19:00
We’re looking forward to welcome you to an Indian Film Night at Reaktor on the 29th of February starting with 19:00. All films are directed by Aneek Chaudhuri.
Jharokh (2021)
Cast: Usha Banerjee, Husne Shabnam, Ipsita Kundu
Jharokh is a take on Mahabharata from the perspective of today's women. The film is an anthology of three tales depicting three women confined to the same room, not necessarily at the same time, and their struggle to escape in search of a better life; the escape is out of compulsion rather than shying away from ordinary problems. Jharokh aka Ventilator in a way is questioning the epic Mahabharata which was rather composed from the male gaze; Ventilator celebrates womanhood.
The tale of a Santa and his Moth (2022)
Cast: Pawan Chopra, Usha Banerjee
The Tale of a Santa and his Moth is the story of a bisexual widower and his ailing daughter who asks for an Almond cake on Christmas. The father 'Pedro' played by Bollywood actor Pawan Chopra, was once a fancy character player in people's parties and now has no other choice than staying at home and taking care of his daughter played by Usha Banerjee. The film also comments on the personification of Rudolph reindeer (associated with Christmas) and its journey to a world which is peaceful and has enough for self-introspection.
The Zebras - Dark Start (2024)
Cast: Sharib Hashmi, Priyanka Sarkar, Usha Banerjee
The tale unfolds in the chaotic city of Kolkata, India where people are afraid of the dark as the city at night is rumored to shelter walking monsters in the downtown locality of Chinatown. The sleepy Chinatown, occupied mostly by pensioners, is now being walked over by monstrous-looking old men at night and this has created a huge curiosity among the natives; however, none of this is real, at least not physically. Titled The Zebras, the film is a daunting commentary on the rise of AI and its detrimental impacts on mankind; this is calling for detoxification devoid of any kind of technology. The Zebras is the audacious tale of a documentary photographer named Apeksha who has recently won an award for a photograph that is the output of AI technology; however, this is beyond revelation. She is very much adept with technology and becomes addicted to the booming phenomenon of AI. She becomes so much intoxicated that she decided to create chaos in the city by creating pictorial forms of AI monsters roaming around the night part of Kolkata’s Chinatown, and she succeeds too. She is actually the creator of the newly emerged walking monsters in the city which have no practical existence in reality.
The Zebras depict the spread of technological advancement into the segment of fashion photography and its ability to feed off jobs like a parasite would do. On the other hand, the film talks about a model named Sumehra which carries forward the harrowing trend of AI. Sumehra dresses herself something similar to the AI monsters (created by Apeksha in the past) and hires a photographer to capture her videos for the mere sake of attainable publicity on social media. In fact, she falls victim to the unforeseen trend and calls in for a miserable fate later.
Later, both Apeksha and Sumehra find themselves spending the rest of their lives in a village known as Worms; this is a place, where they shall learn to lead without the usage of any sort of technology where painting would replace photography, The film comments on the urgent needs to detoxify ourselves than falling prey to the indispensable technologies.
Reservations at kontakt@reaktor.art, please book your seat in advance.
