IMPHAL, Feb 1: Set in Manipur, this is a road film travelling across a century to collate the portrait of a film and its family, a cinema and its citizens.
Historically an independent kingdom through most of its history, Manipur had a controversial merger with India in the mid 20th century. It has been wracked by state and non-state militancy ever since and has little to show for being part of a developing country like India. But it has a cinema.
Fried Fish, Chicken Soup and a Premiere Show journeys with a Manipuri feature film unit through the landscape of picturesque hills and narrative traditions. As technology and army fatigues permeate the terrain, the people continuously re-configure the narrative inheritance and the strategies to chronicle the contemporary. Traversing through various sites – the home based filmmaking convention, roads as locations in Manipuri films, the community imposed censorship and finally the phenomenal love for cinema, the film brings forth the very specific story of Manipur and its public culture.
The film directed by Mamta Murthy and produced by Majlis Production is of 90mins duration and has language in manipuri with english subtitles.
About the Director – Mamta Murthy
Mamta Murthy is a filmmaker, photographer and curator based in Mumbai/Bombay. Her first film, Colours Black, won the Grand Prix at 9th Biennial of Moving Images, Geneva in 2001. She contributed the videos for The Western Suburb: Installation on Sweatshops of Cinema featured at the Berlinale Forum Expanded 2010. Beginning with filmmaking, she has since also developed collaborative multidisciplinary projects in the realm of arts and politics. She is a graduate of IRMA, Gujarat.