Aamir Khan listed in TIME's 100 Most Influential People in the World list.

Article by Sonal Bhadoria , IndiaTimes | April 18, 2013

US based news magazine -TIME's annual survey of the 100 most influential people in the world for the year 2013 is out and guess who landed an exclusive cover with the magazine. Billed as a film star and activist by the magazine, the Bollywood actor and host of the television show-Satyamev Jayate has been profiled by world celebrated music composer A.R Rahman. 2 other Indians have made it to the list ,namely our Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram who has been listed as a Titan and Delhi based human-rights lawyer Vrinda Grover who has been listed as a Pioneer.

Image Courtesy: Mark Seliger for TIME

What is more remarkable is that the magazine has selected just 7 people out of the 100 chosen, to each have their separate cover. And Aamir Khan is one of the select 7. The other 6 include teenage Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai, Oscar winning actress Jennifer Lawrence, hip-hop mogul Jay-Z, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, inventor and entrepreneur Elon Musk and Chinese tennis star Li Na. The covers vary internationally, but in the U.S. 4 different versions will hit the newsstands.

P. Chidambarm has been praised for his 'unsurpassed experience', strong work ethic, a no non-sense approach towards governance among other things. A noted human rights lawyer and more importantly an advocate for women's rights in India-Vrinda Grover has been lauded for her efforts post the tragic Delhi gang-rape case.The magazine notes that "her determination to force an often recalcitrant political and legal system to change was evident in these past few heated months, as a particularly tragic rape in Delhi brought women’s rights center stage." It also states, " In the conservative backlash that followed the waves of women’s protests, Grover’s voice — loud, uncompromising — was raised again and again in the rambunctious theater of Indian TV."

Another noteworthy point is that Aamir hasn't been listed under the 'Artists' category but under the section 'Pioneers'. Clearly his social activism has trumped his Bollywood credentials this time.The 100 influential people have been classified under the categories Titans, Leaders, Artists, Pioneers and Icons.

In a glowing profile of the actor, A.R Rahman writes much about Aamir's sense of social responsibility and lauds his effort to make blockbuster movies that tackle themes of poverty and education. Terming his TV show Satyamev Jayate- part journalism and part talk show, that confronts India’s deepest social ills, from sexual abuse to caste discrimination, Rahman praises Aamir for "showing the courage to ask hard questions". "Aamir has started a movement that will help change the world in which Indians live.", he adds.

This is Aamir's second TIME cover.He had earlier been the focus of a cover story 'Khan Quest' in the Asian edition of the magazine in 2012.

BBC News: Court delays Sanjay Dutt jail return because of film commitments

Bollywood näyttelijä Sanjay Duttin 5-vuoden vankilatuomiota lykättiin kuukaudella. Onko Mumbaissa puhaltamassa uudet tasa-arvoisemmat tuulet, kun isot starat joutuvatkin vankilaan?  Aiheesta lisää mm. täältä.


India's top court has given Bollywood star Sanjay Dutt more time before he returns to jail for firearms offences at the time of 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts.

Supreme Court judges ordered Dutt to surrender in a month after he said work commitments meant he needed more time.

Dutt was convicted in 2006 of buying firearms from bombers who attacked Mumbai. He spent 20 months in jail.

He was found guilty of illegally possessing a rifle and a pistol but cleared of conspiracy.

The son of a Hindu father and a Muslim mother, Dutt said the weapons were necessary in order to defend his family during the Hindu-Muslim rioting of 1993 which followed the destruction by Hindu zealots of the Babri mosque in the northern town of Ayodhya.

The Mumbai bombings killed 257 people and wounded 713 others.

Last month judges ordered Dutt to surrender by 18 April after reducing his sentence to five years from six.

Dutt, 53, had urged the court to allow him to finish work on a number of films before returning to prison.

Reports say the actor had told the court that it would take at least six months to complete the films.

The judges said on Wednesday that Dutt has to return to prison within four weeks.

Dutt, one of Bollywood's most bankable stars, is hugely popular for his role as a loveable gangster in the Munnabhai movies. He has also dabbled in politics.

In 2006, a special anti-terror court convicted 100 people for the blasts. Twelve were given the death penalty and 20 others sentenced to life imprisonment.

