From the GraFTII archives, student reports on campus happenings...

FESTIVE LAURELS

by Khusbhoo Agarwal, Film Editing, 2006

It's been a good year for the FTII. All kinds of films, be it first year DV projects, second year dialogue exercises or the diploma films, have been screened at film festivals the world over. Of the first year DV projects, Rrivu Laha's documentary Aamchi Kasauti won the Best Student Film at the Jeevika Livelihood Festival. This film, along with Emmanuel Paulo's Waiting and Friday Skies, were screened at MIFF 2006. The last named also won the Air Art competition in Germany. Meanwhile in an Ad film competition, Debashish Medhekar won the first prize where his product was...Beer! Among the second year exercises, Sandeep Patil was adjudged runner-up at the International Kodak Film School Competition. The legendary cinematographer Laszlo Kovaks, who judged the competition, praised his work saying "This is a very Dark subject and was visually told in the right colour... The way you stayed close and never went wide with your shots was very dramatic - very well planned cinematography." Their Story directed by Reema Borah has been selected at the Claremont Film Festival while the Oberhausen Film Festival has chosen Amit Dutta's film, Ma Pa. The Tel Aviv Students Film Festival screened three of our films in its competition section - Gul Dharmani's Ek Tha Chhotu, Keshab Pandey's Once in a Village and Priya Belliappa's Nerostagonan while Keshab Pandey's second year documentary, Chicken Coup was shown at MIFF 2006. Vibhu Puri's Diploma film Chaabiwali Pocket Watch and Rrivu's film have been chosen for the Dubai Film Festival, IBDA.

With the increased exposure for all student exercises besides the Diploma Films, student projects are turning increasingly ambitious. Themes being explored have become much more complex not just at the conceptual level but even in technique, execution and presentation. However, one school of thought is that because of this exposure, students are concentrating more on attempting complete films for festivals in every exercise rather than understanding the true need and nature of the said exercise. They are of the opinion that only the third year Diplomas should be sent out to festivals. On the other hand is the belief that the larger the audience watching our films at every level, the better it is for our students. After all doesn't one make films to be seen by as many people as possible?

AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF A BORROWED PATEELA Or HOW I STOPPED THINKING OF A TITLE AND SETTLED ON THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MY MIND

- by Arunima Sharma, Film Direction 2008

Make way all ye ordinary mortals. Queen Elizabeth is here. Or do we rather revere the baba. He who knows all. Dispensing wisdom, complimentary, at The Tree. The boys' mess, that at meal time Is usually buzzing with the sound of food being ground and words being minced Is breathing more heavily today Its sighs are shorter and beats are faster today As strange coloured mouths and contrasting hued tongues Struggle to locate morsels of food And purple lips attempt to stop outstretching themselves into laminated smiles.

Amusing? I guess we could call it that. Some would disagree though. Those tiny footsteps for example, That were so miniscule that the relative distance had no choice, but quietly snigger. This rather interesting scenario that prevailed in the campus at about 2 pm on the 15th of March 2006, was a collective result of the interplay of a number of factors, namely - Bhang, bhang, the property of universal solubility of water, the inherent nature of Holi colours of transferring from palms to faces, the incomprehensible selection process of FTII, human ability of perseverance and the resultant fund collection, Hindi music directors, Bhojpuri song writers, attention friendly dholwallahs, Maharashtra State Police and bhang.

Cut to three hours earlier. Torn shirts hung like flags of war on the electric wire above. Voluntary bartenders honed their skills. Generosity poured out of borrowed pateelas. Hair and drops and bodies and flab swayed in collective rhythm. Atop and around the makeshift dance floor - A syntex tank inverted in the middle of the fountain pool. At that moment, the possibility that the centre of that inverted tank was the centre of the universe, seemed to be a lot more real than just an egocentric passing thought. The eccentricities came, skeletons followed. Equations reinforced, equations modified. Diminishing memory spans, shorter attention spans. And then, Newton softly guffawed from the heavens, He had just been proved right, yet again. The crescendo gravitated back to earth. As the campus gates opened to an entry, that to say the least, was uncalled for.

A gang of cops, straight out of a Ram Gopal Verma flick, complete with tanned skin, bushy moustache, mid 90's style glares, attempts at intimidation, and surnames that ended with the sound of ae For instance, More, Bhide, Waghmare, Tu ikde ye re. We, out of our whirling heads, hunted words and questions and ideals to throw at them. None hit them at the right place, I suppose. Was 'Holi', yesterday's film at the main theatre, just a stark premonition of today? "Stand there, don't come here!" yelled he. We pointed to the "Here" and said "That's our campus." Then we pointed to the "There" and said "That's our campus too.'" Soon, the loudspeakers were in their van, so were the dholwallas and their dhols. The van edged towards the main gate, We followed, we ran. Finally, the dholwallas were 'set free' amidst applause galore. They drove off. Still lying in the van, were the dhols, the speakers and a piece of our Holi.

This leads to an earnest recollection of a cliche, unnecessarily romanticized memory That of the night before The eve of Holi When the bonfire stood tall The flames flickered on our faces Desires churned hard inside When amidst cries and shrieks and slogans and the anthem Streamed faulty renditions of "Jalaad... jalaado...jalaado isse...hoonk daalo yeh duniya..." and tight embraces stifled wishes of a 'Happy Holi'.