The Bollywood story through film posters, lobby cards

January 2, 2014

BollywoodNew Delhi, Jan 2: Bollywood's unseen and lesser known stills capturing action, affection, portraiture and villainy through decades-old film memorabilia like cinema lobby and show cards is now put on show.

Curated by photographer Rahaab Allana as a tribute to 100 years of cinema, these curios are showing at an exhibition he has titled "Filmy Jagat: Shared Universe of Indian Cinema" at the Art Heritage Gallery here.

"The visual culture in India is vast. It was the end of the centenary and I felt in the end, we should talk about sub cultures rather than the mainstream activities going on all the time," Allana told PTI in an interview at the the opening of the exhibition.

The exhibition, says the photographer is an attempt by his team to bring to fore the sub culture of photography that existed in Hindi movies for four decades from 1940 to 1980s but still unknown to the masses.

"For instance, the lobby cards and show cards that would have originally been pinned up in cinema theatres, are some of the most acknowledged forms of photography. We have made them part of the exhibition," he says.

The focal point of the exhibition is a scrap book titled "Filmy Jagat" scribbled in hand on the cover.

Acquired by Allana a year ago, the pre-independence book paved the way for the exhibition. "Working around the streets of Mumbai and picking up material, I came upon this scrap book and I realize that a scrap book is an important sub-culture of photography. I realized that I would like to research it and found out that there was no publication or history around scrapbook so I thought to do one," he says.

Divided into different tropes and styles, the show highlights such film stills dating from a later period in Indian cinema, namely the 1960s-80s, an era that gave way to a global audience for Hindi films. Action, Affection, Portraiture and Villainy are therefore some of the recurring moments that were captured throughout film photography.

The curator of Alkazi Foundation for the Arts. Allana says he had no plans of putting up a show when he acquired the archives. "I had no thought while going for the archives. I acquired them I because liked them," he says.

Allana admits it was a challenging task to acquire all the archives. "It was challenging. Easy as everyone was dedicated to it but difficult for obvious reasons," the curator says.

He hopes that people visit the exhibition and they start "responding to it in their own capacity." Another reason which Allana had for putting up this exhibition was to show his support for offbeat cinema. "If we want to make that kind of cinema supporting this type of exhibition is good," he said.

The exhibition preempts a publication specific to the scrapbook, titled Filmi Jagat Scrapbook: Shared Universe of Indian Cinema, by Niyogi Books with a introduction by Shyam Benegal which will be released early next year. "Yes, we hope to release it in the first quarter of the year," says Allana.

Along with this a parallel exhibition titled Contemporary Artworks, where artists have responded to the "dynamic presence of Bollywood".

M F Husain's "Culture of the Streets", a portfolio of 20 signed photographs printed on Kodak C-Print with foil on photo paper shot in the 1980s, makes it clear that for Husain, the streets of Chennai with their enormous hoardings of South Indian movie stars were a part of the contemporary urban landscape and a part of the artist's visual vocabulary.

Younger artists like Bharti Verma's otherwise vacant streets and homes of New Delhi are dominated by a historic legacy of film posters that are suspended like a giant, silent backdrop in the distance. Sharmistha Dutta creates collages of 1970's film posters pasted on ruined, blood-splattered city walls, against which she arranges interesting and vivid portraits of the common man.

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Agencies
June 6,2020

Hollywood star Angelina Jolie feels discrimination and impunity cannot be justified in any way, and says she hopes people in the US can come together to "address the deep structural wrongs in our society".

The Oscar-winning star, who turned 45 on Thursday, also donated $200,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, reports people.com.

"Rights don't belong to any one group to give to another. Discrimination and impunity cannot be tolerated, explained away or justified. I hope we can come together as Americans to address the deep structural wrongs in our society," Jolie said.

"I stand with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in their fight for racial equality, social justice, and their call for urgent legislative reform," she added.

Meanwhile, the actress celebrated her birthday amid lockdown with her six children -- Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Zahara, 15, Shiloh, 14, and 11-year-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

The actress and activist has been active since the COVID-19 pandemic spread around the world and has donated to different organisations.