Dutt, the most high-profile among the convicts, was originally charged with five offences, including criminal conspiracy and possession of illegal weapons.

BBC News

HS: Uusi Bollywood ei laula eikä tanssi

Helsingin Sanomat kirjoitti Season Film Festivalin yhteydessä mielenkiintoisen artikkelin festivaalilla esitettävästä Kahaani -elokuvasta sekä uudesta modernista hindi-elokuvasta, jota nykyään Mumbaissa tehdään.


Intian nuori keskiluokka haluaa todempia elokuvia. Helsingissä nähtävä Kahaani on moderni jännäri.

Kolkatan eli entisen Kalkutan kaduilla kuvattu Kahaani on nykyelokuvaa Bollywoodista. Jännäri on esillä ensi viikolla Helsingissä. Pääosassa on Bollywood-tähti Vidya Balan (kesk.).

Veli-Pekka Lehtonen
HELSINGIN SANOMAT

Ensimmäisessä kuvassa ollaan salaisessa laboratoriossa. Outo mies pitää maskia. Koe-eläiminä ovat hiiret. Myrkkypullo hajoaa.

Jännitys tihenee seuraavassa kohtauksessa: nyt matkustetaan metrossa Intian Kolkatassa. Juna pysähtyy, seuraa terroriteko. Myrkkyiskussa kuolee sata.

Leikkaus, ja tarina siirtyy kaksi vuotta eteenpäin. Kolkatan kentälle saapuu nainen, raskaana. Hän ajaa taksilla poliisiasemalle ja ilmoittaa puolisonsa kadonneeksi.

Näin alkaa Kahaani, yksi vetävimmistä viime vuonna valmistuneista jännityselokuvista.

Yllättäen Kahaani on tehty Intiassa. Ohjaaja on Sujoy Ghosh.

Intialaisen elokuvan murros on elokuva-alaa seuraaville ollut selvää jo vuosia. Perinteisen Bollywood-viihteen rinnalla Intiassa valmistuu runsaasti Kahaanin tapaisia, modernilla länsimaisella otteella tehtyjä elokuvia.

Intialainen elokuvatuottaja Ronnie Screwvala osaa kertoa, mistä muutos lähtee.

"Yleisöstä", hän vastaa HS:n haastattelussa.

"Meillä tekijöillä voi olla toinen toistaan hienompia ideoita, mutta mitä hyötyä niistä on, jos yleisö ei niistä pidä."

Intian nuori, kasvava keskiluokka haluaa elokuvilta uutta.

"He haluavat erilaista, todempaa. Elokuvaa, joka heijastelee heidän arkeaan ja viihdyttää."

Screwvala tietää, mistä puhuu.

Hän on keskiluokan viihdyttämisellä rikastunut pohatta, yksi Intian mediabisneksen mahtipelureista. Amerikkalaislehdet Time ja Esquire ovat nostaneet hänet maailman vaikutusvaltaisimpien ihmisten listoille. Ehkä siksi, että juuri Screwvala on avannut amerikkalaisille ovea Intian suljettuun mediabisnekseen.

Uransa Screwvala aloitti kotikaupungissaan Bombayssa 1980-luvulla perustamalla kaapelikanavan. Seuraava askel oli tuottaa tv-ohjelmia ja mainoksia.

Viime vuonna Screwvalan UTV-mediayhtiö siirtyi kansainväliselle mediajätille Disneylle kaupassa, jonka arvoa on pidetty miljardin dollarin arvoisena. Ympyrä oli sulkeutunut: Screwvalasta, joka aloitti levittämällä luvatta Mikki Hiiren piirrettyjä, oli tullut Disneyn Intian-johtaja.

Osa kauppiassuvun pojan rikkauksista on peräisin urasta hammasharjatehtailijana.

Haastattelun Screwvala antaa hampaat kirkkaina berliiniläisen pilvenpiirtäjän kattohuoneiston ravintolassa turvamiesten ja pr-väen ympäröimänä.

Screwvala muistuttaa, että perinteinen Bollywood on yhä suuressa suosiossa. "Muutos on hidasta ja vakaata", hän sanoo.

Uusi Bollywood kelpaa myös maailmalle etenkin Yhdysvaltoihin ja Britanniaan.

