Rajiv Mehrotra

Story of the unexpected imprisonment of a number of women, for their resistance to the Emergency of 1975-77, through the life of Socialist and famous actor Snehalata Reddy. Being the only woman political prisoner in jail, she spent eight months in solitary confinement, recording her concerns and traumatic experiences in her diary, extracts of which were later published. Released for a few weeks on parole, she died of a heart attack just before she was to return to jail. The film recounts her ordeal through the reminiscences of her children and close friends.

Vipin Vijay's Palace of the Winds is a poetic essay about that "Holy Little Box," the radio, conceived of as a ghostly transmitter of Indian cultural artifacts.

In a region where the native language is often overlooked, a young Bundelkhandi rapper works tirelessly on his first album. As he faces financial struggles and a lack of resources, the question remains: will he be able to make it and at what cost?

An impressionistic sketch of ‘the public’ as created by our cinema and its relationship with cinema itself.

Inspired by movies, a young girl from the Banjara tribe in rural Maharashtra fights for her dream of becoming a kabaddi player to escape a forced marriage. During a district-level tournament, she slips into a Bollywood-tinted dream, momentarily becoming the hero she’s always imagined.

They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.

Story of the unexpected imprisonment of a number of women, for their resistance to the Emergency of 1975-77, through the life of Socialist and famous actor Snehalata Reddy. Being the only woman political prisoner in jail, she spent eight months in solitary confinement, recording her concerns and traumatic experiences in her diary, extracts of which were later published. Released for a few weeks on parole, she died of a heart attack just before she was to return to jail. The film recounts her ordeal through the reminiscences of her children and close friends.

Vipin Vijay's Palace of the Winds is a poetic essay about that "Holy Little Box," the radio, conceived of as a ghostly transmitter of Indian cultural artifacts.

In a region where the native language is often overlooked, a young Bundelkhandi rapper works tirelessly on his first album. As he faces financial struggles and a lack of resources, the question remains: will he be able to make it and at what cost?

An impressionistic sketch of ‘the public’ as created by our cinema and its relationship with cinema itself.

Inspired by movies, a young girl from the Banjara tribe in rural Maharashtra fights for her dream of becoming a kabaddi player to escape a forced marriage. During a district-level tournament, she slips into a Bollywood-tinted dream, momentarily becoming the hero she’s always imagined.

They set off, looking for work in far-off places, but disappeared along the way. Inspired by Shiv Kumar Batalvi’s “birha” poetry, the film traces the longing on both sides: on the part of those who are missing, and those that wait for them to return.

Alvina visits her late Grandfather’s House, on the 5th anniversary of his demise. She and her grandmother bond over their memories and affection towards him. As they spend slow afternoons together, talking about him, his patriarchal tendencies begin to surface. Alvina speaks to her father, and a childhood of fear and tyranny surfaces in her father’s recollections. Her grandmother’s experiences as a woman and a wife are colored by the same tyranny. These well kept secrets only had the tree outside the balcony and the walls of the house as witness, and their burden brings the house to life, and makes the tree restless.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films map the history of the region from the inside. This Documentary looks at how the filmmaker dealt with human conditions at the most elemental level with a sensibility that makes his films universal in appeal.

Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s films map the history of the region from the inside. This Documentary looks at how the filmmaker dealt with human conditions at the most elemental level with a sensibility that makes his films universal in appeal.

Exploring the syncretic tradition of Kashmir through the Sufiyana kalam of the Valley.

A documentary on the films of Shyam Benegal explores the time, ethos, and concerns of the New Cinema Movement in India through his oeuvre.

Brair Kani explores an ancestral house located in Srinagar, Kashmir. Using the attic as a site of reflection, the film navigates the relationship between space, belonging and personal history. Inhabiting the confines of the attic, the house spirits exist simultaneously as carriers of collective memory and as manifestations of the emotional landscape.

Three women from Nizamuddin basti, Delhi, take a decision that sets them on a journey to find themselves- they join a gym.

As a call from the periphery of sanity, the film is a series of dream narratives, and accounts of spiritual possession as experienced by women 'petitioners' at the shrine of a Sufi Saint in North India.

Schizophrenia. It may be one word, but it immediately conjures up multiple connotations. Mad. Incurable. Violent. Suicidal. Chemical imbalances. Crazy. A lifelong condition. Inevitable dependency on Medicines. Dark. Terrible. 'A Drop of Sunshine' challenges these notions. It questions the mainstream view of the condition and seeks alternate ways of recovering from it. Through the powerful story of its young and gutsy protagonist, Reshma Valiappan, it seeks to give viewers a new vocabulary to address the stigmatized mental illness. The film proposes that the only treatment method that can work in Schizophrenia is one where the so-called 'patient' is encouraged and empowered to become an equal partner in the process of healing.

A documentary on the struggle of Tamil writer Sundara Ramaswamy to evolve modern literature in a society stuck with caste identities, traditional hypocrisy and language chauvinism.

