Amitabh Bachman, Hema Malini, Dharmendra, Dev Anand, Rekha, Shashi Kapoor and that most famous of Khans ... Shahrukh. Bollywood stars are worshipped by literally billions of people all over the world. Whether it’s the 1.2 billion people in India whose appetite for Indian films makes Bollywood the world’s most prolific film industry or the far flung Indian Diaspora whose obsession with Bollywood serves to affirm their culture and even identity in foreign lands, or the adoring fans of Asia minor, no one can deny the power of Indian Cinema.
This year, Bollywood turns a century and to commemorate this occasion Wits Theatre in association with IndiaAfrica is hosting a week of Indian movies to celebrate 100 Years of Bollywood! The week long programme is undertaken in partnership with the Centre for Indian Studies, the Film and TV department and the Department of Digital Studies. On May 16, Wits Business School will also host the finals of the 2nd INDIAFRICA BusinessVenture Competition.
Wits Main Theatre, which seats 350, will be the main venue for the film screenings as listed below. The film line-up is quite diverse, a combination of blockbuster and art movies that tackle everything from the Indian/Muslim divide to the strict caste system, forbidden love and poverty to corruption in the police service.
Newly appointed Director of Wits Theatre who is producing the event said: “I grew up on a diet of weekly double feature Indian movies on Saturday nights at Adam’s Cinema in Chatsworth. We loved the drama... the tearful heroines, the very villainous villains and off course the romantic leads who made all our hearts beat a little faster and provided fodder for overactive teenage imaginations. This event is a tribute to the role that Bollywood films played in the lives of the Indian community whose cultures were marginalised in apartheid South Africa”.
The film screenings programme for the week of 13 to 17 May is as follows.
13 May Shool Wits Theatre 18:30
14 May Naseem Wits Theatre 18:30
15 May Achhoot Kanya Wits Theatre 18:30
16 May Dharavi Wits Theatre 19:00
17 May Chalte Chalte Wits Theatre 18:30
Booking: FREE ADMISSION
Safe parking in Senate House, the entrance is on Jorissen Street, Braamfontein.
For more information contact: Cathy Pisanti on Catherine.pisanti@wits.ac.za or call her on (011) 717 1376
Film Synopses
SHOOL (1999)
Starring Manoj Bajpai, Raveena Tandon and Sayaji Shinde
Director: Eeshwar Nivas
Music: Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy, Sandeep Chowta
Police Inspector Samar Pratap Singh is transferred to Motihari- Bihar, along with his wife and daughter. He is honest and diligent and this sets him up against his superior - the District Superintendent of Police, as well as his subordinates and fellow officers. His diligence in maintaining law and order, and his belief in justice for all, regardless of one's background, makes him a powerful enemy in the shape and form of Bachu Yadav who is the local MLA of the ruling political party, and will not stop at anything to get rid of Samar and his family, by hook or by crook, and no one will dare to stop him.
NASEEM (1995)
Starring Kaifi Azmi, Mayuri Kango, Kay Kay Menon, Salim Shah
Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza
Music: Vanraj Bhatia, Shaarang Dev
The delicate relationship between a 15-year-old girl and her grandfather is used to describe how the growing political tensions between Muslims and Hindus in 1992 led to the destruction of the Babri Masjid, medieval Muslim mosque, and subsequently, violent rioting in the streets of Bombay. Naseem means Morning breeze, and charts the story of a young school going girl Naseem in the months leading up to the demolition of Babri Masjid in 1992.
ACHHOOT KANYA (1936)
Starring Ashok Kumar, Devika Rani, Anwar, P. F. Pithawala, Pramila, Kusum Kumari
Director: Franz Osten
Music: Saraswati Devi
An "untouchable" girl and a Brahmin boy fall in love, but the strict caste system and the gossip of the villagers threaten to keep them apart.
DHARAVI (1992)
Starring Shabana Azmi, Om Puri, Raghuvir Yadav, Madhuri
Dixit, Anil Kapoor, Veerendra Saxena
Director: Sudhir Mishra
Music: Rajat Dholakia
Raj Karan Yadav is a scrappy taxi driver, who somehow scraps a living in the big metropolis of Mumbai, driving a taxi every day. He lives in one room tenement with his wife in Dharavi, one of the world’s largest slums, where the film is set. The film follows his fortunes: as he tries to breakout from the clutches of poverty, devising plans and investing all his money in dubious schemes which eventually blow out on him, coming under the eye of unscrupulous politician and local goons, yet his dreams continue…
CHALTE CHALTE (2003)
Starring Shah Rukh Khan, Rani Mukherjee, Jas Arora, Satish Shah, Lillete Dubey
Director: Aziz Mirza
Music: Jatin Pandit, Lalit Pandit, Adesh Shrivastava
Priya Chopra is a fashion designer and Raj Mathur owns a small trucking company. They meet on the road, quarrel, and then fall for each other. Priya, who is already engaged, must decide whether she will marry her fiancé or leave him for Raj. Priya decides to marry Raj but there are many other problems that they did not anticipate but must now face.
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