Ashvin Kumar
Encyclopedia
Ashvin Kumar is an independent Indian filmmaker who has produced and directed several films and documentaries, including Inshallah, football (2010); Dazed in Doon (2010); The Forest (2008); Little Terrorist (2005) and Road to Ladakh (2003). His recent films have attracted controversy as the Indian censor board
has denied him the certifications necessary for the films to be shown publicly in Indian cinemas.
Background =
Ashvin Kumar was born in Kolkata
and educated at La Martiniere Calcutta
, Modern School
and The Doon School
. He described his experience as a student at Doon as "overall pretty miserable". His mother is the fashion designer Ritu Kumar
.
After leaving Doon, he studied at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India in New Delhi, where he was a member of the Stephen's Shakespeare Society; at Goldsmith's College in London, where he received a bachelor's degree in media and communications; and briefly at the London Film School
. He has described himself as a "resounding dropout. The institutionalization of cinema was suffocating. I wanted to learn on the job. I wanted to be adventurous". The lack of opportunity to make short films persuaded him to move from New Delhi to London.
and invested the course fees into the making of this film. Kumar learnt production and post production by immersing himself into various roles and learning the craft on-the-fly while putting his own film through the various stages of production. He describes it as a process of trial and error from which he emerged with a completed film. For starters, "Road to Ladakh was a disaster of a film shoot, we were lucky to get the film done" http://shootingpeople.org/shooterfilms/interview.php?int_id=36 "Out of a ten-day shoot, it was raining on 5 days. So, we had to finish the shoot in half the time. There was just one petrol pump (in Spiti valley where the film was shot) - we had 7 cars and 2 trucks and a cast and crew of 40 people (who were staying in camping tents that later got flooded) looking at me for directions at every step. There I was - my first film, in Ladakh, and I thought to myself - what the hell have I got myself into?" The experiences of this shoot are captured in the making-of documentary called 'The near un-making of Road To Ladakh' which accompanies the film on a DVD released for the first time in India in 2009 through Junglee Video (the DVD label of Times Music) in a double bill with Little Terrorist. The DVD also contains an entertaining and informative making-of documentary of Little Terrorist. The DVD is available at music and DVD shops all over India. Says the Mid-Day newspaper review 'an elaborate tease that takes you into the minds of two lonely people who can scarce afford to trust each other. One's an enigma while the other snorts coke like it was a meal.' http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2009/may/090509-Little-Terrorist-Road-To-Ladakh-Movies-Reviews.htm
(Everybody Says I'm Fine) lead this surreal rites of passage encounter between a dysfunctional, coke-snorting fashion model and an ultra-focussed, strong-silent stranger who are thrown together by chance. Set in the magnificent wilderness moon-scape of Ladakh, India, the road journey and the strange encounters that follow provide a dramatic backdrop for the relationship that develops.
Both are outsiders, both are lonely, both crave the human contact that their roles in society deny them. Tentatively they search each other out in a film that is poised between elusiveness and engagement, suspicion and tenderness - at once hilarious and sinister, bizarre and moving, psychedelic and intensely real, Road to Ladakh is an original story scripted, edited and produced by director Ashvin Kumar. http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=D5FD9B420eeaf2E8F9iIxTCEEECB
Road To Ladakh is a suspenseful tale of falling in love with the wrong kind of mysterious stranger near the borders of India and Pakistan. A road-movie that drew the talents of multi-national European crew...overly ambitious Himalayan adventure so fraught with disasters that it nearly didn't get finished; as documented in The Making Of Road To Ladakh. http://www.induna.com/1000005731-productdetails/
His second film, Little Terrorist (2005), was substantially more successful, winning an Oscar nomination, a nomination for the European Film Awards as well top prizes at the Tehran International Short Film Festival, Flanders International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Manhattan International Short Film Festival and the São Paulo International Short Film Festival. The film has been invited to over 120 film festival
s around the world.
, the then Prime Minister of India
, freed the boy as a peace gesture indented to improve Indian-Pakistan relations.
In the film, a 12-year old Pakistani boy named Jamal mistakenly crosses the border into Indian territory while attempting to retrieve a cricket ball. While Indian soldiers search the village for the Pakistani "terrorist", the boy is given shelter by an elderly Brahmin
schoolteacher named Bhola, despite the latter's deep-rooted prejudice against Muslims, and the objections of Bhola's niece, Rani .
The story is set near the Gujarat border between India and Pakistan, but the film was made in five days in a village outside Jaipur
. Kumar's mother, the fashion designer Ritu Kumar
, designed the clothes for the actors.
The film is a "live action short", just 15 minutes in length. It has been described as the first short film to get a commercial release in India.
organization; members who liked the script paid their own fares to travel to India to film it. Kumar became the only Indian to be nominated for an Oscar in the short film category.
and uses the tale of a man-eating leopard to address environmental concerns. The film is feature-length (86 minutes), and was released in 2009.
The plot concerns a married couple who arrive at a wildlife sanctuary
in the Kumaon Hills to attempt to mend a faltering marriage. An unforeseen threat takes the form of an ex-lover turned wildlife warden. While the husband and lover quarrel, a man-eating leopard is on the prowl, and both men must unite in order to outwit the predator and survive the night.
While The Forest is a conventional action film, Kumar intended the film to convey a strong pro-environmental message.
The film was produced by Judith James and the music recorded at the Abbey Road Studios
. Much of the filming was done at the Corbett National Park and the Bandhavgarh National Park
. The film stars Jaaved Jaaferi, Nandana Sen
and Ankur Vikal
.
to create a film, subsequently named Dazed in Doon, that has since become controversial as the School authorities have moved to suppress the distribution of the film, on the grounds that it "doesn't give the School a good name". The film runs to 55 minutes and was made in just four months, from the start of pre-production
on 20 June 2010 to the first screening
on 23 October 2010.
