Showing posts with label Chauthi Koot. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Chauthi Koot. Show all posts
Chauthi Koot: A crash course on Punjab's troubled history
7:58 AM
Gurvinder Singh’s National Award-winning film aims to give this generation a crash course on the state’s troubled history
Aastha Atray Banan (MID-DAY; August 7, 2016)
"Only when a movie can be universal in its appeal, and resonate with people at the time it’s released, does it make sense to make it. With Chauthi Koot (Fourth Direction), I knew that would happen. That it would find an audience beyond Punjab. It’s because we are living in a time of disturbance here, and across the world,” says Gurvinder Singh, director of the National Award-winning Chauthi Koot, which became the first Punjabi film to be premiered at Cannes last year, and released across India this Friday. Set in 1984 Punjab, this is when the Indian paramilitary forces were fighting a bloody battle with Khalistani separatists.
Based on two stories by author Waryam Singh Sandhu, Chauthi Koot and Hun Main Theek Haan, the film was shot in Amritsar and Ferozepur. The story follows two Hindu friends Jugal and Raj who board a train travelling to Amritsar and are in a compartment with a few Sikh travellers. Tension and fear is high. Jugal then tells another story of a night he and his family took refuge at a Sikh home in the middle of the night, and how the head of the household led them to safety. This was also a time when the Sikh militants had ordered that families who owned dogs should prevent them from barking, lest the Indian military find out where they are.
Singh, whose family moved to Delhi after Partition and was living in the capital during the riots that followed the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, says that making the movie took him back to his childhood when he used to live in Delhi. “I have my own memories of that time. We were locked up inside the house, and could see the mobs on the streets. The gurudwara near our house was burned down. Our Hindu neighbours used to patrol the streets to make sure the Sikh households were safe. It all came back to me,” says the 42-year-old over the phone from Delhi. He had read an earlier work by Sandhu called Broken Arms, about a Hindu trader family being gunned down, and was initially keen on making that story. “But then I was advised to read his other work and that’s how I chanced upon these stories,” he says.
The movie, a take on the fear and paranoia that prevailed in Punjab at the time, has done well with international audiences at various film festivals it has travelled to. At a recent screening in Mumbai, Bollywood’s swish set was moved to tears by the two-hour long film. It has also got glowing reviews in the press internationally — Dan Fainaru of the Screen Daily summed it up aptly when he said, “Singh's directorial choices are often remarkably effective, whether in the camera angles, the long travelling shots, the nervous tension and insecurity portrayed in every glance and reflected in every silence and echoed in every sound.”
Singh feels that the film connected with people as most, who had no clue about the Punjab situation, became curious about it. “But I told them that knowing or not was not relevant. I hope that people can relate to it emotionally rather than intellectually." Singh spent time with Sandhu, writer of the two stories it has been adapted from, in Canada, before he wrote the screenplay. One aim behind making the movie was also to add a narrative to Punjab’s checkered history.
“Filmmakers are not just artists — they also become historians and philosophers. They document the past and this is my contribution to history,” says Gurvinder, who has previously made short film Pala, a documentary based on Punjabi folk singers, and Anhe Ghore Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse) in 2011 which dealt with the angst and distress of the marginalised lower caste in Punjab.
The movie also becomes a rare Punjabi movie of its kind to get a pan-India release. But Singh hopes that people don’t approach it as a “Punjabi” movie. “It’s great that regional cinema is now moving beyond the state. I just want people to go watch it as a movie, not as a movie specific to Punjab. They need to enjoy the emotional content. It’s all about experiencing that.”
Yes We Cannes: Journey from the Croisette to Indian cinemas still remains a challenge
8:34 AM
The unprecedented selection of two Indian films for a Cannes category is a shot in the arm for indie. But the journey from the Croisette to domestic cinemas is one that festival films still struggle to make
Kalpana Nair (THE TIMES OF INDIA; April 26, 2015)
April 16 was an important
day for independent cinema in India. For the first
time ever in the 69-year-old history of the Cannes film
festival, it was announced that two Indian films had been selected in Un
Certain Regard, a section instituted in 1978 to showcase films with an
original aim and aesthetic.
