Directed by Nishtha Jain who will introduce the film
 
 Multiple award winner including awards for Best Film (Social Issue) and Best Editing,  National Film Awards, India 2014; Best Director, International Feature Documentary, MIFF, Mumbai 2014; Best Film, Muhr Asia/Africa Documentary, Dubai International Film Festival 2012; and Best Documentary, Kortfilm  Festivalen, Norway 2012 among others
 
Enter the badlands of Bundelkhand in central India and you have entered a place of desolation, dust and despair. And yet it is hope that this film discovers, as it follows the Gulabi Gang, an unusual group of rural women led by the energetic and charismatic Sampat Pal. Travelling long distances to fight for the rights of women and Dalits, they encounter resistance, apathy and corruption, even ridicule. The film pulls us into the centre of these blazing conflicts and uncovers a complex story, disturbing yet heartening
 
Screening will be followed by a discussion

Group performance by ‘Antarang’ from Delhi, disciples of Hemanta Kumar Kalita

Films on Wildlife and Environment

 

Changing Currents: Net Profits

(26 min; dvd; English)

A staggering one third of the world’s protein comes from fish, but 11 out of the world’s 15 major fishing grounds are seriously depleted. With no slackening in the pace of fisheries, the film looks at measures underway to sustain the boom in fish farming

 

Green Fish (22 min; dvd; English)

From the Earth Report series – with scientists warning that fish stocks could collapse by 2048, Earth Report goes to the Netherlands to find out how supermarkets and top brand retailers are demanding fish from sustainable sources. It is putting pressure on commercial fishing fleets to introduce nets that catch fewer immature fish and thus reduce one of the main threats to stock

 

Discussion around the book, Accidental India: A History of the Nation’s Passage through Crisis and Change by Shankar Aiyar (New Delhi, Aleph, 2012)
 
Panelists: Mr. Prabhu Chawla, Mr. Subir Gokarn, Mr. Naresh Chandra and Dr. Indira Rajaraman
 
Chair: Shri G. Parthasarathy

Odissi Recital
By Rajib Bhattacharya and group from Kolkata, disciple of the late Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra and  Guru Ratikant Mohapatra
 
At 19:00
Kathak Recital
By Namrata Rai from Dehradun, disciple of the late Dr. Madhukar Anand and Pt. Udai Mazumdar

At 18:00
Sitar Recital
By Debajit Chakraborty from Kolkata, disciple of Pt. Manilal Nag and Shri Santosh Banerjee
 
At 19:00
Hindustani Vocal Recital
By Shalini Ved from Kanpur, disciple of Smt Girija Devi
 

Director: Kumar Shahani
 
Film on one of the greatest exponent of the classical dance form of Odissi, Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. Through a series of performances, poetry and excerpts from Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra's life, the film travels back to a time in India where dance was looked upon as a form of prayer. During this beautiful period, dance was not considered feminine, when men were also keen patrons and teachers of dance. However, as times have changed, women have gradually taken over this art form

To celebrate World Humanist Day

 

Human Rights and Secularism

Speaker: Mr Virendra Dayal, former Member, National Human Rights Commission

Chair: Air Marshal Vir Narain, Chairman Indian Humanist Union

(100 min; 2006; dvd; English and with subtitles)
Director: Yousuf Saeed, who will introduce the film
 
Screening will be followed by a discussion
 
A Delhi-based filmmaker spends half a year travelling across Pakistan, trying to understand how the state of Hindostani classical music has fared after 1947 and Partition. He discovers that cultural revisionism has wrested some of the tradition from the people of Pakistan. From Lahore to Karachi, Khayal Darpan not only presents some of the surviving practitioners and patrons of classical music Pakistan, it describes how innovative ways have been utilised to keep traditions alive. The film raises fascinating questions about cultural identity, nationalism and the survival of Hindustani classical music in South Asia