered each other on a night bus journey. Each spins a story around the other. It turns out that she is going to meet someone, she has never seen before. He is apprehensive. She herself is not so sure...

Jee Karta Tha:<, b>Barkha returns to her parents house. Her arrival brings some relief and confusion in Chaman's life. Chaman, now in her mid-twenties is stuck in a small town milieu. A third childhood friend, Rekha is waiting to get married. And there is a skein of wool, that has to be knitted fast to make Barkha's husband happy.

Chaitra:<, b>Madhu and his mother go to Naik wada for 'Haldi Kunku'. Naik bai insults Madhu's mother. Madhu's mother pawns her jewelry and performs a big 'Haldi Kunku' inviting Naik bai. She completes her revenge by offering her Haldi Kunku with the entire ritual and shows her that she is also capable of doing it richly. The next year when Madhu's mother is invited, life is not the same any more...

Do Hafte Guzarte Do Hafte Nahin Lagte:<, b>When Suman has to go to her mother's house, Bharat asks her to write which she refuses saying that he doesn't know how to keep it to himself. Bharat promises to find the right place for it. She is adamant but writes nonetheless and Bharat has to keep his promise now. And so begins his search for his corner in the space that belongs to many.

Saanjh:<, b>A small lodge in Pune. Managed by a stern landlady, it houses an old man on the verge of becoming senile. Caught in a time wrap, he is slowly losing touch with reality. He is alone and everyone around him seems to have had enough of him. As time stops for him, for the rest of them, life goes on.

Dwijaa:<, b>Set in 1930, the film is about young Mathura, a child widow who is brought back to her maternal home. It is the story of her coming to terms with the changed reality and her trying to find her own voice in the face of uncertainty. 'Dwijaa' is loosely adapted from 'Magey Valoon' (Looking Back) an autobiography of Dr Mathutai Athaley.