Tag: churchgate

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Film

Film screening: ‘Baandhon’ at The Root Reel

Friday evenings are perfect for watching films. Head to Churchgate this evening to watch ‘Baandhon’, a critically acclaimed Assamese film.

If you happen to find yourself in town tomorrow and you’re in the mood for some good cinema, make your way to the Theosophy Hall at Churchgate to catch the screening of Baandhon, the award winning Assamese film by Jahnu Barua.

Baandhon (Waves of Silence) is a gentle paced, minimalist film about an elderly couple leading a sheltered existence in a town in Assam. It’s a bare-bones story that is literally just this: a perennially-bickering old man and his wife are unexpectedly visited by the harsh realities of the outside world when their grandson Pona – an IIT Bombay student who is the centre of their universe – goes missing on the night of 26/11.

The film’s director Jahnu Barua is a multiple National Award-winning director and this stark, moving film has won the Opening Film Indian Panorama at the 43rd International Film Festival of India, Best Feature Film in Assamese Award at the 60th National Film Awards and the Best Film, Indian Films Competition, Bengaluru International Film Festival.

The film is presented by The Root Reel as part of the chapter where they celebrate the best of regional cinema from India, often unfairly ignored due the overshadowing presence of Bollywood.

Head to Alliance Francaise de Bombay, New Marine Lines, Churchgate. The screening starts at 6:30 pm sharp and entry is free but on a first-come-first-seated basis.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni)

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Listen

Where music comes to the people

National Streets for Performing Arts (NSPA), after entertaining commuters on Western Railway, wants to spread the cheer at other Mumbai spots.
by Medha Kulkarni

June 27, 2012 was an interesting day at Churchgate station. In the midst of this busy railway station, a group of musicians assembled for their first-ever performance. It was a small performance involving two buskers, Jishnu Guha from UK and Sureshji, an Uttarachali folk singer, (both talented vocalists) and within minutes, a crowd had gathered to hear them.

This group was the National Streets for Performing Arts (NSPA) at work. The NSPA was born last year out of the idea to take the performing arts to the people by reclaiming public spaces for street performances. By its own admission, the NSPA seeks to champion public spaces as an alternative platform for performance, encouraging greater interaction between artists and the community, creating spaces of cultural interaction and energising the very city and its people. It aims to support the livelihoods of less privileged and independent performers across diverse genres.

A big factor in starting the NSPA? “To rekindle an atmosphere of street performances in urban India (starting with Mumbai) that aims to bring some joy to the lives of millions as they go about their daily commute,” says founder Ajit Dayal,52, best known as the founder of Equitymaster, Personal FN and Quantum Mutual Fund, when asked about the inspiration behind this unique initiative. Recalling his childhood days of watching street performers in Mumbai city and noting how street performers continue to brighten the lives of residents of cities like London and Paris, Ajit says he wanted to “recreate that in an organised fashion in Mumbai.”

 

Following their debut performance at Churchgate station, the NSPA launched full time performances on October 8, 2012, with music performances at Churchgate station on Mondays, Borivli station on Wednesdays and Bandra station on Fridays from 9 am to 11am and 5 pm to 8 pm. NSPA chooses its locations with care, ensuring that the site would be frequented by large numbers of people but in a spot that doesn’t cause any trouble or inconvenience to commuters.

With a small team of eight members, each a passionate lover of art and performance, NSPA manages to pull off successful events each time and the response from the general public only acts as good encouragement. “The response has been encouraging, proving to both us and the artists that the city of Mumbai is receptive and open to an initiative such as this. We hope to continue the performances at the railway stations and soon expand to parks, gardens and bandstands in the city and across the country, thus weaving art into the very fabric of the city and making performances as regular an occurrence as the trains , the buses and the commuters,” says Shrishti Iyer, Performance Co-ordinator at NSPA.

Apart from the regular performances at Western Railway stations, the NSPA has been collaborating with major art festivals in the city like the Indikaleido Festival, Kala Ghoda Arts Festival, the BMW-Guggenheim Lab etc.

Encouraged by their initial success, the NSPA is now seeking to expand to Central railway Stations, Horniman Circle Gardens and bandstands across the city, apart from other public spaces.

If you want to keep track of their performance so you can catch the next one, all you have to do is ‘like’ their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/nspa.streets for regular updates and notifications.

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Watch

Those ‘others’…

Watch this film if you’re interested in transgender issues; the film is about Urmi, a transgender living in Mumbai city.
by Medha Kulkarni

Today, a film on transgenders will air at the New Marine Lines-based Alliance Francaise, an educational organisation with a non-profit cultural goal. Titled Urmi, the film is a 2010 film by Jehangir Jani and it tells the story of Urmi, the protagonist, a transgendered person living in Mumbai. Urmi roams the city of Mumbai and the film chronicles her search for love and meaningful relationships within the context of a quest for a self-identity. It is an interesting perspective on a city that most of us call home and yet, because of gender dynamics in the city, we rarely get to see.