Screwvalan elokuvista uutta tyyliä edustaa Abhishek Kapoorin draamajännäri Kai po che!.

Se on vähän kuin Kahaani.

Poissa ovat molemmista Bollywood-kliseet: laulut, tanssit ja suuri melodraama. Tilalla on nopeita leikkauksia ja siis lyhyempiä elokuvia. Poliittisia kertomuksia kerrotaan urbaaneissa kehyksissä. Kai po chessä nuoret intoilevat yrittäjyydestä ja kriketistä. Taustalla on etnisiä mellakoita ja luonnonmullistuksia.

Intia on maailman suurin elokuvamaa. Maan eri osissa on omat unelmatehtaansa, jotka tekevät vuodessa reilusti yli tuhat elokuvaa. Yli miljardille intialaiselle kannattaa tehdä kotimaista: vain joka kymmenes lippu myydään Hollywood-elokuvaan.

"Ulkomainen elokuva ei ole Intiassa vaikeuksissa vaan se on ulkopuolella. Siitäkin huolimatta, että kilpailua rajoittavia lakeja ei ole", Screwvala sanoo.

Intiassa leffassakäynti on perhehupia. Fyysistä rakkautta ei nähdä läntiseen tapaan myöskään uuden polven elokuvissa.

"Voi olla epämukavaa, jos joku perheenjäsenistä ei viihdy. Seksi ei ole tabu, mutta meidän elokuvissa ei suudella kuten teillä", Screwvala sanoo.

Elokuvakulttuureissa on muitakin eroja. Intialainen yleisö ei juuri piittaa Madagascar-tyyppisistä animaatioista. Hittianimaatioita kyllä tehdään Intiassa alihankintana. Animaatio on Intiassa lasten juttu, Screwvala sanoo.

"Se on sama juttu kuin luottokorteissa: 90 prosenttia niistä tehdään Intiassa, mutta niiden käyttäjiä on meillä vähiten."

Palataan vielä Kahaaniin, joka tarkoittaa suomeksi tarinaa. Elokuva esitetään Helsingissä erikoisnäytöksissä ensi viikolla.

Kahaania on väitetty kopioksi Hollywoodin ja kuulun intialaisen Satyajit Rayn elokuvista. Kahaani seisoo silti komeasti omillaan – hindinkielisen tarinan paikallisväri sareineen ja rikšoineen on hyvin voimakas.

Erityistä on, että pääosassa on nainen. Bollywood-tähti Vidya Balanilla on taitoa, jolla hän kääntää emotionaalisesti epäuskottavan hahmonsa toiminnan kautta väkevästi eläväksi.

Lisäksi Kahaanissa on unohtumaton sivurooli näyttelijä Saswata Chatterjeelta. Hän on kohtelias tappaja kuin Coen -veljesten elokuvasta.

Stoa Soul Kitchen: Intia 25.4.2013

Stoa Soul Kitchen -sarjan Intia-illassa Trio Peali Juva esittää pohjoisintialaista klassista ja semiklassista musiikkia. Trion laulaja Peali Juva on erikoistunut ääni-improvisointiin ja semiklassiseen intialaisen musiikkiin (esim. Bhajans ja Ghazals), kansanmuusikko Kiureli Sammallahti Intian musiikkiperinteeseen. Sami Rönka soittaa kokoonpanossa tablaa, dholakia ja cajonia. Sakari Puhakka Suomi-Intia-seurasta kertoo intialaisesta klassisesta musiikista musiikkinäyttein.

Stoa Soul Kitchen -sarja tutustuttaa eri kulttuureihin ruuan ja taiteen kautta. Kullakin illalla on oma teemamaansa, jonka herkullinen menu katetaan Café Stoaan.

Stoa Soul Kitchen: Intia
Torstaina 25.4.2013 klo: 18:00
Stoa (Turunlinnantie 1, Itäkeskus, Helsinki)

Pöytävaraukset stoa@cafe-stoa.fi tai (09) 310 88424

Menu 10 €

Järjestäjät: Stoa ja Suomi-Intia-seura

Peali Juva

The Stoa Soul Kitchen series explores different cultures through their food and their art.