An international crew contributed to the making of the film: post-production
was completed in Goa
(editing), Italy (picture color correction) and London (sound mixing
) with Kumar simultaneously completing post-production on Inshallah, Football . Most crew members worked for a fraction of their usual fees: Kumar persuaded them to participate in the making of film by highlighting the opportunity of teaching young children film-making in a participatory film project that would result in film of their own. Kumar sings the Doon School song 'Lap Pe Aati Hai' http://www.alipur.com/doon/Lab_pe_aati_by_ashvinkumar.mp3 in the soundtrack as well as Howly is Krishna which was improvised during a music recording session in Goa.
story about a boy nicknamed "Howly"(Sookrit Malik) with an active imagination who is trying to make sense of life at The Doon School
, a prestigious public school
located in Dehra Dun in India.
Howly's friend, nicknamed "Boozy"(Aseem Kumar), is an excellent sportsman who is about to win the most coveted award for sports at Doon: the "games blazer". Seeing his friend’s determination to win, Howly cheats on Boozy’s behalf at a high jump qualifier, giving him the points Boozy needs to win the games blazer.
Despite Howly's loyalty and hero-worship of Boozy, Boozy refuses to associate with Howly in front of others, effectively relegating Howly to the role of a sidekick
. After a particularly bad bullying
episode that is witnessed by a School master
, Howly is encouraged to audition for a part in the theatrical version of the Mahabharata
. Howly discovers a natural talent for acting, and is cast in the lead role of the god Krishna
.
Thereafter, the mythic world of the Mahabharata, with the philosophical and ethical choices forced upon its characters, merges with Howly's own real-life dilemmas: Boozy discovers that Howly had cheated on his behalf, and that his games blazer had been won unfairly.
Kumar attempted to demonstrate a number of positive qualities that he believed Doon instilled in its pupils: a sense of values
, ethics
, friendship, loyalty, the ability to correct moral choices
, and to form independent judgments and decisions. The storyline of the film uses a classic text of ethics (the Mahabharata
) to link the growing pains of a schoolboy with the subtleties of Dharma
, as outlined in classical Indian philosophy
, by linking these concepts to the ethical choices that the characters have to make in their day-to-day lives.
Kumar's view is that "Making changes to the film after it is shot rendered the story incomprehensible and damaged the cinematic values of the film, nonetheless, I hacked fifteen minutes of the film in deference to the wishes of the headmaster. His objections now boil down to the removal of the character of a teacher who watches a boy being bullied but does not intervene - it is fifteen seconds of screen-time but entails the removal of a supporting character". As a consequence of this controversy, the School authorities have obtained an injunction from the district court in Dehra Dun to stop the film's release http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Doon-film-banned-in-Dehradun/articleshow/7411185.cms, and the dispute between director and School continues unabated.
The Headmaster of the Doon School asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's
censor board
to withhold a censor certificate for the film on the grounds that the film is defamatory. The censor board upheld the Headmaster's concerns and awarded the film a U/A certificate, asking Kumar to produce a "no objection certificate" from the School.
Further complicating the dispute is the question of ownership of the film: the School asserts that it owns the film; Kumar asserts that the School is contracted to become one of three copyright holders, once the terms of the contract between Kumar and the School have been fulfilled. Kumar asserts, further, that since the School has not yet paid him in full under the terms of his contract, they cannot yet claim their one-third share of the copyright.
The dispute has polarized the alumni community of the School (known popularly as Dosco
s, with the more conservative alumni expressing concern about the School's reputation getting damaged as a result of the film depiction of bullying, etc., and the more liberal alumni expressing concern that the attempt to censor an artist's output is not in keeping with Doon's founding traditions or ethos.
The film was originally shown to about 3,000 people who attended Doon's 75th Anniversary celebrations in October 2010, while it received a standing ovation from some it also received an adverse reaction from a segment of the alumni community appears to have resulted in the School abruptly withdrawing the sale of the film's DVDs and banning any further screening or even discussion of the film among the students.
. When he left his home in Kashmir to join the training camps in Pakistan in the early 1990s, his son Basharat was barely two months old.
Basharat belongs to a new generation of Kashmiris, having grown up under the shadow of a protracted conflict. His passion is football, and he has been coached by Juan Marcos Troia, an Argentinean national and FIFA accredited football coach by profession. Marcos aspires to breed world class players from Kashmir; he and his wife, being attached to both Basha and Kashmir, migrate to Srinagar
with their three daughters to take up Basha's cause.
Marcos runs a football academy called International Sports Academy Trust; and an exchange program for his most talented players to train at Santos FC, Pele's
old club in Brazil. Basharat was one of chosen few, but was denied a passport by the Government of India. The passport in question did come through after Jammu and Kashmir
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
intervened.
Inshallah, Football tells this story through Bashir's recollections and travails. Kumar describes the film as "the story of three remarkable men — one is his father who fought for his beliefs, another about the football coach who's come all the way from Argentina to start this football academy, and this young man who is struggling to play football."
The film has been critically acclaimed and played in competition part of the wide-angle documentary section at the Pusan Film Festival where it also received the Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund http://www.europe-asia-documentary.com/2010/10/pusan-international-film-festival-loves-docs/, and Winner of Muhr Asia Africa / Documentary /Special Mention : Ashvin Kumar (Director) at the Dubai International Film Festival http://www.dubaifilmfest.com/index.php/en/movie_details/inshallah-football/9010/2010
, without which it cannot be shown publicly in India. The main stumbling block appears to be the content of the film itself, since it deals with the sensitive and highly political subject of how the Indian armed forces
have conducted themselves in Kashmir.