The film was a TISS-UAGC funded project (Tata Institute of Social Sciences-Urban Aspirations in Global Cities) and is a part of their massive campaign to spread awareness about and to sensitise people to gender issues and dispel myths and the resulting social evils that are born out of ignorance.

Pallav Patankar (in pic on left), director of the HIV program at the Humsafar Trust, is also the actor in the film. “The aim of this film is to highlight the issues that members of the transgendered community face in daily life. It aims to show the ups and downs in their lives and thus help mainstream society understand them” he says.

The film promises to be an interesting one and the panel discussion which will be chaired by Chitra Palekar (film director and LGBT supporter), Jehangir Jani (artist whose work revolves around gender and sexuality issues) and Pallav Patankar, and will throw up some interesting perspectives. The event is free and open to all. Seating is on first-come-first-serve basis.

The Humsafar trust, was set up in 1994, is the first openly gay community-based organisation to be allotted space in a municipal building. It seeks to provide the gay community (and increasingly the entire LGBT community) in Mumbai and India with various facilities to provide the community with the knowledge and resources they require and also works to dispel the prejudice that society has towards this segment of people.

Head to the Alliance Francaise Auditorium, 40, Theosophy Hall, Vithaldas Thackersey Marg, New Marine Lines, Churchgate, Mumbai. The film starts at 6:30 pm.

(Pictures courtesy deccanchronicle.com, mumbaiboss.com. Featured image is a file picture used for representational purpose only and is not a still from the film)

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Watch

A great idea takes Root

The Root Reel, an initiative to bring good documentary films and discourses on them to the public, turns one today.
by Medha Kulkarni

It started off as a simple idea born out of sheer love for good documentary films and after 12 months, incredible documentaries, critical engagements, passionate debates and discussions, The Root Reel celebrates its first anniversary today.

Part of The Root, which was conceived as a platform to facilitate discourses and expression on social and environmental issues through workshops, music, film (whether animation, documentary or short film), and other cultural avenues, The Root Reel deals specifically with films. In the course of the last year, The Root has set up various forums that saw the exchange of ideas and thoughts and encouraged a critical engagement with the issue at hand.

The Root Reel has been organising documentary film screenings once a week at the Alliance Francaise Auditorium, either in collaboration with another organisation or by themselves. This weekend’s film screening is extra special as it marks a milestone in the life of The Root Reel and has been organised in conjunction with the Indian Documentary Foundation (IDF). The film being showcased is Whores’ Glory and it is being shown on a first-come-first-seated basis.

Prior to this, The Root Reel has showcased such films as Megacities, Between The Lines, NEXT: A Primer On Urban Painting and Blood In The Mobile.

Those of you that can get out of work by 6 pm today, head to the Alliance Francaise Auditorium, Theosophy Hall, near Nirmala Niketan, Churchgate, to watch this film and stay back for a bit and participate in the discussion thereafter. The film is directed by Michael Glawogger and is 90 minutes long. Entry is free.

About Whores’ Glory:

Whores’ Glory is a cinematic triptych on prostitution: three locations, three languages, three religions. Paradise, the world and the hereafter merge in prostitution to create an image of the relationship between men and women. In Thailand, women wait for men behind glass panes, staring at reflections of themselves. In Bangladesh, men go to a ghetto of love to satisfy their unfulfilled desires on trapped girls. And in Mexico, women pray to a female death so as not to see and feel their own reality. Where the most intimate becomes a commodity, the product is expensive and fiercely contested.

Look for more details on The Root and their events here.

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Patrakar types

Security? Who’s that?

Fresh out of a serial bomb blast strike in Hyderabad, you’d think the police everywhere would wise up, right? Wrong.
by Vrushali Lad | vrushali@themetrognome.in

Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems to me that the police are a bunch of dodos. What else could explain what I’m about to describe next? And, trust me, this has happened before as well.

A few days ago, I was looking for a Borivli-bound train at Churchgate station. If you’ve been to Churchgate station, you’ll know it is characterised by three things: its subway, its Wimpy restaurant right opposite the public restrooms, and the benches on which bored policemen and policewomen sit and chat with each other, occasionally taking down details and checking bags of random commuters.

It was to two of these policemen that a scared-looking young man, probably on his way home from work as well, ran up to, breathless with excitement. “Sahab, wahan ek bag pada hai! (Sir, there’s a bag lying there!),” he said, pointing in the direction of Platform 4. His face was flushed, and I noticed a tremble in his hands. “Please come with me,” he implored the two cops.

To his chagrin, the two cops merely glanced at each other sleepily. “Tu jayega ki main jaoon?” one asked the other. (I swear I am not kidding). As if by some tacit consent – one of them probably owed the other some small debt – the sleepier of the two rumbled to his feet. “Chalo,” he said to the young man.

I followed the two to see what would happen next. If there was an unidentified bag with a potential bomb in it, I wanted to witness the action.