Jolie previously donated $1 million to No Kid Hungry, the organisation working to feed children during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"I knew that there were problems in America, that there was poverty, but I could not believe when I realised how many school children in America were dependent on a meal to not go hungry. I was so disgusted that we have gotten to this point as a country and that we would let the most vulnerable be in such a state. I can't imagine what it feels like for those parents," she said while opening up about her reason to get associated with the organisation.

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Agencies
June 26,2020

Los Angeles, Jun 26: Warner Bros has moved its Christopher Nolan-directed espionage thriller Tenet from July 31 to August 12.

It's the second delay for the highly-anticipated movie, which was originally scheduled to release on July 17 but was postponed to July 31 due to coronavirus pandemic.

Warner Bros. is committed to bringing Tenet' to audiences in theaters, on the big screen, when exhibitors are ready and public health officials say it's time. In this moment what we need to be is flexible, and we are not treating this as a traditional movie release.

We are choosing to open the movie mid-week to allow audiences to discover the film in their own time, and we plan to play longer, over an extended play period far beyond the norm, to develop a very different yet successful release strategy, a Warner Bros spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline.

The studio has also delayed the US re-release of Nolan's sci-fi blockbuster Inception, in honour of the film's 10th anniversary, to July 31.

Tenet features John David Washington, Robert Pattinson, Elizabeth Debicki, Kenneth Branagh, Aaron Taylor-Johnson, Michael Caine, Clemence Poesy, Dimple Kapadia and Himesh Patel.

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News Network
January 2,2020

New Delhi, Jan 2: Hoping her cinematic voice can help bring about lasting change in how society perceives acid attack survivors, actor Deepika Padukone says her latest film Chhapaak should ideally be so impactful that there won't be need for another story on acid violence.

After all, cinema is in itself such a powerful medium, Deepika told news agency ahead of the release of the film, which is based on the life of acid attack survivor and activist Laxmi Agarwal.

The idea behind the social drama is to invoke empathy and understanding rather than paint women who have undergone the ordeal as victims, the actor, who has also produced the film, said in a telephonic interview from Mumbai.

"Beyond the gruesomeness, the violence and all of that, there is a story of the human spirit and hope. That's why we're telling the story," she said.

Deepika, 33, said it was a story that spoke to her and she felt pride in attaching herself to the project.

Chhapaak, directed by Meghna Gulzar and featuring Vikrant Massey, is the second mainstream film to focus on the subject after 2019 Malayalam movie Uyare starring Parvathy Thiruvothu.

"I hope we won't have to constantly tell stories on acid attack survivors for us to see change. I hope with our film we begin to see that change for ourselves as a society and for acid attack survivors.

"If we don't, then we've done something wrong as a society. Cinema in itself is such a powerful medium that hopefully just through this one film we will hopefully be able to see that kind of change and impact," Deepika said.

The actor said there was not much planning behind the decision to back the film financially.

"Sometimes certain films need a little more hand holding, a little more love and support. I felt like I would be adding a little more value as a producer.

"This is a film I'm very proud of, not just from the script point of view but even in terms of the story and its message," she said.

The film, which releases on January 10, will be Deepika's first release in two years and comes after her marriage to frequent co-star Ranveer Singh.

The actor said she used the time to creatively replenish herself.

"It was about finding a film worthy of putting out there. It's not that work at my end had stopped. I was constantly looking for scripts that challenged and excited me.

"I would look at it as time for creative fertility. It's important to nurture yourself. The work that goes on behind the scenes... most often we're constantly on a film set, but whether it's meeting with writers and directors, looking for scripts... That is also part of the creative process and that's what I've been doing."

The title Chhapaak instantly evokes the image of acid being splattered, and Deepika said the director wanted a word for the film's name that could also lend itself to a song.

"I think she said 'chhapaak', which is the sound of a splash, is something that could adapt or lend itself beautifully to a song. Perhaps, it also has to do with fluidity. So on one hand, liquid is known to take different forms, a liquid such as this (acid) can change someone's life forever," she said.

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