The series and timing of events by which this film's review by the censor has proceeded is unusual, and suggestive of political considerations playing a part in the award of a censor's certificate:
The award of an "Adult" certificate for a documentary is very unusual, since an Adult certificate is normally awarded to feature films that include graphic violence and nudity. Such films can be shown only to audiences over the age of 18, and most movie theaters in India will not ordinarily agree to screen such films since it is very difficult to for them to make money in the circumstances. (This is not the case, however, with India's burgeoning soft-porn industry, which relies upon the "A" certificates to attracts its particular audience.)
The explanation for awarding Inshallah, Football was that the film has "characters talking about graphic details of physical and mental torture they had to undergo. The theme of the film is mature and some dialogues can be psychologically damaging for non adult audience." Kumar, however, asserts that the real purpose of this censorship is to avoid causing embarrassment to the Indian government, with regard to the conduct of the Indian armed forces
in Kashmir.
Mrs. Tagore made further comments on the 16th anniversary of the women's press corps that were reported by the online version of Outlook Magazine http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?708521 to which Kumar has responded in an open letter to Mrs. Tagore taking on the wider issue of censorship, the relevance of the censor board using Inshallah, Football as an illustration saying that her comments "...would be mildly amusing if they didn't also cast a shadow on the average Indian citizen's freedoms to produce and receive messages, and if they didn’t potentially compromise the livelihood of members of my (and your) fraternity–those troublesome film-makers who don't toe the line and whose discomfiting messages the nation needs to hear." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494 A separate report of Mrs. Tagore's comments is more direct, calling Kumar's comments 'untrue' http://ww.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Jan/16/claim-of-ashvin-about-inshallah-football-untrue-sharmila-39.asp. Kumar has responded to this in the aforementioned open letter saying 'You said that my statement about being denied a certification for my film Inshallah, Football was 'untrue'. I was hurt; after all, it is not often that I am called a liar in public.' http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494. Mrs. Tagore has also said in the same interview that Inshallah, Football "(is) a beautiful film and I want everyone to see it," but Kumar counters, "Let me speak plainly. I think you have been used to stamp a sense of 'reasonableness' on the sordid affair of restricting freedom of speech. The decisions of the body you head need to be, or need to be seen to be, more moral, more conservative, more risk-averse, more politically correct and more circumspect (thus, in common parlance, more anal-retentive) than is natural or necessary, even if basic principles of natural justice need to be given a go-by from time to time." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494. The same open letter also appears on Kumar's blog where it is has attracted a fair share of attention by way of adverse comments not only concerning censorship but the Kashmir issue as well http://passionforcinema.com/to-mrs-sharmila-tagore-censorship-in-india-and-calling-me-a-liar/#comments
The timing of this award of an Adult certificate to Inshallah, Football is curious, since it coincided with the award of an Adult certificate for a No One Killed Jessica
, a film based upon the murder of Jessica Lall by Manu Sharma
, a wealthy man with strong political ties to the ruling Indian National Congress
. In both cases, there is an appearance of the Indian censor board having taken political considerations into account in their award of Adult certificates. Kumar says that he will now appeal to the CBFC tribunal http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bound-by-rigour/744289/2
Other Work =
Kumar was the curator and artistic director of Ibermumbai09, which was organized by the Spanish Embassy in India to promote dialog between filmmakers from Spain, Latin America and India.
Kumar is currently working on a project called "Routeless", which revisits his video diaries documenting his travels between Thiruvanthapuram in South India and New Delhi
in North India. The project attempts to chronicle the changes that have taken place in India in the decade since his original trip in 1999.
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...
has denied him the certifications necessary for the films to be shown publicly in Indian cinemas.
Background =
Ashvin Kumar was born in Kolkata
Kolkata
Kolkata , formerly known as Calcutta, is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal. Located on the east bank of the Hooghly River, it was the commercial capital of East India...
and educated at La Martiniere Calcutta
La Martiniere Calcutta
La Martiniere Calcutta comprises two separate private schools in Kolkata, India. The schools were established in accordance with the will of Major General Claude Martin in 1836. They are day schools although they both have a small number of boarders...
, Modern School
Modern School
Modern School can refer to:* Modern School , India* Modern School, Lucknow, India* Modern School, Nagpur, India* Secondary modern school, a type of secondary school that existed in Great Britain from 1944 until the early 1970s...
and The Doon School
The Doon School
The Doon School is an independent school located in Dehradun in the state of Uttarakhand in India. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das. Its first Headmaster was Arthur E...
. He described his experience as a student at Doon as "overall pretty miserable". His mother is the fashion designer Ritu Kumar
Ritu Kumar
Ritu Kumar is an Indian fashion designer, based in Delhi.-Early life and education:A native of Amritsar, Ritu attended Lady Irwin College, in New Delhi, graduating in 1964, and Briarcliff College, New York, USA in 1966.-Career:Kumar has been designing the wardrobes comprising swimwear,...
.
After leaving Doon, he studied at St. Stephen's College, Delhi, India in New Delhi, where he was a member of the Stephen's Shakespeare Society; at Goldsmith's College in London, where he received a bachelor's degree in media and communications; and briefly at the London Film School
London Film School
The London Film School is a private film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, close to a hub of the UK film industry based in Soho. The LFS was founded in 1956 by Bob Dunbar as The London School of Film Technique...
. He has described himself as a "resounding dropout. The institutionalization of cinema was suffocating. I wanted to learn on the job. I wanted to be adventurous". The lack of opportunity to make short films persuaded him to move from New Delhi to London.
