News
India
Festival-winner film 'Umformung' screened for sex-workers, monks

18 Jul 2016, 06:08 am

Festival-winner film 'Umformung' screened for sex-workers, monks
Kolkata, July 18 (NITN): Hindi feature film Umformung – The Transformation, which was the official selection of 4th Washington DC South Asian Film Festival, was screened before a diverse audience of monks and sex workers at state-run theatre Nandan last week.

"I am happy to screen Umformung before the sexworkers as special guests. They are products of the society and should not be ostracised," director Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar says after the screening.

"Also the screening is graced by monks as my film talks about the journey of a monk from the idyllic monastery to the dark underbelly of a city. Like the diverse backgrounds the film has a diverse audience," he says.

The monk journeys from the monastery in picturesque mountains to a city brothel and thus the film has texts and sub-texts reflecting the complexities of life, the different worlds which converge at one point. This is the crux of Umformung – The Transformation, Sarkar
says.

"Here two parallel stories are juxtaposed in one world Umformung – The Transformation is about a Buddhist monk in quest of the ultimate truth," he said.

 Winner of Best Background Score – at 5th Dadasaheb Phalke Film Festival, and Merit for International Film – World Film Award, Jakarta, Umformung  looks at Buddhism as a way of life and how detachment is the ultimate truth.

"A prostitute in that sense is no different from any of us in the so called respectable society, and by her straightforwardness and honest approach to life, is actually an inspiration to a monk to find Nirvana!” Nothing else could explain that better than this evening's screening," the director says. 

Produced by Rita Jhawar the film is slated for an all India release on Aug 26.

Jazeera Airways offers 50% ...

Jazeera Airways, Kuwait’s leading low-cost carrier, is offering 50% off on fares to all destinations across its network from July 28 to 31.

Air India Express launches ...

New Delhi : Air India Express, a subsidiary of Air India and a part of the Tata group, has launched its "Time to Travel" sale on the airline’s website, airindiaexpress.com, the Air India Express mobile app and other major booking channels.

Over 300 flights cancelled ...

Tokyo: Airlines were forced to cancel over 300 flights following the collision between a Japan Coast Guard aircraft and a Japan Airlines passenger plane at Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Tuesday evening even as reports said the plane was cleared to land ahead of the tragedy.