HLF Talkies, in association with Moving Images, brings to you a bouquet of films to be watched on a large LCD Screen.
Girish Kasaravalli Retro
Ghatashraddha, Gulabi Talkies, Dweepa
Ghatashraddha (1977), Kasaravalli’s debut film, has won three national awards and made it to the list of 100 best films in the Paris Film Archives. Based on a story by UR Ananthamurthy, the film portrays widowhood and ritualistic excommunication in a brahminical society.
Dweepa (2002) a powerful film based on a novel by Na D’Souza, deals with the raging issue of building dams and the displacement of the local inhabitants. As in all of Girish Kasaravalli’s films, Dweepa deals with an ‘inner’ theme: that of human minds that isolate themselves due to rigid beliefs and convictions. Each character emerges as a representative of a different viewpoint.
Gulabi Talkies (2008), again an award-winning film, based on a short story by Vaidehi, beautifully depicts the Indian passion for cinema and the changes it brings about in a village with the arrival of the first colour TV.
Ghatashraddha
Dweepa
Gulabi Talkies
Shakespeare Wallah
Ocean of an Old Man
Hyderabad – City of Rocks
This film captures the 2,500 million year old balancing rock formations of Hyderabad in stunning visuals and retells the story of the importance of preservation of this gift of Nature to the city. Residents and visitors, scientists and adventure buffs of Hyderabad tell us their own take on the granites of the city.
The director, Saravana Kumar Salem, is a filmmaker of mainly wildlife films who has created documentaries for BBC, NatGeo, Animal Planet and Discovery, amongst others. He is based in Chennai. This foray of his into the stony world of our granite hills has, so he says, been a most rewarding and exciting experience for one who would usually be concerned with the living nature around us.
Shakespeare Wallah
Shakespeare Wallah (1965) is a Merchant Ivory Productions film about a travelling family theatre troupe of English actors in India who perform Shakespeare plays in towns across India, amidst a dwindling demand for their work and the rise of Bollywood. Story and screenplay are by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, and music is by Satyajit Ray. Madhur Jaffrey won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 15th Berlin
International Film Festival for her performance in the film. The film is loosely based on the real-life actor-manager Geoffrey Kendal’s family and his travelling “Shakespeareana Company”, which earned him the Indian sobriquet “Shakespearewallah”.