The first name on the list was an
Indian film directed by debutante Neeraj Ghaywan called Masaan (Fly Away
Solo). And a few moments later, came Gurvinder Singh's Punjabi film
Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction). Chauthi Koot explores the aftershock
of Indira Gandhi's assassination in Punjab while Masaan is a
cross-section of stories set in Banaras. “We noticed a few years back,“
said Cannes director Thierry Fremaux, “a new Indian wave. A new
generation of Indian filmmakers, not Bollywood and not Bengali but a
third type of film which is inside the human society and going inside
the homes and families, telling us not perhaps unprecedented stories
but some really powerful things about the contemporary society in
India.“
Just like Vogue's September issue signals what's on fleek every year in the fashion world, so it is with Cannes and films. “Being part of the Un Certain Regard is a recognition of an individual way of filmmaking, which is not derivative or run of the mill but which is trying to find a new way of expressing through cinematic means,“ says Gurvinder Singh, whose debut film Anhe Ghorey De Daan won multiple National awards in 2012.
The Cannes-India connection goes back to the beginning of the festival. Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar screened at the first edition in 1946. Since then it has functioned as a sort of Richter scale that picks up underground vibrations well in advance of an impending earthquake. From Satyajit Ray to Mani Kaul, Mrinal Sen, Goutam Ghose, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Murali Nair & Shaji N Karun, the festival has consistently screened films by directors who have often been labelled as being too esoteric in their own country.
Of course, Cannes did have a brief affair with Bollywood glitz when Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas screened out of competition in 2002 and Aishwarya Rai stepped out of a four-horse carriage decked out in kilos of gold and a sari, but these have been thankfully rare. Rai, who is also a brand ambassador for festival sponsor L'Oréal, has become a Cannes staple since then. Every year reams of newsprint are devoted to her red carpet appearance and oscillating weight. But those remain peripheral to the heart of Cannes which beats for film, and it's a testament to the festival that the high-decibel red-carpet frenzy never detracts from the quality of films being screened.
But it is the journey from the Croisette in Cannes to
domestic theatres that remains a challenge. In the last four years,
three feature films from India have made it to the Un Certain Regard
section. Vikramaditya
Motwane's Udaan in 2010, Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely in 2012 and Kanu
Behl's Titli in 2014. Though feted internationally, in India the
response has been more muted. For all the critical acclaim it garnered,
Udaan only grossed about Rs 3 crore domestically. Miss Lovely, which
released in India two years after its Cannes screening, also found few
takers and Titli is yet to be released. Ghaywan agrees that along with
the acclaim at Cannes comes some unwanted baggage. “There is this
opinion among a lot of distributors and media that if a film has made it
to a festival it is not viable for the box office.“ says Ghaywan. But
Indian directors don't have
the luxury of ignoring the box office. “We don't have the kind of funds
that the West enjoys. There it is completely funded. Here if I have made
a film and it is going to Cannes, I also have to take care that it is
appreciated by India and giving returns to my producers.“
There is also a concern that the indie movement has a major Hindi bias. According to Singh, “It is good that the revival is happening. But most of it is very Mumbai-centric and people who want to make films are moving to Mumbai. I am still looking to see strong individual voices from what used to be very strong filmmaking centres like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. All of the feature films that have gone to Cannes recently have been Hindi films. I think a non-Hindi feature film like Chauthi Koot is showing in the official selection after more than a decade.“
Also rare is an Indian film in the competition section. Even as India becomes a steady fixture in the Un Certain Regard, the competition section - which is the most prestigious at Cannes - remains out of reach. The last time an Indian film featured in it was over two decades ago in 1994 with Shaji N Karun's Swaham. Ghaywan says cultural differences may have something to do with it. “One of the reasons could be, and I take pride in it, is that as Indians we are inherently emotional people. Europe likes a more understated type of cinema. We wear our emotions on our sleeves. We are uninhibited.“
Is there an auteur-driven middle ground between European stoicism and India's emotional core? If there is, the Cannes festival will probably be the first to find it.
The first name on the list was an
Indian film directed by debutante Neeraj Ghaywan called Masaan (Fly Away
Solo). And a few moments later, came Gurvinder Singh's Punjabi film
Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction). Chauthi Koot explores the aftershock
of Indira Gandhi's assassination in Punjab while Masaan is a
cross-section of stories set in Banaras. “We noticed a few years back,“
said Cannes director Thierry Fremaux, “a new Indian wave. A new
generation of Indian filmmakers, not Bollywood and not Bengali but a
third type of film which is inside the human society and going inside
the homes and families, telling us not perhaps unprecedented stories
but some really powerful things about the contemporary society in
India.“Just like Vogue's September issue signals what's on fleek every year in the fashion world, so it is with Cannes and films. “Being part of the Un Certain Regard is a recognition of an individual way of filmmaking, which is not derivative or run of the mill but which is trying to find a new way of expressing through cinematic means,“ says Gurvinder Singh, whose debut film Anhe Ghorey De Daan won multiple National awards in 2012.
