Today we went to the National Film Archives to see the film "मन्थन" or "The Churning". We sat on stiff red velvet chairs to see the projection, transporting us back to 1976 when the film was released. The film was funded by the Dairy Farmers of Gujrat about the founding of a dairy cooperative in the 1950s, based mostly on the Amul cooperative. This phenomenon, also called the "White Revolution", brought about a huge increase in the availability of milk and other foodstuffs in the 1970s. (See the Wikipedia page about the film here.) The film touched on issues of caste, poverty, gender, and the feudal holdovers of rural India. Although very distant from the "Bollywood" Hindi movies I've seen, Manthan definatly protrayed some very sensitive issues with graceful acting and cinematography.
For a lighter movie, I highly suggest "Three Idiots" (IMDb here). It's everything you could ever hope in a movie- drama, humor, song and dance, romance, plot twists, births and deaths. It fully acknowledges its Bollywood heritage and the joys of bromance. Although the three hour commitment can seem daunting, the film mixes humor and serious issues in unbelievably quick turns, keeping the audience on its toes.
Ok. Time to study for my Hindi test. :P
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