The “Urban Lens Film Festival” is in its eighth, thought-provoking installment. The free, online film festival is all set to run between November 18-21, 2021. All one has to do is to register here to watch their fantastic lineup of films.
We watched three of them, all directed by women, to give our readers a sneak peak at what they can expect. To know more about what else you can look out for, head here.
City Girls
Umra sits on the road as she asks her friend, Kulsum, to click a photo of her. “Anyone who wants to pass can change their lanes, I won’t,” she reassures Kulsum.
The 30-minute-long documentary traces the lives of young women and professionals, Umra Khan and Kulsum Nisha, from small town Uttar Pradesh. Banda to be precise. The pair of friends have moved to Delhi, one after another, and are trying to tough it out in the big city.
The big city also happens to be the city of their dreams. It allows them to enjoy the simple pleasures of life: stepping out after it’s dark, dressing as they like, going dancing, wearing a darker shade of lipstick, and so on and so forth.
But, Delhi is nothing if not a city of contradictions. It forces them to change to fit in. “I didn’t want people to think of me as a ‘behenji’,” Umra remarks, gushing about why she got her hair straightened.
While being a “sheher ki ladki” might mean getting to postpone, if not avoid, marriage and children—it also means having to make ends meet in an alien city. It means carrying the weight of proving your worth on your shoulders.
City Girls, produced by Chambal Media and directed by Priya Thuvassery, is a must-watch for its simple and strong feminist commentary. It’s about women who dare to live life on their own terms.
Trigger warning: mentions of sexual assault in the film
About Love
It is a one-and-a-half hour long, ‘slice of life’ film, featuring three generations of Phadkes. They are an affluent, Savarna, Maharashtrian family living in south Mumbai.
“I hate these uglies,” Sagarika, the filmmaker Archana’s sister, cringes while driving by skyscrapers on the way home. The “Phadke building” has been standing strong since 1902, but Sagarika fears it may go up for redevelopment in some years and be replaced by an “ugly”.
Their grandfather has a potty mouth and is constantly bickering with their grandmother, who gives him as good as she gets. When asked why she chose to marry him, she says it was because of his good manners and fair looks. She is openly problematic in the innocent way only old people can.
Archana’s mother, Manisha, is writing a story about two women who feel that there is something missing in their lives. It’s a loneliness she is familiar with although she runs a household of six family members, soon to be seven, and at least two domestic workers.
Manisha’s husband, Atul, is quick to anger, much like his father, and full of bitingly sharp replies.
Their son Rohan is getting married to his girlfriend Gurbani. The happy couple is shown rehearsing dance moves for their sangeet. Rohan flips the camera on Archana and asks her why she doesn’t want to marry her boyfriend of 14 years. “Because I don’t want to become like mom,” she admits honestly.
Watch this film to see the love in mundanely intimate moments of Archana’s family unfold, captured by her masterfully as only an insider can.
Tomorrow My Love
Gitanjali Rao’s animated, black-and-white short is for all those who have gone through a tough time during Covid-19. It recently premiered the prestigious Locarno Film Festival. The film’s soothing visuals had an almost healing effect on the writer.
About the plot: an old woman is hospitalised. An old man sits on a park bench overlooking the window of her room. He takes out a tape recorder and hits play. A woman starts crooning. Nothing like some blues to set the mood, am I right?
One of the film’s most heartwarming moments is when he raises his hand in front of her window such that its shadow falls on the wall adjacent to her bed. She reaches out to the shadow.
At less than five minutes, it’s the shortest and sweetest film of the lot.