The trio Peali Juva, Kiureli Sammallahti and Sami Rönka will present a tradition of North Indian Classical and Semi classical music. The singer Peali Juva is expertise in voice improvisation and semi classical Indian music (for example Bhajans and Ghazals). Musician Kiureli Sammallahti is expertise in music traditions in India and Sami Rönka plays tabla, dholak and cajon. Sakari Puhakka introduces Indian classical music with musical excerpts.

Stoa Soul Kitchen: India
Thursday 25.4.2013 at 18:00
Stoa (Turunlinnantie 1, Itäkeskus, Helsinki)

Table reservations: stoa@cafe-stoa.fi or (09) 310 88424

Menu 10 €

Organizers: Stoa and Finnish-Indian Society

Wanted: White Western Tourists For Role In Bollywood Movie

Tässäpä mielenkiintoinen artikkeli länsimaalaisten käytöstä Bollywood-elokuvissa. Pikavilkaisulla huomasin, että alkuperäinen saksankielinen artikkeli vaikuttaa laajemmalta ja informatiivisemmalta.  /

Here's an interesting article about how Indian filmmakers are using western people in Bollywood films. By looking at the original German language article, I noticed that it seems to have more information.


Up close, on set and in search of extras inside India's over-the-top movie scene.

(Foto: AFP)

By Alex Rühle

SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG/Worldcrunch

MUMBAI – I’m in Bandra, a suburb northwest of Mumbai, on the promenade by the beach. The sun is about to set, and Altaf Mehta* has just bought himself freshly squeezed melon juice.

He’s tired after his eight-hour day at a job requiring him to do the opposite of what most of the touts do along this stretch – instead of trying to sell tourists something, he’s proposing paid employment. Day after day, he recruits white Western tourists as extras in Bollywood movies.

"Americans, Europeans, Kiwis, it’s all the same to me, you all look alike," he says. He takes everybody, really? "Well, I don’t approach the ones that look like they’ve been here a long time. After six months they start to look emaciated, and too tan. The paler, the better. The blonder, the better. The main thing is that I get the number the studio’s asking for."

How about today – did he meet the quota today? "A studio needed 25 young people for a dance scene. They’re headed for the set now; I just packed them into a bus. Come on, let’s go, I’ll take you out there too."

Fantastic! A Bollywood set, interviews with extras, and who knows maybe I could be in the movie too. I particularly wanted to meet Indian extras, the thousands upon thousands of people that pour to Mumbai every year hoping – for what – a role? Some of them are pragmatists, figuring that a job in the movie industry would help feed families back home in Andhra Pradesh, Orissa, Bengal – after all, 2.5 million people make a living out of the Bollywood industry. Some of them are hoping to become famous, to get roles in some of the 200 productions filmed here annually.

But hey, just a minute here, Altaf: Why would an Indian director require Europeans for Indian dance scenes? No tourist can dance anywhere near as well as the people here. If you want to make it in Bollywood, you have to be able to move perfectly – the choreography is often a lot more demanding than the acting. "The scene they’re filming today is supposed to look like a party on Ibiza. So they need people who can hop around, each one in their own little world, like you guys dance,” Altaf says. To illustrate his point, he bends his knees, lets his shoulders drop, and starts gyrating flinging his arms gracelessly into the air a couple of times.

Just then his cell phone rings. And the news is not good. The bus with the 25 tourists has been stopped by authorities. Altaf explains that all the studios have to pay bribes to the political parties, and sometimes the parties – particularly one specific party – get hot under the collar about certain groups taking jobs away from Indians. So this time it’s Europeans. And – well, they’d been asking for more money and the studio didn’t pay it, so anyway, there goes his busload.

Now the studio is asking him for replacements – and since Europeans are not on, they want “Chinks" instead. “No problem organizing those,” says Altaf, “one phone call and I can get 150 of them.” However, this development also means he won’t be able to drive me out to the set, and I will have to take a cab.

"Gimme more! More body! More hips!"

The drive takes two and a half hours; we get there at 11:30 p.m. And just exactly where “there” is, is a mystery. There are no street lights, the place smells like fish, we seem to be in a mangrove forest – from which a watchman carrying an antiquated gun suddenly emerges. "You want movie?" he asks.

