This week we have something special for you guys! In addition to two amazing movies - we have a super special screening of Manikbabur Megh on Sunday, and an interaction session with the film crew! Read on below to know more.
The Wind Rises (2013) - FRIDAY (09-08-2024)
Director: Hayao Miyazaki
Genre: Anime
Run Time: 126 min
Jiro dreams of flying and designing beautiful airplanes, inspired by the famous Italian aeronautical designer Caproni. Nearsighted from a young age and unable to be a pilot, Jiro joins a major Japanese engineering company in 1927 and becomes one of the world’s most innovative and accomplished airplane designers. The film chronicles much of his life, depicting key historical events, including the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, the Great Depression, the tuberculosis epidemic and Japan’s plunge into war. Jiro meets and falls in love with Nahoko, and grows and cherishes his friendship with his colleague Honjo.
You can find out more about the film here
Memories of Murder (2003) - SATURDAY (09-08-2024)
Director: Bong Joon-ho
Genre: Drama, Crime, Thriller
Run Time: 131 min
- In a rural district of South Korea, two women have been recently raped and murdered. Working on the case are detectives Park Doo-man and Cho Yong-koo. Their efforts are impeded by some sloppy crime scene procedure by the police. Their methods of solving cases are also quite basic, essentially amounting to beating confessions out of suspects. All this leads to nothing and the police chief brings in a more sophisticated and intelligent detective from Seoul, Seo Tae-yoon. With his arrival the methods improve but they still don’t have the killer. Then another woman is found murdered and a pattern emerges.
And now for the special!
Manikbabur Megh (2021) - SUNDAY (10-08-2024)
Director: Abhinandan Banerjee
Genre: Drama
Run Time: 91 min
“The Cloud and the Man” is the story of Manik, a loner by nature and asocial by choice. He lives with his ailing father, who is nothing more than an alarm clock to him. Manik leads an uneventful life which revolves around his plants, his strays, a spider, ants, and the house lizard. Manik’s father passes away one day and Manik is served a month’s notice to vacate the rented house. Just when the world around him starts to fall apart, Manik meets someone that would change his life for good. He meets a cloud. Initially mistaking the cloud as a stalker, Manik soon discovers his folly. What unfolds is the most unique love story between a cloud and a man. The surreal romance brings out a new Manik in him and propels him into a roller coaster journey of faith, betrayal, belief, and warmth.
For the very time in IISER Kolkata, we will be having the film crew join us for the screening! The guests are as follows:
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Mr. Chandan Sen: Chandan begun acting as a child artist with GanaNatya Sanghya. He did his schooling from Ramkrishna Mission & Mitra Institution and is an Arts graduate from the University of Kolkata. A student of Utpal Dutta and Ramaprosad Banik, Chandan has performed and received critical acclaim in many plays. Chandan joined Utpal Dutta’s PLT in 1988 and acted in Kallol, Ekla Cahlo re, Lal Durgo, Aafim and Krush Biddho Cuba. After Utpal Dutta’s demise in 1993, he joined back Ramaprosad Banik’s new group Theatre Passion and acted in acclaimed plays like Tempest and Trata. He has also acted in 2 plays each directed by Sohag Sen and Tamal Raycahudhry respectively, in Chaitali Raat er Swapno by Bibhas Chakraborty’s Anya Theatre and more recently in the play FM Mahanagar by Storyteller. He has acted in more than 40 Bengali feature films and a number of Bengali mini serials through the years. Chandan made his first independent directorial debut in 1982 with Satre’s Dirty Hands followed by Tagore’s Bisharjan in 1984. In 1997 he joined Bengali theatre group natyaanan as a creative Director and since then he has been working as an actor director in Bengali theatre. His first International debut was in 1998-99 at New York, where he assisted Director Dr. Sudipto Chatterjee in New York Off Off Broadway in staging Nuruldiner Sarajibon. This was produced by the Epic Actor’s workshop Chandan has directed over 40 plays, both full length few one act plays, 10 Telefilms and 2 daily soaps including few episodes of the popular television serial “Ek Akasher Nichey”. Chandan has earned rave reviews in his depiction of Manikbabu in the Bengali film Manikbabbur Megh.
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Mrs. Monalisa Mukherji: Monalisa Mukherji, as a recent graduate of the Xavier Institute of Communication, kicked off her career at Equinox Films, assisting Sumantra Ghosal and Ram Madhvani, wherein she later became the first ever woman-producer at the company. She worked on a multitude of television commercials before she branched out as a freelance casting director and production designer, in 2002. In 2007, Monalisa co-founded Little Lamb Films with husband Bauddhayan and ever since has been the pivot of the boutique production house. She has worked on commercials that have won at Cannes, One Show, LIA, Spikes, Effies, Kyoorius, Olive Crown amongst others. Apart from her involvement in production design and writing jingles for commercials, Monalisa has also been the producer and production designer of three of Little Lamb’s feature films viz. Teenkahon (2014), The Violin Player (2016) and the yet to release The Cloud & The Man (2021).
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Mr. Abhinandan Banerjee: Abhinandan Banerjee is an Indian film director, scriptwriter, author, essayist, magazine editor, publisher, illustrator, painter and graphic designer. Born and brought up in Kolkata, Abhinandan Banerjee studied at Barasat Peary Charan Sarkar Government High School. Having finished his schooling, he shifted to Mumbai and went on to study Architecture under University of Mumbai.[7] Later, he would eventually drop out and switch to filmmaking. At the age of 14, Banerjee started writing and illustrating for newspapers, and little magazines. Later, at the age of 15, he started his own little magazine as the editor and by the age of 18, he was heading his own publication house.
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Mr. Bauddhayan Mukherji: Bauddhayan Mukherji aka ‘Buddy’ (born 1 June 1973) is a National Award-winning(2019) Indian filmmaker based in Mumbai. He was born and brought up in Kolkata. His father Banaj Mukherji was a poet while his mother Mira Mukherji was a school teacher. At 11, he was gifted a copy of the book “Ekei Bole Shooting” (All About Shooting) written by Satyajit Ray. The book changed his life and Bauddhayan decided to become a filmmaker! He studied in South Point School and later St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata where he majored in Economics. Later he studied at the Clarion College of Communication, eastern India’s first advertising college.
These gifted artists have found it fit to spend their Sunday with us this week, and they will be interacting with the IISER Kolkata community in a QnA session after the movie is screened. It is bound to be a very enlightening experience for everyone, especially the budding filmmakers and actors among us. So be sure to be there to ask your questions!
