Gulabi Talkies

by Girish Kasaravalli

India

Director: Girish Kasaravalli

Script: Girish Kasaravalli

Cinematographer: S. Ramachandra Aithal

Editing: M.N. Swamy, S. Manohar

Sound: Malieiidian

Music: Isaac Thomas, Kottukapally

Cast: Umashree Krishnamurthy, M.D. Pallavi, Praveera Poornima Mohan, Ashok Sandip

Production:
Basant Production
Girish Kasaravalli
1015, 8th Cross B.T.M
Layout 1 stage
Bangalore 56 0029
India
GSM: 91 944 846 6810
Mail: [email protected]

Year: 2008

35 mm, Colour, 122 min, 
OV Kannada with English Subtitles
French Electronic Subtitles

Awarded at New Elhi's Osian Cinefan 2008

French Premiere

Gulabi, the much-neglected, childless, second wife of Musa the fish merchant, is a skilled midwife, much in demand within her island community. The most important event in her life happens when Gulabi, who is bewitched by the magic of cinema, receives a colour TV set, which brings cinema to her doorstep. The power of the medium is such that it draws together women and children of all ages, castes and communities, forging new bonds and making Gulabi's house into a veritable movie house or 'talkies'. Equally, the TV also bears witness to new tensions, transformations and the eventual breakdown of the community.

Gulabi Talkies traces the impact of the new media on a fishing community in Coastal Karnataka, against the backdrop of globalized business practices and growing communal tensions between Hindus and Muslims, at the turn of the century.