Abu Dhabi: Award Winning Kannada Movie 'Gulabi Talkies' to Be screened on Oct 14 and 15

by BG Mohandas
Daijiworld Media Network

Dubai, Oct 13: Internationally acclaimed and much awarded Film Director Girish Kasaravalli is in Abu Dhabi at the invitation of MEIFF.

Kasarvalli’s recent film in Kannada "GULABI TALKIES" will be shown in Middle East International Film Festival (MEIFF ) being held in Abu Dhabi from 10th to 20 October 2008.

This film is the competitive entry from India .The film has already won TWO major awards (Best Film and Best Actress-for Umashree) at the recently concluded OSIAN's CINE FAN FILM FESTIVAL OF ASIAN CINEMA. It was recently released in Bangalore where critics called it a major contemporary classic of Kannada Cinema.

Girish Kasaravalli has to his distinction four Golden Lotus Awards for the twelve films he has directed so far. He is a perfectionist and works on his script and screenplay for months together and is about to create history as there is all the possibilities that this recent movie will also bag coveted Lotus.

A gold medalist from the Film and Television Institute of India, Pune, Girish Kasaravalli started his career in films with Ghatashraddha. This film launched him as a promising and potential director. In his thirty years in the field, Girish Kasaravalli has directed eleven films and a Tele serial.

Gulabi Talkies is based on a short story by Smt Vaidehi and shot in coastal Karnataka--near Byndoor,Gangolli and Maple. The film is in Kundapur Kannada dialect.

The soft spoken Director has been invited by the festival authorities to present the film. Ms Umashree, popular Kannada film actress, who played the title role of Gulabi and Mr Basant Kumar and Mrs Basant Kumar, the producers of the film are also part of the invited team.

It is the story of a Muslim woman, an expert midwife named Gulabi. 

The much neglected childless Gulabi who is the second wife of Musa a fish merchant is much in demand & admired by her island ( Kudru) community for her midwifery skills. She is crazy about films as she leads a lonely life because her husband has deserted her. Her only solace is the magic of cinema that she watches every day.

The most important event in her life happens when she a rich lady donates her a color TV set which bring Cinema to her door step. The power of medium is such that it draws together women and children of all ages, casts and communities forging new bonds and making Gulabi’s house into a veritable movie house or ‘talkies’. That changes her life as well as the lives of the women in the Island(Kudru) she lives in.

Later during the war time the TV also brings home the new tension of the war, which leads to transformations and eventual breakdown of the community. Slowly the villagers start realizing their communal identity which leads finally to the deportation of Gulabi and eventual breakdown of the community.

Gulabi talkies  traces the impact of the new media on a fishing community of coastal Karnataka against the backdrop of globalized business practices and growing communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims at the turn of the century.

Needless to state that this movie also is significant against the backdrop of what happened in Mangalore recently

SCREEING:

1)Screening at Emirates Palace on the 14th October at 11 am is free for all. Those who  desires to see the film will have to get the free ticket, which can be booked online http://www.meiff.com, or by phone 02 681 5270. 

Free tickets are also available at any MEIFF  box office. Box offices are located at Emirates Palace Main lobby entrance, West end Corniche(between 12 noon to 10 pm)-- Cultural Foundation( ADACH) main lobby, Khalidiya Street( Opp Al MUHAIRY Center( 10 am to 6pm)---Cine star Cinemas Marina Mall, Corniche Road ,Break Water( 12 noon t0 10 pm) --Grand Cinemas, Abu Dhabi Mall, Tourist Club area(12 noon to 10 pm)

2) The Cinestar -1 screening on the 15th at 21.30 is not free  and each ticket costs AED 10.                                                                                                      

You can also meet the following dignitaries:  

1) Shri Girish Kasaravalli (Director of the movie "Gulabi Talkies")

2) Actress Umashree who played the title role "Gulabi"

3) Mrs & Mr.Basantkumar, Producers of the Movie "Gulabi Talkies"