He takes me down to a beach where there are boats, and a couple of fishermen’s huts converted to beach bars. On this set, dancers are kept working until the wee hours, work as strenuous as it looks boring, and all for 800 rupees (around $17.50).

The first row of dancers is Russian – six slim girls surrounding Saif Ali Khan, the star of the movie. Behind them, a row of Indian women dancers. In the background, as a kind of filler, come the “Chinks.” They have replaced the Europeans, and managed to get there before me. They looked like they might be Chinese, maybe Burmese: “Chink” is a derogatory word for Asians. But it turns out the “Chinks” were as Indian as Altaf. They hailed from northeast India – states behind what is now Bangladesh, some of the poorest areas in the country.

The production manager keeps breaking the dance scene up after about a minute and repeating to the Russian girls: "Gimme more! More body! More hips!" How this hot number fits into what I’ve been told is a zombie movie I can’t figure out. Because the Europeans failed to make it, the setting has been changed from Ibiza to Rio and the Russians and the Asian-looking Indians are now supposed to be South Americans. The nearby city of Malad, with its tall buildings visible in the background, stands in for Rio.

When there’s finally a break, the extras seat themselves in the food tent the same way they are lined up to dance: Russians on one side, Indians on the other – with the “Chinks,” Indians from Mizram, Assam, Manipur, outside the tent.

Anything and everything

The women dancers from Mumbai talk about how frustrating it can be to spend so much time filming and then be edited out of the movie. Anjali from Bangalore says her biggest success so far was when she was in a production starring actress Sonal Seghal. "Did they leave you in?" the others ask. "Briefly." How do you get a role? "Rule of thumb for women: the shorter the skirt, the bigger the chance."

Shailesh, 23, a male extra, shrugs. "That’s the way it is. I’d do anything to be famous, anything.” To laughter his friend Maddy says: “I’ve already done everything!”

Outside the tent sit Kuri, Alvas and Hring. Twenty-one-year-old Alvas comes from Manipur, where he worked as a dancer and model and achieved modest local renown with a song on the Internet. He’s been in Mumbai for three years. At first he hoped for a breakthrough, but here on the beach tonight he seems homesick and dejected about his movie future. "Life doesn’t do what you want it to," he says.

He and his friends are making 100 rupees ($1.8) less than the others because they are all otherwise employed and just do this as a sideline. "None of us can afford to hope for fame,” says Kuri, 30. "If a production wants an Asian for a role it wouldn’t even occur to them to ask one of us. They’d fly somebody in from Bangkok."

The break over, everybody gets back to pretending they’re in Rio – and this time a German guy manages to squeeze into the scene, there, way at the back, hopping around gracelessly, flinging his arms in the air.

*name changed

Read the article in the original language.

All rights reserved ©Worldcrunch - in partnership with SUDDEUTSCHE ZEITUNG

Crunched by: Gail Mangold-Vine

BBC News: Anil Kapoor to star in Indian 24 remake

Bongasin tällaisen mielenkiintoisen uutisen BBC Newsin nettisivuilta: / Here's an interesting news from BBC News: 

Slumdog Millionaire actor Anil Kapoor is to play the lead role in the Indian remake of US hit counter-terrorism series 24.

The 53-year-old's character will mirror that of Jack Bauer, the role made famous by Kiefer Sutherland.

Kapoor, who played the quiz show host in Danny Boyle's Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire, is producing the shows set in Mumbai.

"I am not playing it safe, I am playing the lead," he said. "I'm a movie star."

The actor, who has starred in more than 100 Bollywood films in the past three decades, also featured in the American 24 series playing Middle Eastern leader Omar Hassan.

"I have stuck my neck out," Kapoor told Reuters about the remake, produced by his company Anil Kapoor Film.

Director Abhinay Deo said: "We are giving them their star that they love and we are giving them subject matter which is close to them. Where can this go wrong?"

The original series started in 2001 and spanned 192 episodes over nine years.

The main set of the counter-terrorism unit is a replica of the one in the US series, according to show producers.

"My audience is the masses - the Hindi heartland, they haven't seen this, for them it'll be a novelty and something new," said Raj Nayak, chief executive officer of the Colors channel, which will air the series later this year.