The Cannes-India connection goes back to the beginning of the festival. Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar screened at the first edition in 1946. Since then it has functioned as a sort of Richter scale that picks up underground vibrations well in advance of an impending earthquake. From Satyajit Ray to Mani Kaul, Mrinal Sen, Goutam Ghose, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Murali Nair & Shaji N Karun, the festival has consistently screened films by directors who have often been labelled as being too esoteric in their own country.
Of course, Cannes did have a brief affair with Bollywood glitz when Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Devdas screened out of competition in 2002 and Aishwarya Rai stepped out of a four-horse carriage decked out in kilos of gold and a sari, but these have been thankfully rare. Rai, who is also a brand ambassador for festival sponsor L'Oréal, has become a Cannes staple since then. Every year reams of newsprint are devoted to her red carpet appearance and oscillating weight. But those remain peripheral to the heart of Cannes which beats for film, and it's a testament to the festival that the high-decibel red-carpet frenzy never detracts from the quality of films being screened.
But it is the journey from the Croisette in Cannes to
domestic theatres that remains a challenge. In the last four years,
three feature films from India have made it to the Un Certain Regard
section. Vikramaditya
Motwane's Udaan in 2010, Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely in 2012 and Kanu
Behl's Titli in 2014. Though feted internationally, in India the
response has been more muted. For all the critical acclaim it garnered,
Udaan only grossed about Rs 3 crore domestically. Miss Lovely, which
released in India two years after its Cannes screening, also found few
takers and Titli is yet to be released. Ghaywan agrees that along with
the acclaim at Cannes comes some unwanted baggage. “There is this
opinion among a lot of distributors and media that if a film has made it
to a festival it is not viable for the box office.“ says Ghaywan. But
Indian directors don't have
the luxury of ignoring the box office. “We don't have the kind of funds
that the West enjoys. There it is completely funded. Here if I have made
a film and it is going to Cannes, I also have to take care that it is
appreciated by India and giving returns to my producers.“There is also a concern that the indie movement has a major Hindi bias. According to Singh, “It is good that the revival is happening. But most of it is very Mumbai-centric and people who want to make films are moving to Mumbai. I am still looking to see strong individual voices from what used to be very strong filmmaking centres like Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. All of the feature films that have gone to Cannes recently have been Hindi films. I think a non-Hindi feature film like Chauthi Koot is showing in the official selection after more than a decade.“
Also rare is an Indian film in the competition section. Even as India becomes a steady fixture in the Un Certain Regard, the competition section - which is the most prestigious at Cannes - remains out of reach. The last time an Indian film featured in it was over two decades ago in 1994 with Shaji N Karun's Swaham. Ghaywan says cultural differences may have something to do with it. “One of the reasons could be, and I take pride in it, is that as Indians we are inherently emotional people. Europe likes a more understated type of cinema. We wear our emotions on our sleeves. We are uninhibited.“
Is there an auteur-driven middle ground between European stoicism and India's emotional core? If there is, the Cannes festival will probably be the first to find it.
Punjabi film Chauthi Koot goes to Cannes
7:40 AM
Roshmila Bhattacharya (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 16, 2015)
Chauthi Koot (The Fourth Direction), a Punjabi film has been selected for the prestigious 'Un Certain Regard' section at the Cannes Film Festival. The film delves into the fears of a community following Indira Gandhi's assassination in 1984, the unspeakable brutalities it unleashed and the resistance movement it spawned. The film is directed by Gurvinder Singh whose debut film, Annhey Ghorrey Da Daan (Alms for a Blind Horse), about the plight of farmers, bagged three National Awards and was the first Punjabi film to be show cased at the Venice Film Festival.
An Indo-French co-production between Sunil Doshi, Catherine Dussard, Kartikeya Narayan Singh and supported by the NFDC, the film is based on Warvan Singh Sandhu's collection of short stories of the same name. It has been shot in Amritsar and Ferozepur and does not feature any professional actors.
The film's score has been composed by French musician Marc Marder.
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