SHORT, SMART AND SWEET
Talented directors came on board India Today to make films for the ongoing India Tomorrow series for the small screen. A flavour of the launch at the Conclave
PARTITION PROJECT
When India Today asked
Ram Madhvani, director of Neerja, to make a film for its India Tomorrow series, he thought of the man whose nib divided a country into three parts and wreaked havoc for millions: Sir Cyril John Radcliffe, eminent London barrister, sent to India in 1947 to draw the line of Partition. “We are still dealing with it today,” says Madhvani about This Bloody Line. “I really wanted to start a conversation about the ridiculousness of it all.”
MANTO’S MUSINGS
Nandita Das calls In Defence of Freedom a teaser to her upcoming feature on Saadat Hasan Manto, one of the greatest short story writers of South Asian literature. She takes viewers into a classroom where Manto (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) makes a compelling case for the need to uphold freedom and truth. “Manto wrote as he saw. His talk to the students is about having the courage to call a spade a spade,” says Das. “I wonder what he’d have written had he been around today.”
POLITICAL PLOTLINE
Few filmmakers know Indian politics as well as Sudhir Mishra (Hazaaron
Khwaishein Aisi). In Life Support, Mishra stages his own game of thrones with three contenders: an ailing party leader (Vipin Sharma), his influential mistress (Rasika Duggal) and the young aspirant (Rahul Bhat) desperate to lead. The dynamic power play includes sex, lies, a videotape and betrayal. “It is, I hope, a reflection of how bizarre the political scenario today is,” says Mishra.
MIRROR TO MANTO
Produced by National Award-filmmaker Anand Gandhi’s Memesys Culture Lab and directed by photographer-writer Sooni
Taraporevala, VR short Yeh Ballet follows two male ballet dancers: Amir, 15, and Manish, 21. The boys don’t let their marginalised backgrounds come in the way of their dream: to be part of American Ballet Theatre NYC. The film catches the journey, from practising in the Mumbai local to waiting with their families for the leap to the US.