The Actor as Activist:
Celebrating Shabana Azmi

September 28 - October 10, 2002

left: fire

A Special Retrospective Program of the 40th New York Film Festival

Sponsored by Grand Marnier

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Presented in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival

Of all the many elements that go into making cinematic art, perhaps the most elusive, and mysterious is film acting. While important works have been published on aspects such as editing, mise-en-scène, cinematography, even sound design, few scholars have seriously tried to address the peculiar qualities that go into the creation of the performer?s art. Comparisons to theatrical performance are usually misleading or inconclusive; while there are notable exceptions, many brilliant stage performers have simply failed to make the transition to celluloid. Yet, even if we can?t effectively define it, there?s no mistaking the aesthetic and emotional excitement we feel when we're watching a great actor come to life on screen.

Such is the great pleasure one has when watching the great Indian actress Shabana Azmi; since her first major screen role, as Lakshmi in Shyam Benegal?s THE SEEDLING / ANKUR, Shabana Azmi has generated an intensity that makes it impossible to take your eyes off her. In many of her films, she at first seems somewhat distant, almost opaque; only gradually does she allow us to peer inside of her, to understand the depths of feeling that are usually masked by simple gestures and quick glances. The experience of watching her in a film is often that of watching a woman undergo a remarkable and unexpected personal transformation.

The daughter of the distinguished poet Kaifi Azmi and the celebrated actress Shaukat, Shabana Azmi decided early on to work in film and theater. By her mid-twenties she had become perhaps the most recognized star of the New Indian Cinema, working regularly in challenging films by Benegal, Mrinal Sen, Gautam Ghosh, Aparna Sen, and even Satyajit Ray (a small role in The Chess Player). After appearing in C.P. Dixit?s Fakira (1976), she also became a major star in Bollywood, the commercial Hindi cinema ? a rare accomplishment in India, where the "commercial" and "art" cinema often keep a scrupulous distance. She has also worked for foreign directors such as John Schlesinger (Madame Sousatzka), Roland Joffe (City of Joy) and Tony Gerber (Side Streets).

As if 60-odd films, and a considerable number of stage appearances, in a 30-year career were not enough, Shabana Azmi has also found time to devote to politics. She is currently a Member of the Indian Parliament, where she has become known as a fierce and powerful advocate for the disadvantaged, fighting for the rights of minorities, slum dwellers, and women. Her political work can almost be seen as an extension of her work as an actress; so often Shabana Azmi has portrayed women discovering how to stand up to the many forces that seek to oppress them.

This series was organized by Uma da Cunha and Richard Peña, and is presented in collaboration with the Human Rights Watch International Film Festival. Special thanks to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (New Delhi), the National Film Development Corporation (Mumbai), the Directorate of Film Festivals (New Delhi), the Consulate General of India in New York, Film Four International, Prakash Jha, and Jagmohan Mundhra. Very special thanks to Mr. Ismail Merchant for his generous support of the series. Additional funding has been provided by the National Endowment for the Arts.

THE SEEDLING / ANKUR
Shyam Benegal, India, 1973; 134m
Shabana Azmi burst onto the Indian film scene with her smoldering performance in this widely hailed landmark of Indian cinema. Surya (Anant Nag), a pampered college student sent to take over his family?s properties in the countryside drifts into an affair with Lakshmi (Azmi), a married servant. When Lakshmi becomes pregnant, Surya is forced to confront some harsh truths about himself and status in this rural universe.
Sat Sept 28: 1 and 7
Mon Sept 30: 6:30
Sun Oct 6: 8:15

GODMOTHER
Vinay Shukla, India, 1999; 150m
An explosive look at caste, class, and gender conflict, GODMOTHER focuses on a couple, Rambhi (Shabana Azmi) and Veeram (Milind Gunaji). Displaced from their traditional lands, Veeram and Rambhi stand up to authority and become local heroes. A stirring concoction of song-and-dance numbers with a harsh expos? of the divisions that tear communities apart, GODMOTHER shows Shabana Azmi working brilliantly in a more popular format.
Sat Sept 28: 3:45
Mon Sept 30: 3:30 and 9:15

FIRE
Deepa Mehta, Canada/India, 1996; 108m
A tender and passionate love story develops in the dark recesses of a traditional New Delhi household, signaling the slow and painful dissolution of the old order. A compelling, sometimes shocking, and very contemporary story of women breaking the bonds of obedience, fidelity, and silence. Shown at the 1996 New York Film Festival, FIRE became a great international success.
Sun Sep 29: 2
Thu Oct 3: 6:30
Fri Oct 4: 9:15