Road to Ladakh
Kumar's first film was Road to Ladakh, which took 9 months to make, although the actual filming was done in 16 days. The film is 48 minutes long, and was released in 2004. Kumar has described this film as his "film school", in reference to the fact that he dropped out of the London Film SchoolLondon Film School
The London Film School is a private film school in London and is situated in a converted brewery in Covent Garden, London, close to a hub of the UK film industry based in Soho. The LFS was founded in 1956 by Bob Dunbar as The London School of Film Technique...
and invested the course fees into the making of this film. Kumar learnt production and post production by immersing himself into various roles and learning the craft on-the-fly while putting his own film through the various stages of production. He describes it as a process of trial and error from which he emerged with a completed film. For starters, "Road to Ladakh was a disaster of a film shoot, we were lucky to get the film done" http://shootingpeople.org/shooterfilms/interview.php?int_id=36 "Out of a ten-day shoot, it was raining on 5 days. So, we had to finish the shoot in half the time. There was just one petrol pump (in Spiti valley where the film was shot) - we had 7 cars and 2 trucks and a cast and crew of 40 people (who were staying in camping tents that later got flooded) looking at me for directions at every step. There I was - my first film, in Ladakh, and I thought to myself - what the hell have I got myself into?" The experiences of this shoot are captured in the making-of documentary called 'The near un-making of Road To Ladakh' which accompanies the film on a DVD released for the first time in India in 2009 through Junglee Video (the DVD label of Times Music) in a double bill with Little Terrorist. The DVD also contains an entertaining and informative making-of documentary of Little Terrorist. The DVD is available at music and DVD shops all over India. Says the Mid-Day newspaper review 'an elaborate tease that takes you into the minds of two lonely people who can scarce afford to trust each other. One's an enigma while the other snorts coke like it was a meal.' http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/2009/may/090509-Little-Terrorist-Road-To-Ladakh-Movies-Reviews.htm
Plot Summary
Irrfan Khan (The Warrior / Slumdog Millionaire / Mighty Heart / Namesake / Spiderman / Life of Pi) and Koel PurieKoel Purie
Koel Purie Rinchet is an Indian film actress who made her debut with Rahul Bose's directorial venture Everybody Says I'm Fine! in 2001 and later featured in Road to Ladakh starring alongside Irrfan Khan...
(Everybody Says I'm Fine) lead this surreal rites of passage encounter between a dysfunctional, coke-snorting fashion model and an ultra-focussed, strong-silent stranger who are thrown together by chance. Set in the magnificent wilderness moon-scape of Ladakh, India, the road journey and the strange encounters that follow provide a dramatic backdrop for the relationship that develops.
Both are outsiders, both are lonely, both crave the human contact that their roles in society deny them. Tentatively they search each other out in a film that is poised between elusiveness and engagement, suspicion and tenderness - at once hilarious and sinister, bizarre and moving, psychedelic and intensely real, Road to Ladakh is an original story scripted, edited and produced by director Ashvin Kumar. http://www.britfilms.com/britishfilms/catalogue/browse/?id=D5FD9B420eeaf2E8F9iIxTCEEECB
Road To Ladakh is a suspenseful tale of falling in love with the wrong kind of mysterious stranger near the borders of India and Pakistan. A road-movie that drew the talents of multi-national European crew...overly ambitious Himalayan adventure so fraught with disasters that it nearly didn't get finished; as documented in The Making Of Road To Ladakh. http://www.induna.com/1000005731-productdetails/
Little Terrorist
See main article: Little TerroristLittle Terrorist
Little Terrorist is a 2004 Indian short film directed, written and produced by Ashvin Kumar. It was nominated for the 2004 Academy Award for Live Action Short Film...
His second film, Little Terrorist (2005), was substantially more successful, winning an Oscar nomination, a nomination for the European Film Awards as well top prizes at the Tehran International Short Film Festival, Flanders International Film Festival, Montreal World Film Festival, Manhattan International Short Film Festival and the São Paulo International Short Film Festival. The film has been invited to over 120 film festival
Film festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
s around the world.
Plot Summary
The film was based upon a real-life incident in the year 2000 where a young goatherd crossed the Indian-Pakistan border and was subsequently imprisoned by the Indian police. Sri Atal Bihari VajpayeeAtal Bihari Vajpayee
Atal Bihari Vajpayee is an Indian statesman who served as the tenth Prime Minister of India three times – first for a brief term of 13 days in 1996, and then for two terms from 1998 to 2004. After his first brief period as Prime Minister in 1996, Vajpayee headed a coalition government from...
, the then Prime Minister of India
Prime Minister of India
The Prime Minister of India , as addressed to in the Constitution of India — Prime Minister for the Union, is the chief of government, head of the Council of Ministers and the leader of the majority party in parliament...
, freed the boy as a peace gesture indented to improve Indian-Pakistan relations.
In the film, a 12-year old Pakistani boy named Jamal mistakenly crosses the border into Indian territory while attempting to retrieve a cricket ball. While Indian soldiers search the village for the Pakistani "terrorist", the boy is given shelter by an elderly Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
schoolteacher named Bhola, despite the latter's deep-rooted prejudice against Muslims, and the objections of Bhola's niece, Rani .
The story is set near the Gujarat border between India and Pakistan, but the film was made in five days in a village outside Jaipur
Jaipur
Jaipur , also popularly known as the Pink City, is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Rajasthan. Founded on 18 November 1727 by Maharaja Sawai Jai Singh II, the ruler of Amber, the city today has a population of more than 3.1 million....
. Kumar's mother, the fashion designer Ritu Kumar
Ritu Kumar
Ritu Kumar is an Indian fashion designer, based in Delhi.-Early life and education:A native of Amritsar, Ritu attended Lady Irwin College, in New Delhi, graduating in 1964, and Briarcliff College, New York, USA in 1966.-Career:Kumar has been designing the wardrobes comprising swimwear,...
, designed the clothes for the actors.
