New Delhi, Apr 4 (IANS): "Chinese Whispers", a festival of contemporary films from China featuring works by sixth generation film makers, begins in the capital Tuesday.

The April 6-27 festival will be held at the India International Centre (IIC).

The sixth generation directors (1935-95), whose demanding dramas have won praise at festivals around the world and censure in their homeland, are successors to the famous fifth generation of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige.

However, their films are worlds removed from the "Raise the Red Lantern" and "Farewell, My Concubine" - those gorgeous parables of love, steeped in Oriental exoticism.

In general, the fifth generation made pretty films, set in the rural past; the sixth generation made gritty films set in the urban present.

Emperors and concubines have been replaced by the grungy malcontents of Zhang Yuan's "Beijing Bastards (1993)", the sixth generation' first major film. With their flat generic titles, their movies are about ordinary people - the men and women on the streets.

The sixth generation also renounces glamour.

The movies to be screened in the festival include "Pickpocket" by Xial Wiu, "Devils On The Doorstep", "Cell Phone", "The Go Master", "The World" and the "Blind Mountain".