DEATH SENTENCE / MRITYUDAND
Prakash Jha, India, 1997; 150m
This film chronicles harsh realities confronting three women and their men. Ketaki (Madhuri Dixit) is a young bride who watches helplessly as her loving husband becomes an abusive drunk; her sister-in-law, Chandravati (Shabana Azmi), is devastated after her husband of 17 years leaves her to become a holy man. Kanti, a servant, turns to prostitution in order to help her husband pay off a debt. One day they decide that they?ve had enough.
Sun Sep 29: 4:30 (followed by panel discussion with SAKHI for South Asian Women. For more information, visit www.sakhi.org
Fri Oct 4: 3:30
Sun Oct 6: 5:15

THE RUINS / KHANDHAR
Mrinal Sen, India, 1983; 108m
In KHANDHAR Azmi plays Jamini, a woman living with her ailing mother in the shadow of ancient ruins. Years before Jamini had been promised to a distant cousin for marriage, who in reality had married someone else. One day three friends from the city visit the ruins, and one of them, Subhash pretends to be the long awaited fiancé....
Preceded by
SHABANA! ACTOR, ACTIVIST, WOMAN
Dev Benegal, India, 2002; 30m
In this fascinating portrait of Shabana director Dev Benegal cuts through conflicts and controversies and gets up close and personal to India?s leading actress.
Sun Sep 29: 8:15
Wed Oct 2: 4 and 9

KAMLA
Jagmohan Mundhra, India, 1985; 120m
Newspaper reporter Jai Singh (Marc Zuber) goes to an interior village and purchases a tribal girl, Kamla (Deepti Naval), as evidence of slave-trading in modern India. Jai installs Kamla, in his own home, upsetting the already fragile balance of his marriage to Sarita (Shabana Azmi). Sarita begins to reflect upon her own status in the house, and comes to see that her husband is an exploiter.
Tue Oct 1: 4 and 9:15
Wed Oct 2: 6:45

SATI
Aparna Sen, India, 1989; 140m
This powerful period melodrama is set in the early years of the 19th century, right before the practice of sati (the act of a woman?s self-immolation on the funeral pyre of her husband) was outlawed. Shabana Azmi plays Uma, an orphaned woman who is forced to become the bride of a tree. Seduced by a local school teacher, Uma becomes pregnant and is ostracised by the villagers.
Tue Oct 1: 6:30
Thu Oct 10: 3:15

IN CUSTODY
Ismail Merchant, UK/India, 1993; 123m
IN CUSTODY is about the last great Urdu poet and one man?s attempt to capture the poet's work on tape for posterity. Deven (Om Puri), a small-town Hindi teacher, seeks an interview with his hero, the poet Nur (Shashi Kapoor). He makes the journey to Bhopal and finds a Byzantine household, replete with sycophants, a money-grubbing family and a conniving second wife (Shabana Azmi)....
Thu Oct 3: 4 and 8:45
Fri Oct 4: 6:30

MANDI/THE MARKETPLACE
Shyam Benegal, India, 1983; 167m
Shabana Azmi plays Rukmini, the madam of a bordello. The most talented among Rukmini?s girls is Zeenat (Smita Patil), the illegitimate daughter of a famous singer, and Rukmini is determined to turn her into a great concert performer.
Sun Oct 6: 2
Mon Oct 7: 6:20
Thu Oct 10: 8:20

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION
Jamil Dehlavi, UK, 1992; 117m
Alistair (James Wilby) and Hannah (Melissa Leo), a British-American couple in Karachi, are desperate to have a child. Hannah accepts her aristocratic friend Samira's (Shabana Azmi) invitation to visit a fertility shrine, where they undergo strange rituals; Kamal, the boy assigned to tend to their needs, makes love to Hannah when she is still partially drugged. An unusual role for Shabana Azmi, part vamp, part mystic, it's also one of her favorites.
Mon Oct 7: 4 and 9:30
Tue Oct 8: 6:15

ANJUMAN / CONGREGATION
Muzaffar Ali, India, 1986; 140m
Anjuman (Shabana Azmi) is a young woman who dares to dream of changing her life and the world around her. Living with her mother and siblings, Anjuman ekes out a living doing chikan embroidery, earning just enough to survive. A possible romance appears with Sajid, a young aristocrat who lives next door. Spoken in Urdu, ANJUMAN offers a rare opportunity to hear Shabana Azmi?s lovely singing voice. ANJUMAN has never been released commercially in India, so these will be among the film?s very first public screenings anywhere.
Tue Oct 8: 3:30 and 8:30
Wed Oct 9: 6:20

PAAR / THE CROSSING
Goutam Ghose, India, 1984; 120m
A killing in a rural village in Bihar forces a laborer and his wife (Naseerrudin Shah and Shabana Azmi) to become fugitives from justice. Escaping to the big, bewildering city of Calcutta, they soon discover that jobs are scarce and when the wife becomes pregnant, the couple decides to head back to Bihar. To make money for the journey home, they accept the only work available to them: a potentially suicidal assignment to drive a herd of pigs across a huge, rushing river.
Wed Oct 9: 4 and 9
Thu Oct 10: 6

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