The film is a "live action short", just 15 minutes in length. It has been described as the first short film to get a commercial release in India.
Film-making & awards
The film was crewed through the Shooting PeopleShooting People
Shooting People is an international social network for independent filmmakers that was founded in 1998 by Cath Le Couteur and Jess Search. With over 35,000 subscribers in the UK and NY, members share resources and knowledge to get their films made and seen....
organization; members who liked the script paid their own fares to travel to India to film it. Kumar became the only Indian to be nominated for an Oscar in the short film category.
The Forest
The Forest was loosely based upon the writings and exploits of Jim CorbettJim Corbett (hunter)
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was a British hunter, conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India....
and uses the tale of a man-eating leopard to address environmental concerns. The film is feature-length (86 minutes), and was released in 2009.
The plot concerns a married couple who arrive at a wildlife sanctuary
Wildlife refuge
A wildlife refuge, also called a wildlife sanctuary, may be a naturally occurring sanctuary, such as an island, that provides protection for species from hunting, predation or competition, or it may refer to a protected area, a geographic territory within which wildlife is protected...
in the Kumaon Hills to attempt to mend a faltering marriage. An unforeseen threat takes the form of an ex-lover turned wildlife warden. While the husband and lover quarrel, a man-eating leopard is on the prowl, and both men must unite in order to outwit the predator and survive the night.
While The Forest is a conventional action film, Kumar intended the film to convey a strong pro-environmental message.
The film was produced by Judith James and the music recorded at the Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios
Abbey Road Studios is a recording studio located at 3 Abbey Road, St John's Wood, City of Westminster, London, England. It was established in November 1931 by the Gramophone Company, a predecessor of British music company EMI, its present owner...
. Much of the filming was done at the Corbett National Park and the Bandhavgarh National Park
Bandhavgarh National Park
Bandhavgarh National Park is one of the popular national parks in India located in the Umaria district of Madhya Pradesh. Bandhavgarh was declared a national park in 1968 with an area of 105 km². The buffer is spread over the forest divisions of Umaria and Katni and totals 437 km²...
. The film stars Jaaved Jaaferi, Nandana Sen
Nandana Sen
-Early life:Sen was born in Kolkata, West Bengal to a Bengali Hindu family. She is the daughter of Nobel Laureate and Bharat Ratna economist Amartya Sen and Padma Shri winner Nabanita Dev Sen, one of the most prominent authors in the contemporary Bengali literature....
and Ankur Vikal
Ankur Vikal
Ankur Vikal is a renowned Indian theatre and film actor. He graduated from the National School of Drama , New Delhi in 2000, after studying Architecture at M.S. University, Baroda...
.
Dazed in Doon
Kumar himself an old boy of The Doon School was invited by The Doon SchoolThe Doon School
The Doon School is an independent school located in Dehradun in the state of Uttarakhand in India. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das. Its first Headmaster was Arthur E...
to create a film, subsequently named Dazed in Doon, that has since become controversial as the School authorities have moved to suppress the distribution of the film, on the grounds that it "doesn't give the School a good name". The film runs to 55 minutes and was made in just four months, from the start of pre-production
Pre-production
Pre-production or In Production is the process of preparing all the elements involved in a film, play, or other performance.- In film :...
on 20 June 2010 to the first screening
Film screening
A film screening is the displaying of a motion picture or film, generally referring to a special showing as part of a film's production and release cycle...
on 23 October 2010.
An international crew contributed to the making of the film: post-production
Post-production
Post-production is part of filmmaking and the video production process. It occurs in the making of motion pictures, television programs, radio programs, advertising, audio recordings, photography, and digital art...
was completed in Goa
Goa
Goa , a former Portuguese colony, is India's smallest state by area and the fourth smallest by population. Located in South West India in the region known as the Konkan, it is bounded by the state of Maharashtra to the north, and by Karnataka to the east and south, while the Arabian Sea forms its...
(editing), Italy (picture color correction) and London (sound mixing
Audio mixing (film and television)
Audio mixing for film and television is a process during the post-production stage of a moving image program by which a multitude of recorded sounds are combined into one or more channels...
) with Kumar simultaneously completing post-production on Inshallah, Football . Most crew members worked for a fraction of their usual fees: Kumar persuaded them to participate in the making of film by highlighting the opportunity of teaching young children film-making in a participatory film project that would result in film of their own. Kumar sings the Doon School song 'Lap Pe Aati Hai' http://www.alipur.com/doon/Lab_pe_aati_by_ashvinkumar.mp3 in the soundtrack as well as Howly is Krishna which was improvised during a music recording session in Goa.
Making of Dazed in Doon
Imaginox an 'online film school' were the sponsors of the video 'making of Dazed in Doon'. Two British film makers were sent by Imaginox from the UK to join Kumar's crew on The Doon School campus where they, simultaneously with Kumar's filming, shot a behind- the-scenes documentary film which can be viewed on www.imaginox.com http://www.imaginox.co.uk/module/1688Plot Summary
The film is a coming of ageComing of age
Coming of age is a young person's transition from childhood to adulthood. The age at which this transition takes place varies in society, as does the nature of the transition. It can be a simple legal convention or can be part of a ritual, as practiced by many societies...
story about a boy nicknamed "Howly"(Sookrit Malik) with an active imagination who is trying to make sense of life at The Doon School
The Doon School
The Doon School is an independent school located in Dehradun in the state of Uttarakhand in India. Established in 1935, it was founded by Satish Ranjan Das. Its first Headmaster was Arthur E...
, a prestigious public school
Independent school
An independent school is a school that is independent in its finances and governance; it is not dependent upon national or local government for financing its operations, nor reliant on taxpayer contributions, and is instead funded by a combination of tuition charges, gifts, and in some cases the...
located in Dehra Dun in India.
