Autumnal explorations of alterity: conjuring ghosts of Kashmir's forgotten and disappeared in 'Harud'

A review of 'Harud'/Autumn, 2010 (Urdu) Director: Aamir Bashir Screenplay: Aamir Bashir, Mahmood Farooqui, Shanker Raman Cast: Mohammad Amir (Reza) Naji, Shahnawaz Bhat, Shamim Basharat, Salma Asha

Introduction to Film Reviews

The Film Reviews section aims to highlight the regional diversity that is an intrinsic component in the cinemas of India. The focus will be on existing and emerging independent films from across the length and breadth of the nation. Discovering these ‘hidden gems’ within the treasure trove of Indian cinema, will not only emphasise its mélange of vernacular and regional cinematic nuances, but also provide an insight into the kaleidoscope of India’s socio-cultural construction. Therefore, the Review section will facilitate a filmic sojourn across the variegated terrain of India’s often overlooked and yet flourishing independent cinema. In particular resonance with this issue’s homage to 100 years of Indian Cinema, we will traverse from Kashmir and ‘Harud’, to Odisha and ‘Maya Miriga’, culminating in Mumbai with ‘Ship of Theseus’

Creating a new space : India's new wave of urban independent cinema since 2010.

The emergence of a new wave of independent films since 2010 is revolutionising Indian cinema and precipitating awareness in the public sphere. Contemporary scholarship thus far, has focused asymmetrically on Bollywood - India's dominant cultural signifier. My PhD research on new Indian 'Indie' cinema constitutes probably the first comprehensive academic analysis of this ongoing phenomenon. The Indies draw from India’s multiple contemporary socio-political discourses, often espousing narratives of marginalised individuals and communities in 'state of the nation' films. Adopting a postcolonial, postmodern theoretical framework, I posit the new Indian Indies as a glocal hybrid film form that has emerged from an interstitial or in-between space. I locate this middle space between India's current tryst with globalising modernity and its traditional past. My methodology includes in-depth interviews and close analyses of three independent films: Dhobi Ghat, Gandu and Peepli Live. My theory of a 'meta hegemony' is one of the core features of my thesis. I have devised this paradigm to investigate the historical hierarchy of hegemony in Indian and global cinema and to contextualise the Indies' emergence in a Bollywood-dominated cultural milieu. Ultimately, I presage the Indies growing influence in the future trajectory of Indian cinema