IFFLA invites you to an exclusive session with Vishal Bhardwaj, one of India’s most exciting and multi talented filmmakers, in the third in its series of Masterclasses. Bhardwaj will take us through his filmmaking journey and creative process, his unique vision and his all-round approach to filmmaking, that involves writing, directing, composing and, at times, playback singing.
Known best for his canny cinematic adaptations of Shakespeare—Maqbool in 2003 (Macbeth set in Mumbai’s underworld), Omkara in 2006 (Othello in the boondocks of North India) and Haider in 2014 (Hamlet in troubled Kashmir)—to the Indian reality, he will introduce us to the book to screen transition. Bhardwaj has also adapted the works of Ruskin Bond (Blue Umbrella, 7 Khoon Maaf), Charan Singh Pathik (Pataakha) and, this year, Agatha Christie’s The Sittaford Mystery (Charlie Chopra) and Amar Bhushan’s Escape to Nowhere (Khufiya).
Last, there can be no better person to take IFFLA audiences on a deep dive into Indian film music than the one who has composed timeless songs like “Sapne mein milti hai” (Satya), “Chhod aaye hum wo galiyaan”, (Maachis), “Dil to bachcha hai ji” (Ishqiya), “Beedi” and “Namak” (Omkara), among others.
Bhardwaj has won eight National Film Awards and has worked in a variety of genres, from a spooky children’s film Makdee to a caper Kaminey, a political satire Matru Ki Bijli ka Mandola to a period romance set during World War II, Rangoon. His films are rooted in the real, and populated with imperfect characters, the marginalized and the underdogs.
This conversation with one of India’s contemporary auteurs, or “the best film school to go to” as his associate Abhishek Chaubey had once called him, promises to be in a class by itself.
