Since my return from Pune, after completing the Film Appreciation Course, 2010 at FTII, I have been asked time and again ‘akhir is course me kya seekha, kya kiya??Well, here goes….
As I entered the FTII, I was enthralled by the campus. The trees, the space, the people, the dogs and everything else that could be captured by my gaze, left me in awe of this prestigious institution.
The first day of class was like going back to college. The little thrills of new, crisp notebooks, new pens and of course a group of totally new people, put me in flashback mode and I enjoyed every bit of it.
Day-by-day, lecture-by-lecture, us cinema enthusiasts kept learning more and more about cinema, while on the sidelines, strangers became friends and some good friends. Terms like mise-en-scene, narrative, form, structure, noir, expressionism became part of our normal conversations. Suresh Chabria and Gayatri Chatterjee were like our tour guides, taking us through the wonderful world of cinema.
Our days usually started with, ‘”What movies are being screened today? In a span of four weeks, we saw approximately 60 movies, including documentaries and short films.
At a point, when we almost concluded that this course is only about world cinema, along came K Hariharan who spoke about Indian cinema and melodrama. Don’t feel guilty anymore if you like Karan Johar’s movies! Melodrama is a major part of cinema.
An important thing that I understood during this one month was the pain with which our mothers plan our meals, day in and day out. Hats off to them! Gosh!!! Our discussions on where to have lunch and dinner were as animated and heated as our discussions on movies and lectures.
The debates and arguments after the screenings used to be the highlight of the day and what we eagerly looked forward to.
As we were nearing the end of the course, echoes of, “I don’t wanna go back,” “Akira Kurosawa, Fellini, Godard, Lumiere, Ray, Ghatak…,” “we will miss the classes and movies, screening at NFAI,” were commonly heard.
By June 19th, we were well-versed with various movie directors, major movements in cinema, names of good and bad restaurants, jargons and more.
This course for was a revelation and glimpse into the wide world of movies. Made me look beyond Hollywood and Bollywood.
At a point, when we almost concluded that this course is only about world cinema, along came K Hariharan who spoke about Indian cinema and melodrama. Don’t feel guilty anymore if you like Karan Johar’s movies! Melodrama is a major part of cinema.
An important thing that I understood during this one month was the pain with which our mothers plan our meals, day in and day out. Hats off to them! Gosh!!! Our discussions on where to have lunch and dinner were as animated and heated as our discussions on movies and lectures.
The debates and arguments after the screenings used to be the highlight of the day and what we eagerly looked forward to.
As we were nearing the end of the course, echoes of, “I don’t wanna go back,” “Akira Kurosawa, Fellini, Godard, Lumiere, Ray, Ghatak…,” “we will miss the classes and movies, screening at NFAI,” were commonly heard.
By June 19th, we were well-versed with various movie directors, major movements in cinema, names of good and bad restaurants, jargons and more.
This course for was a revelation and glimpse into the wide world of movies. Made me look beyond Hollywood and Bollywood.
I’m glad I went for this course and if you get the opportunity, jump at it! And if you've already done it then you know what I'm talking about.
The list of movies we saw during FA:
1. Where is the friend’s home – Kiarostami
2. Pather Panchali – Ray
3. Seven Samurai – Kurosawa
4. Wild Strawberries – Bergman
5. Liberty – McCarey
6. Four Clowns – Youngson
7. Battleship Potemkin – Eisenstein
8. Pas-de-Deux – McLaren
9. Nanook of the North – Flaherty
10. Sunrise – Murnau
11. Sant Tukaram – Damle-Fatehlal
12. Skidoo – Julian Biggs
13. A Short Film About Love – Kieslowski
14. Rain – Ivens
15. Bicycle Thieves – De Sica
16. Meshes of the Afternoon – Deren & Hamid
17. Jules et Jim – Truffaut
18. Un Chien Andalou – Bunuel-Dali
19. The Red Dessert – Antonioni
20. Breathless – Godard
21. Before My Eyes – Kaul
22. The Hour of the Furnaces-1 – Solanas & Getino
23. War & Peace – Patwardhan
24. Citizen Kane – Welles
25. Pyaasa – Guru Dutt
26. The Great Dictator – Chaplin
27. Vihir – Kulkarni
28. Psycho – Hitchcock
29. Tokyo Story – Ozu
30. Paradise – Ishu Patel
31. Amma Ariyan – Abraham
32. Paltadacho Munis – Shetgaonkar
33. Ugetsu Monogatari – Mizoguchi
34. Eight and a Half – Fellini
35. The Hand – Karel Zeman
36. Aguirre, The Wrath of God – Herzog
37. The Great Indian School Show – Avinash Deshpande
38. Meghe Dhaka Tara – Ritwik Ghatak
39. All About My Mother – Almodovar
40. The Other Song – Saba Dewan
41. Out of Thin Air – Samreen Farooqui-Shabani Hassanwalia
42. Love, Sex and Dhoka – Dibakar Banerjee
43. Kalpana – Uday Shankar
44. Aadmi ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniya – Dutta
45. King Lear – Kozintsev
46. Bilal – Sourav Sarangi
47. Memories of Underdevelopment – Alea
48. Mirror – Tarkovsky
49. Millennium Mambo – Hou
50. Siddheshwari – Mani Kaul
51. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Mungui
1. Where is the friend’s home – Kiarostami
2. Pather Panchali – Ray
3. Seven Samurai – Kurosawa
4. Wild Strawberries – Bergman
5. Liberty – McCarey
6. Four Clowns – Youngson
7. Battleship Potemkin – Eisenstein
8. Pas-de-Deux – McLaren
9. Nanook of the North – Flaherty
10. Sunrise – Murnau
11. Sant Tukaram – Damle-Fatehlal
12. Skidoo – Julian Biggs
13. A Short Film About Love – Kieslowski
14. Rain – Ivens
15. Bicycle Thieves – De Sica
16. Meshes of the Afternoon – Deren & Hamid
17. Jules et Jim – Truffaut
18. Un Chien Andalou – Bunuel-Dali
19. The Red Dessert – Antonioni
20. Breathless – Godard
21. Before My Eyes – Kaul
22. The Hour of the Furnaces-1 – Solanas & Getino
23. War & Peace – Patwardhan
24. Citizen Kane – Welles
25. Pyaasa – Guru Dutt
26. The Great Dictator – Chaplin
27. Vihir – Kulkarni
28. Psycho – Hitchcock
29. Tokyo Story – Ozu
30. Paradise – Ishu Patel
31. Amma Ariyan – Abraham
32. Paltadacho Munis – Shetgaonkar
33. Ugetsu Monogatari – Mizoguchi
34. Eight and a Half – Fellini
35. The Hand – Karel Zeman
36. Aguirre, The Wrath of God – Herzog
37. The Great Indian School Show – Avinash Deshpande
38. Meghe Dhaka Tara – Ritwik Ghatak
39. All About My Mother – Almodovar
40. The Other Song – Saba Dewan
41. Out of Thin Air – Samreen Farooqui-Shabani Hassanwalia
42. Love, Sex and Dhoka – Dibakar Banerjee
43. Kalpana – Uday Shankar
44. Aadmi ki Aurat aur Anya Kahaniya – Dutta
45. King Lear – Kozintsev
46. Bilal – Sourav Sarangi
47. Memories of Underdevelopment – Alea
48. Mirror – Tarkovsky
49. Millennium Mambo – Hou
50. Siddheshwari – Mani Kaul
51. 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days - Mungui