In a far suburb of Bombay, residents from slums are moved into high-rise apartment complexes with the promise of a better life. While these complexes are built allegedly to house the poor, they have been seen as moves to free prime slum land for commercial development. The complexes soon degenerate into places worse than slums. The film lets the viewer experience the living conditions of places hidden away in a 21st century metropolis.

The debate on death penalty is loud and impassioned. Instead of echoing that cacophony, The Death of Us, quietly reflects on a range of cases in which the death penalty was pronounced. Sometimes, ending in the execution of the convicted; sometimes in commutation to a life sentence; and sometimes to acquittal and release. Speaking to some who have been on death row, and others closely involved with the cases, we engage in complex conversations on crime and punishment, revenge and justice, popular rhetoric and personal experiences. Only to find ourselves confronted by larger ethical and moral questions across time and space.

Kaushik Mukhopadhyay assembles and pairs discarded and broken household gadgets into unexpected cyborg-like creatures that occupy the space between machine, toy and home. His objects are quirky, humorous and noisy which tend to break down sometimes. The Film brings to light these narratives of unexpectedness, embodying fragments of political, personal and art history.

For the Buddha, establishing a community of nuns was a radical experiment for its time. Over the centuries Buddhist religious life was available to women but the highest monastic qualifications were denied to them. The film traces the journey of an exceptional nun, Namdol Phuntsok, the first woman ever to be awarded the highest degree in Tibetan philosophy - the Geshema degree.

The uncertainties of life in the filmmaker's village, shot over a period of five years through the stories of his sister and her neighbours, threatened by the ever-expanding, land-hungry industries. Screened at Delhi and Mumbai.

The Film revisits the event, when 1800 Bengali Muslims were killed in Nellie and surrounding villages in Assam. It is an exploration of how the survivors remember the violence, over three decades later, and how the spaces that witnessed this violence continue to mark people’s relationship to history and memory.

As the region of Barak Valley, Assam, India, is swiftly giving way to newer formations, structures, and beliefs, two siblings converse over the phone about their deserted childhood home situated in the same region while residing far from it.

In a dim, dusty room within Mumbai's Slums, locals gather as a film is projected, transporting those who enter into a realm offering solace from the relentless urban chaos. An exquisite examination of the rhythm and ambiance inside the exterminating alternative cinema space- the video parlors.

Bajrangi Bhaijaan explores how ideas of masculinity in India are tied to Salman Khan fandom. It tries to understand what eco-blockbuster-manufactured machismo has on the Indian male already struggling with his identity in a globalized world. The story of a Salman Khan look-alike Shan Ghosh, and his two fans Balram and Bhaskar

Rural, adivasi women from the villages of Raigarh, Chhattisgarh critique the grand plan of development of the country. As mines and power plants appear and grow in monstrous proportions around them, many of them have been cheated of their land and compensation. Their relationship with the forest and environment has been severed, leaving them surrounded by a toxic, polluted, gutted earth. As they grapple with all this, they seek justice for themselves and their communities and share their thoughts about how a country should be.

The film celebrates the beauty of plural India through the genre of the road movie.

The ten anthologies and eight long poems of the Sangam age are the oldest and most distinguished body of secular poetry extant in India, of which women poets were a very strong presence.

The contemporary relevance and future of oldest classical music.

The documentary short film observes the institution of marriage through the perspective of three brides in India.

Through a series of unanswered phone calls made by an unnamed narrator, we listen to the dreams, fears, and ambitions of a migrant man working as a cook in Bombay, while witnessing glimpses of daily life unfolding across the city

The Film locates the life and work of a woman political activist in her everyday existence, the relationships she lives out at home and in her work and the political affiliations she tries to hold together, even as they are subjected to multiple stresses.

In the world's only deaf-mute village where silence reigns, tension mounts as Misra Khatoon approaches childbirth. The villagers surround her home and beat drums seeking a response from the newborn.

Aspiring to make it big in the page 3 industry, an established paparazzi Manoj takes his chance against fellow photographers in a race to capture the most sensational photos in order to battle the realities of life. Maithili language film.

The film explores the transition of an entire village from one that slaughtered thousands of Amur Falcons, the longest travelling raptors in the world, who fly from Siberia every fall to roost in Pangti, a Lotha Naga village in Nagaland, to becoming their most fervent preservationists.

Realizing all that is left of his great-grandfather are the tools of his caste trade - a pair of scissors, a comb, and a mirror, a filmmaker sets out for his hometown hoping to make sense of his family and their inheritance.

In Nagaland stones are deemed to be reminders of what they have seen. This documentary traces modern manifestations of recorded memory and how the past lingers on.

The many facets of the land and the life of a farmer from Kuttanad, tucked away between the sea and the backwaters and hidden in the shadows of coconut palms

Documentary about actress Sharmila Tagore. Introduced to film acting at age 13 by Satyajit Ray, Sharmila Tagore evolved into one of the most iconic actors and stars of the 60s and 70s India. straddling the worlds of classical and popular cinema with grace and poise. The Film journeys through her film career and life stories, while reflecting on her choices and resolve that made her an independent and phenomenal woman.

As I prepare to bid farewell to a childhood home, grief returns unannounced, leaving us once more at its quiet threshold.