Tanssikatselmus Stoori

Tänä viikonloppuna tanssijat valtaavat jälleen Tikkurilan lukion, kun Tanssikatselmus Stoori pyörähtää käyntiin. Tanssikatselmus Stoori on tanssikilpailu, jossa tarina on keskeisellä sijalla. Esiintyjät saavat henkilökohtaisen palautteen tuomaristolta, mikä onkin yksi tärkeimmistä syistä kilpailuun osallistumisessa. Itse kilpailu on lauantaina ja sunnuntaina parhaimmisto pääsee esiintymään yleisölle. Käykäähän Stoorin Facebook-sivuilla!

Sain mahdollisuuden päästä lauantaina seuraamaan kilpailua. Paikalla onkin ihanan monipuolinen tanssitarjonta. Show, street, lattari, nykytanssi ja tietenkin Bollywood! :) Mukana kilpailemassa on ihanan monta Bollywood tanssiryhmää.

Bollywood blogi toivottaa kaikille kilpailijoille hurjasti onnea!

                   ***                          ***                            ***                       ***

This weekend dancers are going to take over Tikkurila Lukio when Tanssikatselmus Stoori -  a dance competition starts. Tanssikatselmus Stoori is a dance competition where the story is the main element. The dancers are given feedback from the judges, which is one of the main reasons why there are so many dancers in this popular competition. The competition is on Saturday and on Sunday the audience can see the best of the dances. Check out Stoori's Facebook page!

I got an opportunity to go and see the competition on Saturday. It's gonna be great! There are so many different dance styles for example: Show, Street, Latin, Modern and of course Bollywood! Specially I'm so excited that there are so many Bollywood dance groups.

Bollywood blog is wishing all the best to all the contestants!

Bollywood ja Tamil elokuvaa Season Film Festivalilla

(English version below the Finnish)
Season Film Festivalilla (eli entisellä Artisokka festivaalilla) on tarjolla tänä vuonna kaksi intialaista elokuvaa: hindinkielinen Kahaani ja tamilinkielinen Salma. Kahaani, joka muuten on erinomainen elokuva, on hieno valinta ohjelmistoon. Elokuva on hyvä esimerkki uudesta Hindi-elokuvasta, jota nykyään tehdään Mumbaissa. Helsingin Sanomat kirjoitti mielenkiintoisen artikkelin aiheesta. Mielestäni Season Film Festivalin päätös näyttää tamilinkielinen elokuva festivaalillaan, on myös erinomainen. Pääkaupunkiseudulla vaikuttaa laaja ja aktiivinen tamilinkielinen yleisö.

Season Film Festival alkaa huomenna torstaina! Liput näytöksiin maksavat 8€. Katso lisätietoja täältä. Alla nettisivuilta poimitut elokuvien esittelyt.


KAHAANI (ohj. Sujoy Ghosh) K-16
kieli: Hindi, tekstitys: Englanti
kesto: 123 min

Tietokoneasiantuntija Vidya Bagchi (Bollywood-tähti Vidya Balan) saapuu Lontoosta Kalkuttaan. Viimeisillään raskaana oleva nainen tilaa lentokentältä suoraan taksin poliisiasemalle. Hänen miehensä on kadonnut täällä työmatkallaan. Ystävällismielisen poliisin kanssa he alkavat selvittää miehen kohtaloa – yksi kerrallaan kaikki hotellin vastaanottovirkailijasta työnantajaan kieltävät häntä koskaan nähneensäkään. Mies on kadonnut kuin tuhka tuuleen. Luovuttaminen ei kuitenkaan ole vaihtoehto. Klikkaus klikkaukselta Vidya alkaa hakkeroitua entistä syvemmälle valheiden verkkoon.

Vuoden ylistetyin Bollywood-trilleri tempaa mukaansa huikeisiin juonenkäänteisiin. Vähitellen yhä tiivistunnelmaisemmaksi muuttuva elokuva pitää yllä jännitystään aivan viimeisille minuuteilleen saakka. Kuten arvata saattaa: Sujoy Ghoshin ohjaamassa jännitystarinassa mikään ei ole sitä, miltä se ensisilmäykseltä näyttää.