The cop followed the young man, unhurried and supremely bored. The young man, meanwhile, raced ahead looking for the spot that he had seen the bag in. When he found it, his face lit up with the glow of achievement – he was, after all, rendering a great public service by pointing out unidentified baggage, which is what public service announcements exhort us commoners to do all the time.

The bag was finally found, and I confess my heart sank when I saw it. A black rucksack, placed next to a pillar, adjacent to Platform 4. It was bulky and could have held practically any kind of explosive. The young man pointed at it and backed away, eyes wide.

The cop, whose name should ideally figure in next year’s Gallantry Awards list, nonchalantly approached the bag, and I swear I am still not kidding – poked it with a finger, then pulled open a zipper and started rummaging through its contents.

The young man backed away, horror written all over his face. With a last look at the cop happily emptying the bag of its contents  (a few books, some loose papers, an ID card, stray stationery), he walked away and soon melted into the crowds. I wanted to stop him and tell him to not be horrified. Because I have seen cops do exactly the same thing every time a citizen points out suspicious baggage on railway platforms or on the streets or inside trains – they start by tapping the baggage with their lathis, then poke and prod with their fingers, then empty out its contents before pronouncing, “Kuchh nahin hai ismein.”

At the risk of sounding extremely uncharitable, if there ever is a time for a bomb to go off, that time is when a lazy, foolish policeman approaches suspicious baggage and starts poking it. Too bad we citizens are not empowered to call the bomb squad ourselves.

Vrushali Lad is a freelance journalist who has spent several years pitching story ideas to reluctant editors. Once, she even got hired while doing so.

(Picture courtesy stockpicturesforeveryone.com. Image used for representational purpose only)

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Achieve

It’s a Mirakle!

This courier company employs hearing and speech impaired persons, thus giving them a good shot at building a stable future.
by Nidhi Qazi

It’s a pleasant morning. Mumbai is in its usual busy mode – office-goers rushing to their respective workplaces, food vendors  serving breakfast, taxiwallahs ferrying people to work, youngsters chirping at kiosks. A lot of early morning energy that the city bustles with is at display. Amidst all this, there is another place that’s as busy – the office of Mirakle Couriers.

Cut to its Churchgate branch office and one finds all the employees busy sorting couriers, Googling destinations for delivery. These are employees busy making their lives meaningful and busy building their lives by overcoming their physical weakness: hearing impairment.

Started in 2010 with just one employee, Mirakle Couriers today employs around 44 hearing and speech-impaired adults in its centres at Andheri and Churchgate. While men are allocated areas for delivering in Mumbai, women look after the sorting, data entry and record-keeping. Although there is no qualification needed, the company looks for those with a basic understanding of English.

I meet Rinku, a young chap who hails from Gorakhpur, Uttar Pradesh, who is in his late 20s. Rinku’s designated area of delivery is Nariman Point. So I set off with him on his rounds.

The moment we step out of the office, he uses sign language to explain the surrounding areas. After his explanation, I now know the LIC building, the Air India office, Nariman Point, Fort city, the various public parks, prominent office buildings, and other landmarks. In between, I offer him a pen and paper when I’m unable to understand certain things, but he makes it a point to not use the proffered materials. Instead, he tries and succeeds in expressing his point using sign language.

We reach our first destination. The receptionist and Rinku exchange smiles. The former accepts the package from Rinku, and we move to the next destination. Rinku walks swiftly, and it becomes difficult to keep pace with him. I take a deep breath and follow him. “You like Mumbai?” I ask, and Rinku nods an excited ‘yes’, explaining, “I can’t go back to my village. There is nothing to look forward to there.”

The company follows Indian sign language for all its daily transactions, ranging from pick-up, sorting according to pin codes, and delivery. The management and operations are also sign language-based.

An arts graduate, Rinku works with Mirakle six days a week. How has Mirakle changed his life? He smilingly replies, “I am confident now. I feel good about what I am doing.”

From there, we walk to some more places in the Nariman Point area, amid the hustle bustle, amid the sound of silence between Rinku and me. “When do you plan to get married?” I ask, and he chuckles. Using the signs which spell out ‘love’, he expresses, “When I find love.”

We reach some more destinations with ease. At one point, Rinku gets stuck, but only to find help in the Google Maps. He takes out his mobile phone and finds the directions to an office where he has to deliver the last courier.

Done with all the deliveries, we now head back to the office. And it’s time to say goodbye to Rinku and his colleagues.

What about the competition in the market when big players like Blue Dart, DHL exist? “We do have a very strong competition,” says Nimesh Pawar, Operations Manager, Churchgate branch. In fact not all is hunky dory when it comes to dispelling clients’ cynicism towards deaf and mute. “People do doubt if deaf people can deliver on time; whether they can deliver at all,” he adds.

But all this cynicism is countered and myths are broken as Mirakle does what it really stands for – Delivering Possibilities.

(Picture courtesy Nidhi Qazi)

 

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