Howly's friend, nicknamed "Boozy"(Aseem Kumar), is an excellent sportsman who is about to win the most coveted award for sports at Doon: the "games blazer". Seeing his friend’s determination to win, Howly cheats on Boozy’s behalf at a high jump qualifier, giving him the points Boozy needs to win the games blazer.
Despite Howly's loyalty and hero-worship of Boozy, Boozy refuses to associate with Howly in front of others, effectively relegating Howly to the role of a sidekick
Sidekick
A sidekick is a close companion who is generally regarded as subordinate to the one he accompanies. Some well-known fictional sidekicks are Don Quixote's Sancho Panza, Sherlock Holmes' Doctor Watson, The Lone Ranger's Tonto, The Green Hornet's Kato and Batman's Robin.-Origins:The origin of the...
. After a particularly bad bullying
School bullying
School bullying is a type of bullying that occurs in connection with education, either inside or outside of school. Bullying can be physical, verbal, or emotional and is usually repeated over a period of time.In schools, bullying occurs in all areas...
episode that is witnessed by a School master
Schoolmaster
A schoolmaster, or simply master, once referred to a male school teacher. This usage survives in British public schools, but is generally obsolete elsewhere.The teacher in charge of a school is the headmaster...
, Howly is encouraged to audition for a part in the theatrical version of the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
. Howly discovers a natural talent for acting, and is cast in the lead role of the god Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
.
Thereafter, the mythic world of the Mahabharata, with the philosophical and ethical choices forced upon its characters, merges with Howly's own real-life dilemmas: Boozy discovers that Howly had cheated on his behalf, and that his games blazer had been won unfairly.
Kumar attempted to demonstrate a number of positive qualities that he believed Doon instilled in its pupils: a sense of values
Value (personal and cultural)
A personal or cultural value is an absolute or relative ethical value, the assumption of which can be the basis for ethical action. A value system is a set of consistent values and measures. A principle value is a foundation upon which other values and measures of integrity are based...
, ethics
Ethics
Ethics, also known as moral philosophy, is a branch of philosophy that addresses questions about morality—that is, concepts such as good and evil, right and wrong, virtue and vice, justice and crime, etc.Major branches of ethics include:...
, friendship, loyalty, the ability to correct moral choices
Morality
Morality is the differentiation among intentions, decisions, and actions between those that are good and bad . A moral code is a system of morality and a moral is any one practice or teaching within a moral code...
, and to form independent judgments and decisions. The storyline of the film uses a classic text of ethics (the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
) to link the growing pains of a schoolboy with the subtleties of Dharma
Dharma
Dharma means Law or Natural Law and is a concept of central importance in Indian philosophy and religion. In the context of Hinduism, it refers to one's personal obligations, calling and duties, and a Hindu's dharma is affected by the person's age, caste, class, occupation, and gender...
, as outlined in classical Indian philosophy
Indian philosophy
India has a rich and diverse philosophical tradition dating back to ancient times. According to Radhakrishnan, the earlier Upanisads constitute "...the earliest philosophical compositions of the world."...
, by linking these concepts to the ethical choices that the characters have to make in their day-to-day lives.
Participatory Educational Project
Kumar and his crew spent several months on the campus making the film in a consultative and participatory process that included both teachers and students. The film was shot over 25 days, and included a cast and crew of 40 boys and more than 500 extras. As a consequence of dealing with these logistics, which included training a large number of young boys as actors and crew-members and dealing with a heavy monsoon that upset the shooting schedule, Kumar improvised some of the acting and settings of the film, yet keeping to the original story and script. It is perhaps the first time in India that a near full feature length film of this nature has been made with school boys taking key roles both behind and in front of the camera.Censorship Controversy
The present controversy between Kumar and the School authorities has the School complaining that the film does not conform with a version alleged to have been shown to the Headmaster before its presentation at the School, and Kumar asserting that the School should have asked for changes at the time the script was being drafted in close consultation with the School's representative, Ratna Pathak Shah, over a period of six months, since January 2010. The script had been submitted and approved, and funding was approved before shooting commenced.Kumar's view is that "Making changes to the film after it is shot rendered the story incomprehensible and damaged the cinematic values of the film, nonetheless, I hacked fifteen minutes of the film in deference to the wishes of the headmaster. His objections now boil down to the removal of the character of a teacher who watches a boy being bullied but does not intervene - it is fifteen seconds of screen-time but entails the removal of a supporting character". As a consequence of this controversy, the School authorities have obtained an injunction from the district court in Dehra Dun to stop the film's release http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/entertainment/bollywood/news-interviews/Doon-film-banned-in-Dehradun/articleshow/7411185.cms, and the dispute between director and School continues unabated.
The Headmaster of the Doon School asked the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting's
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India)
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is a branch of the Government of India is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting, the press and films in India....
censor board
Central Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...
to withhold a censor certificate for the film on the grounds that the film is defamatory. The censor board upheld the Headmaster's concerns and awarded the film a U/A certificate, asking Kumar to produce a "no objection certificate" from the School.
Further complicating the dispute is the question of ownership of the film: the School asserts that it owns the film; Kumar asserts that the School is contracted to become one of three copyright holders, once the terms of the contract between Kumar and the School have been fulfilled. Kumar asserts, further, that since the School has not yet paid him in full under the terms of his contract, they cannot yet claim their one-third share of the copyright.
The dispute has polarized the alumni community of the School (known popularly as Dosco
Dosco
Dosco can refer to :* Doon School alumni, or Doscos* Dominion Steel and Coal Corporation, or DOSCO...
s, with the more conservative alumni expressing concern about the School's reputation getting damaged as a result of the film depiction of bullying, etc., and the more liberal alumni expressing concern that the attempt to censor an artist's output is not in keeping with Doon's founding traditions or ethos.