Taina Vuokko

ESITYSAJAT KAHAANI:

Pe 5.4.2013 klo 18:00 Maxim 1
Su 7.4.2013 klo 12:00 Maxim 1



SALMA (ohj. Kim Longinotto) K-12
kieli: Tamil, tekstitys: Englanti
kesto: 91 min

Miehet kiihottuvat kymmenen kertaa nopeammin kuin naiset, siksi musliminaisen tulee pukeutua koko vartalon peittävään burkaan.

Burka on vain yksi naisen elämää rajoittavista säännöistä. Aviomies valitaan vuosia ennen naimaikää ja naimisiin voi mennä 13–14-vuotiaana, kun lapsuus on takana ja teini-ikä saavutettu. Kun muslimitytön kuukautiset alkavat, hän joutuu automaattisesti jättämään opiskelun ja elämään miesten katseiden ulottumattomissa, suljettuna omaan kotiinsa.

Tämä kaikki kuuluu intialaisen tamilikylän Thuvarankurichin sääntöihin, ja näistä säännöistä ei poiketa.

Onkin ihme, että tässä kylässä on kasvanut tunnustettu naisrunoilija. Intian kuuluisin nainen, Salma, on elänyt 25 vuotta vankina omassa kodissaan. Salman samaan aikaan raadollisen ja toivoa antavan tarinan kertojana toimii cinema veriten keinoin kuvaava naisohjaaja Kim Longinotto, arvostettu sorrettujen puolustaja.

Sonja Löfström

ESITYSAJAT SALMA:

La 6.4.2013 klo 21:30 Maxim 2
Su 7.4.2013 klo 18:30 Maxim 1



IN ENGLISH

Season Film Festival (former Artichoke film festival) is showing 2 Indian films this year: Hindi film Kahaani and Tamil film Salma. Kahaani, which by the way is an excellent movie, is a good choice. The film is a good example of the New Hindi Cinema which filmmakers are nowadays making in Mumbai. Helsingin Sanomat wrote an interesting article about the new genre. Unfortunately the article is in Finnish only. For my opinion it's a good choice to bring also Tamil language film, because there is a large and active Tamil language audience in Helsinki.

Season Film Festival starts tomorrow Thursday! Ticket price is 8€. For more information here. The film reviews below are taken from the festival's website.



KAHAANI (dir. Sujoy Ghosh) K-16
language: Hindi, subtitles: Englanti
lenght: 123 min

With each film she makes, Vidya Balan reaffirms her status as India’s best actress (one of the best in the world, in fact). She does it again in Kahaani, a gripping thriller about identity. Balan plays Vidya Bagchi, a heavily pregnant woman from London who arrives in Kolkata searching for her missing husband. Her husband, Arnab, had been in constant contact with Vidya for the first half of his month-long assignment, but she’s heard nothing from him in two weeks.
Kahaani is wonderfully atmospheric in the way it emphasizes the impossible task before Vidya. The city is crowded and unfamiliar to Vidya, who staggers in the heat under the weight of her pregnant belly. Kolkata is at its most chaotic during a climactic scene set during Durga Puja, a festival celebrating the Hindu goddess Durga, a renowned demon-slayer who also embodies maternal compassion and patience.

Kathy Gibson / Access Bollywood

SCREENINGS of KAHAANI:

Fri 5.4.2013 at 18:00 Maxim 1
Sun 7.4.2013 at 12:00 Maxim 1



SALMA (dir. Kim Longinotto) K-12
language: Tamil, subtitles: Englanti
lenght: 91 min
Salma is a story of rare achievement – a Muslim woman who writes her escape out of family servitude in southern India. The documentary, telling her own story in her own voice in her own village, is as poignant as it is simple.

Salma, 44, the protagonist, is a distinguished poet in the Tamil language. Her biography reads like a variant on the Book of Job. Given to a young aunt as a child because her father wanted a son, she was returned to her birth parents at five, and confined at puberty according to local practice in a room with one barred window that she shared with a sister. Once she’s married off, her husband’s family keeps her inside their home, where she begins writing, locked in the foul toilet that the entire family used, with a hidden pen on paper ripped from a calendar.

David D’Arcy / Screendaily

SCREENINGS of SALMA:

Sat 6.4.2013 at 21:30 Maxim 2
Sun 7.4.2013 at 18:30 Maxim 1