To Sing, To Dance, To Live!
Indian Popular Cinema
March 2, 9, 16, & 23, 2004

Replete with heartwarming songs, flamboyant dances, lush scenic design, and high melodrama, this series of popular films from India reveals the complexity, power, and humanity of women. All with ravishing music and English subtitles. In celebration of Women’s Month. All screenings at the Wang Center Theatre. Co-sponsored with Frank Melville Jr. Memorial Library. Admission is free.

Rescheduled for May 4: Lajja (Shame)
"Why do you men go to a temple and pray to Durga, Kali and Saraswati—yet when you go home you treat your Durga’s, Kali’s and Saraswati’s so maliciously?” From the cosmopolitan city of New York to a remote village in India, these inspired vignettes portray how a wealthy wife, an independent woman, a dutiful daughter, and a courageous villager live their lives with fierce dignity, despite cultural misogyny. With Manisha Koirala, Jackie Shroff, and Rekha. "Sensuous, exhilarating ... powerful."—Planet Bollywood
(Raj Kumar Santosh/2001/202 min./Hindi with English subtitles)
Tuesday, May 4, 6:00 p.m.

March 2: Mother India
One of India’s all-time classic films tells the triumphant saga of a peasant woman (the iconic Nargis) seeking to protect her children and her land while triumphing over famine, flood, hunger, debt, and sexual blackmail. "Blazes across the screen like an Eastern Gone with The Wind."—Sunday Mail
(Mehboob Khan/1957/163 min./Hindi with English subtitles)
Tuesday, Mar. 2, 7:00 p.m.

March 9: Dil Se (From the Heart)
Haunted by a dangerous and elusive woman (Manisha Koirala), an obsessive journalist (Shahrukh Khan) follows her to distant and ravaged frontiers of war and fantasy. With terror as backdrop, love, patriotism, and survival are called brutally into question. "Excoriating ... rooted in a death-driven, erotically charged fixation on a feminized, politically alien Other."—Film Comment
(Mani Ratnam/1998/156 min./Hindi with English subtitles)
Tuesday, March 9, 7:00 p.m.

March 23: Devdas
Two beautiful women, a courtesan (Madhuri Dixit) and an innocent (Aishwarya Rai), love a shattered man too deeply, but find solace in their friendship. The most expensive Indian movie production to date, this third major filming of Saratchandra Chattopadhyay's legendary novel is an unabashed celebration of Oriental opulence and spectacle. "Stunning photography and beautifully choreographed song and dance pieces."—BBCi
(Sanjay Leela Bhansali/2002/184 min./Hindi with English subtitles.)
Tuesday, March 23, 7:00 p.m.

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