The film was originally shown to about 3,000 people who attended Doon's 75th Anniversary celebrations in October 2010, while it received a standing ovation from some it also received an adverse reaction from a segment of the alumni community appears to have resulted in the School abruptly withdrawing the sale of the film's DVDs and banning any further screening or even discussion of the film among the students.
Inshallah, football
Kumar's latest film, Inshallah, football, is a feature documentary about an aspiring footballer who was denied the right to travel abroad on the pretext that father was a militant in the 1990s. The film was completed in 2010, and has faced difficulties getting released in India. The film's first screening in India at the India Habitat Center received this review from Tehelka magazine, 'Kumar’s camera catches the irony of Kashmir’s physical beauty, the claustrophobia of militarisation, the dread and hopelessness of children born into war and the nuances of relationships. It also filters the inherent joie-de-vivre of youth, even if that flows uneasily with Kashmir’s collective memory of unmitigated grief...There is no better way to understand Kashmir right now.' http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=hub131110thetake.asp. The film was shot by Kumar himself using five different camera formats "There is a rough, almost unpolished, feel to Inshallah, Football. The narrative runs unfettered, with an energy of its own." says Tehelka, "We shot with five different cameras, from DSLRs to the best equipment. The idea was to watch life unfold and get under the skin of the audience.” adds Kumar. http://www.tehelka.com/story_main47.asp?filename=hub201110LITTLE.aspPlot Summary
Inshallah, Football is about 18-year-old Basharat Baba, known as "Basha". His father, Bashir, was a much-wanted leader of the armed group Hizbul MujahideenHizbul Mujahideen
Hizbul Mujahideen , founded by Ahsan Dar in 1989, is a Kashmiri militant group active in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1989. Their headquarters are located in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-administered Kashmir. It is believed the group al-Badr, derived from Hizbul Mujahideen...
. When he left his home in Kashmir to join the training camps in Pakistan in the early 1990s, his son Basharat was barely two months old.
Basharat belongs to a new generation of Kashmiris, having grown up under the shadow of a protracted conflict. His passion is football, and he has been coached by Juan Marcos Troia, an Argentinean national and FIFA accredited football coach by profession. Marcos aspires to breed world class players from Kashmir; he and his wife, being attached to both Basha and Kashmir, migrate to Srinagar
Srinagar
Srinagar is the summer seasonal capital of Jammu and Kashmir. It is situated in Kashmir Valley and lies on the banks of the Jhelum River, a tributary of the Indus. It is one of the largest cities in India not to have a Hindu majority. The city is famous for its gardens, lakes and houseboats...
with their three daughters to take up Basha's cause.
Marcos runs a football academy called International Sports Academy Trust; and an exchange program for his most talented players to train at Santos FC, Pele's
Pelé
However, Pelé has always maintained that those are mistakes, that he was actually named Edson and that he was born on 23 October 1940.), best known by his nickname Pelé , is a retired Brazilian footballer. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest football players of all time...
old club in Brazil. Basharat was one of chosen few, but was denied a passport by the Government of India. The passport in question did come through after Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir
Jammu and Kashmir is the northernmost state of India. It is situated mostly in the Himalayan mountains. Jammu and Kashmir shares a border with the states of Himachal Pradesh and Punjab to the south and internationally with the People's Republic of China to the north and east and the...
Chief Minister Omar Abdullah
Omar Abdullah
Omar Abdullah , born 10 March 1970 in United Kingdom, is an Indian Kashmiri politician and the scion of Kashmir's 'first family', the Abdullah family who became the 11th and the youngest Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir after forming a government in coalition with the Congress party, on...
intervened.
Inshallah, Football tells this story through Bashir's recollections and travails. Kumar describes the film as "the story of three remarkable men — one is his father who fought for his beliefs, another about the football coach who's come all the way from Argentina to start this football academy, and this young man who is struggling to play football."
The film has been critically acclaimed and played in competition part of the wide-angle documentary section at the Pusan Film Festival where it also received the Asian Network of Documentary (AND) Fund http://www.europe-asia-documentary.com/2010/10/pusan-international-film-festival-loves-docs/, and Winner of Muhr Asia Africa / Documentary /Special Mention : Ashvin Kumar (Director) at the Dubai International Film Festival http://www.dubaifilmfest.com/index.php/en/movie_details/inshallah-football/9010/2010
Censorship Controversy
This film has face considerable difficulties in getting the necessary censor certificateCentral Board of Film Certification
The Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...
, without which it cannot be shown publicly in India. The main stumbling block appears to be the content of the film itself, since it deals with the sensitive and highly political subject of how the Indian armed forces
Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. They consist of the Army, Navy and Air Force, supported by three paramilitary forces and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command.The President of India is...
have conducted themselves in Kashmir.
The series and timing of events by which this film's review by the censor has proceeded is unusual, and suggestive of political considerations playing a part in the award of a censor's certificate:
- On October 28, 2010, Pankaja Thakur (CEO of the New Delhi office of censor boardCentral Board of Film CertificationThe Central Board of Film Certification is a Government of India regulatory body and censorship board of India controlled by Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. It reviews, rates and censors motion pictures, television shows, television ads, and promotional material...
