You’ve probably heard of Bollywood – it’s the nickname for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India (formerly known as Bombay). But Before there was Bollywood, there was Tollywood – so dubbed in 1932 for the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata (Calcutta) in which most of the Bengali-language movie production offices are based.
Beginning this Fridat, the Balboa Theater has teamed up with Bird & Beckett to present Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood: Classic & Contemporary Bengali Movies from Tollywood, featuring contemporary and classic Bengali-language films. The festival runs Friday, March 16 through Tuesday, March 20.
Tollywood has long been the proving ground of many talents later usurped, exploited and made rich & famous by the Mumbai-based Bollywood machine. Film connoisseurs have long savored the work of Bengali directors Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen, and more recently Aparna Sen, Goutam Ghose and now Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury… At the Balboa, we’ll endeavor to give you a rich taste of many of these talents of Kolkata’s “parallel cinema.”
The festival will feature the Bay Area premiere of Aparjita Tumi, the brand new feature film by award-winning director Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury. The film was shot last summer entirely on location in the Bay Area — from Carmel to San Jose and Fremont to San Francisco. And according to Bird & Beckett, “key scenes for the film were shot in your favorite neighborhood bookshop, Bird & Beckett, and your favorite “great little place to eat,” Higher Grounds.”
Sunday’s lineup spotlights “Nagmoti” — a film from the early 1980s by the now legendary musician, ethnomusicologist and filmmaker Gautam Chattopadhyay. This dramatic feature film, set in a community of gypsies in the Ganges river delta southeast of Kolkata, won the 1983 Silver Lotus award for Best Bengali Film at the National Film Awards, India’s equivalent of the Oscars. We’ll show it in a 35mm print that’s rarely been seen since Gautam’s untimely death in 1999.
The festival lineup; all showings at the Balboa Theater:
Fri. March 16
7:00 pm – The Japanese Wife, Aparna Sen – 2010 (105 min.)
9:15 pm – Aparajita Tumi, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury – 2012 (120 min.)
Sat. March 17
3:30 pm – Antaheen, Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury – 2009 (120 min.)
6:00 pm – Aami Adu, Somnath Gupta – 2011 (110 min.)
8:30 pm – Iti Mrinalini, Aparna Sen – 2012 (128 min.)
Sun. March 18
2:00 pm – Moner Manush, Goutam Ghose – 2010 (150 min.)
5:00 pm – Nobel Chor, Suman Ghosh – 2012 (100 min.)
7:00 pm – Live music performance – Bengal & Beyond (45 min.)
8:15 pm – Nagmoti – 1983 (115 min.)
Tues. March 20
5:00 pm – Nagorik, Ritwik Ghatak – 1952
7:00 pm – Aranyer Din Ratri, Satyajit Ray – 1970
9:00 pm – Calcutta 1971, Mrinal Sen – 1972
Sarah B.