) reviewed the film and cleared it for a single private screening. An initial review by a senior censor official would normally indicate that the remainder of the certification process is a formality. - A review committee in MumbaiMumbaiMumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
, where the film's application for censor certification had been made, subsequently rejected the application altogether. - A second review committee confirmed the ban. As reported in The HinduThe HinduThe Hindu is an Indian English-language daily newspaper founded and continuously published in Chennai since 1878. According to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, it has a circulation of 1.46 million copies as of December 2009. The enterprise employed over 1,600 workers and gross income reached $40...
newspaper, sources from India's Ministry of Information & BroadcastingMinistry of Information and Broadcasting (India)The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is a branch of the Government of India is the apex body for formulation and administration of the rules and regulations and laws relating to information, broadcasting, the press and films in India....
noted that "the problem with the CBFC's committees is that many of the nominated members are either related to government officials like police officers or have a conservative outlook.". Normally, filmmakers are invited to present their case for gaining certification at such reviews, but Kumar and his colleagues were not invited. - However, Sharmila TagoreSharmila TagoreSharmila Tagore is an Indian film actress. She has won National Film Awards and Filmfare Awards for her performances.She has led the Indian Film Censor Board from October 2004 till March 2011...
, the well-known Indian actress and current chairperson of the Censor Board pressed for a third review. This review was handled in a way that clearly put Kumar at a disadvantage: Kumar received an email from the censor board on December 28, while in Mumbai, informing him that the review would take place the very next day in New DelhiNew DelhiNew Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
-- 800 miles away. This unexpected shift in venu, and hurried timing of the notification, may have been designed to ensure that Kumar would not be able to present his case directly before the review committee. Following this review, the Censor Board awarded the film an "Adult" ("A") certificate.
The award of an "Adult" certificate for a documentary is very unusual, since an Adult certificate is normally awarded to feature films that include graphic violence and nudity. Such films can be shown only to audiences over the age of 18, and most movie theaters in India will not ordinarily agree to screen such films since it is very difficult to for them to make money in the circumstances. (This is not the case, however, with India's burgeoning soft-porn industry, which relies upon the "A" certificates to attracts its particular audience.)
The explanation for awarding Inshallah, Football was that the film has "characters talking about graphic details of physical and mental torture they had to undergo. The theme of the film is mature and some dialogues can be psychologically damaging for non adult audience." Kumar, however, asserts that the real purpose of this censorship is to avoid causing embarrassment to the Indian government, with regard to the conduct of the Indian armed forces
Indian Armed Forces
The Indian Armed Forces are the military forces of the Republic of India. They consist of the Army, Navy and Air Force, supported by three paramilitary forces and various inter-service institutions such as the Strategic Forces Command.The President of India is...
in Kashmir.
Mrs. Tagore made further comments on the 16th anniversary of the women's press corps that were reported by the online version of Outlook Magazine http://news.outlookindia.com/item.aspx?708521 to which Kumar has responded in an open letter to Mrs. Tagore taking on the wider issue of censorship, the relevance of the censor board using Inshallah, Football as an illustration saying that her comments "...would be mildly amusing if they didn't also cast a shadow on the average Indian citizen's freedoms to produce and receive messages, and if they didn’t potentially compromise the livelihood of members of my (and your) fraternity–those troublesome film-makers who don't toe the line and whose discomfiting messages the nation needs to hear." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494 A separate report of Mrs. Tagore's comments is more direct, calling Kumar's comments 'untrue' http://ww.greaterkashmir.com/news/2011/Jan/16/claim-of-ashvin-about-inshallah-football-untrue-sharmila-39.asp. Kumar has responded to this in the aforementioned open letter saying 'You said that my statement about being denied a certification for my film Inshallah, Football was 'untrue'. I was hurt; after all, it is not often that I am called a liar in public.' http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494. Mrs. Tagore has also said in the same interview that Inshallah, Football "(is) a beautiful film and I want everyone to see it," but Kumar counters, "Let me speak plainly. I think you have been used to stamp a sense of 'reasonableness' on the sordid affair of restricting freedom of speech. The decisions of the body you head need to be, or need to be seen to be, more moral, more conservative, more risk-averse, more politically correct and more circumspect (thus, in common parlance, more anal-retentive) than is natural or necessary, even if basic principles of natural justice need to be given a go-by from time to time." http://www.facebook.com/note.php?saved&¬e_id=182575245109271&id=121063171278494. The same open letter also appears on Kumar's blog where it is has attracted a fair share of attention by way of adverse comments not only concerning censorship but the Kashmir issue as well http://passionforcinema.com/to-mrs-sharmila-tagore-censorship-in-india-and-calling-me-a-liar/#comments
The timing of this award of an Adult certificate to Inshallah, Football is curious, since it coincided with the award of an Adult certificate for a No One Killed Jessica
No One Killed Jessica
No One Killed Jessica is a 2011 Bollywood film starring Rani Mukerji and Vidya Balan, produced by UTV Spotboy and directed by Raj Kumar Gupta, who directed the acclaimed film Aamir ....
, a film based upon the murder of Jessica Lall by Manu Sharma
Manu Sharma
Siddharth Vashisht , better known as Manu Sharma, is a convicted murderer, serving life imprisonment for the 1999 murder of model Jessica Lal. Sharma is the son of the former Indian minister Venod Sharma....
, a wealthy man with strong political ties to the ruling Indian National Congress
Indian National Congress
The Indian National Congress is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Bharatiya Janata Party. It is the largest and one of the oldest democratic political parties in the world. The party's modern liberal platform is largely considered center-left in the Indian...
. In both cases, there is an appearance of the Indian censor board having taken political considerations into account in their award of Adult certificates. Kumar says that he will now appeal to the CBFC tribunal http://www.indianexpress.com/news/bound-by-rigour/744289/2
Other Work =
Kumar was the curator and artistic director of Ibermumbai09, which was organized by the Spanish Embassy in India to promote dialog between filmmakers from Spain, Latin America and India.
Kumar is currently working on a project called "Routeless", which revisits his video diaries documenting his travels between Thiruvanthapuram in South India and New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
in North India. The project attempts to chronicle the changes that have taken place in India in the decade since his original trip in 1999.