Fridays @ KCC Library
The Open-Winged Scorpion: Playing with the Untranslatable in Abul Bashar's Prose
Date: 28 March 2025
Time: 5:30 – 7:00 PM
Venue: KCC Library
Join us at the KCC Library for an insightful conversation on the contemporary Bengali author Abul Bashar, known for unflinching and deeply human portrayal of the marginalized lives of Muslim communities in West Bengal.
Highlighting Abul Bashar: The Open-Winged Scorpion and Other Stories published by Seagull Books, this session will have researcher, translator and associate professor of comparative literature Epsita Halder offering her insights alongside editor, graphic designer and co-translator Sunandini Banerjee.
The discussion will be bilingual (Bengali and English).
ABOUT THE BOOK
The ten stories collected in this volume portray the dreams, hopes, fears and anxieties of their protagonists, brutally exposing their human frailties. A wife is forced into her husband’s cross-border trafficking business; a fakir is tortured for not following scriptural norms; a Hindu widow times her evening prayer to the tune of the Muslim azan; a horse-cart driver performs the ritual dance of the horse of Karbala; a part-Muslim part-Hindu man loses his mind over a small plot of farmland ‘owned’ by a dog . . . . Enmeshing religion with sexuality, exploring caste hierarchies, and engaging with the nuances of party politics and conflicting ideologies, Bashar brilliantly mines his land for striking narratives and infuses them with remarkable sensuality, lyrical energy, piercing irony and profound philosophy. At once an archive and a testimony of a marginalized people as well as a fascinating window into a rarely witnessed world, The Open-Winged Scorpion and Other Stories marks the long-awaited and much-needed introduction of a trenchant voice of Bengali literature to a wider, global readership.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Epsita Halder is an associate professor at the Department of Comparative Literature, Jadavpur University, Calcutta. She researches and writes on Muslim sonic-visual piety, mediatization and the Shi’i transterritorial networks. She was a visiting fellow at the School of Oriental and African Studies, London.
Sunandini Banerjee is Senior Editor and Graphic Designer at Seagull Books. She is also an occasional translator from Bengali to English, and a digital-collage artist. She lives and works in Calcutta.
The Haunted Screen: The Impact of German Expressionism in Films
Date: 7 March 2025
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Venue: KCC Library
This March we have Raju Raman delivering an illustrated talk on the impact of German Expressionism in films at the KCC Library.
Post First World War from 1914 - 1918 saw the emergence of expressionism in the art movement in Europe, particularly in Germany, which found its way into the German Expressionist Cinema of the 1920s. Although sound had not yet arrived in cinema during this period, the silent films by some of the masters of the craft during that era spoke volumes about the prevailing socio-economic conditions of that period, In a way they even foretold the state of affairs to come, as a kind of forewarning and thus left an indelible impact on other genres of cinema to emerge later in that century. This session seeks to provide insights into some of the traits in the silent cinema of that decade, some of which have remained relevant even a century later.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
S.V. Raman, popularly known as Raju Raman, retired as Programme Director of Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Kolkata in April 2010. He worked as a Programme Consultant to Victoria Memorial Hall, teaches public speaking / communication / journalism / film / German at various institutions, and is an avid debater and cultural activist, while also working as a freelance journalist, translator and interpreter. He is connected with several social and cultural organizations in various capacities. Presently he is the President of Cine Academy, Bichitra Pathshala, and the Indo-German Association, Chairperson of The Creative Arts, Secretary of Manovikas Kendra and Sahay, Governing Committee Member of The Calcutta School of Music, as well as an active Executive Member of the Calcutta Debating Circle.
7 February 2025 | Women, Society, and Cinema: A talk on Shyam Benegal's vision by Dr Sangeeta Datta
This talk is by writer and filmmaker Dr Sangeeta Datta on the politics and legacy of Shyam Benegal, with a special focus on her book ‘World Directors: Shyam Benegal’ published by the British Film Institute UK.
About the Book:
Shyam Benegal is the best known and most prolific contemporary filmmaker from India's arthouse or 'New Cinema' tradition. This work traces a career with its beginnings in political cinema and a realist aesthetic. Sangeeta Datta demonstrates how the struggles of women and the dispossessed and marginalised in Indian society have found an eloquent expression in films as diverse as Ankur, Nishant, Bhumika, Mandi, Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda, Mammo and Zubeida. The book also traces Benegal's work with his protégés and collaborators including many of the biggest names in Indian Cinema – Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, Karishma Kapoor and A.R. Rahman.
About the Speaker:
Sangeeta Datta is a writer, filmmaker, musician, and cultural commentator. She has written and edited several books on Indian Cinema. She is founder and Artistic Director of the cross arts cultural organisation BaithakUK.
31 January 2025 | An Introduction to Shyam Benegal Through His First Two Films: A talk by Subha Das Mollick
This January we have documentary filmmaker and teacher of media and film studies Subha Das Mollick delivering an illustrated talk on Shyam Benegal’s first two films – Ankur (1974) and Manthan (1976) – both of which were critically acclaimed and won National Awards.
About the Speaker:
Subha Das Mollick is an independent documentary filmmaker, teacher of media studies and film studies and writer of analytical pieces on cinema and education. She has been an associate professor and Head of Department of Media Science and Film Studies at St. Xavier’s College, Kolkata and at iLEAD Institute and served as a visiting faculty in the Department of Journalism & Mass Communication at Aliah University and at Viswa Bharati University. She has designed several open courses for the SWAYAM platform and for OER4BW (Open Education Resources for a Better World). Her films have been critically acclaimed and won prestigious awards. Science, history, heritage and the intersecting zones of science and culture are her special areas of interest. Her latest film Dear Master, based on the relationship between Albert Einstein and Satyendranath Bose, premiered on the 1st of January 2024, to commemorate one hundred years of Bose Einstein Statistics. After this, the film has been screened at various institutes in India and abroad. In 2023 she conducted an open elective workshop at NID Bangalore, on the theme “Water Matters”.
Date: 31 January and 7 February 2025
Time: 5:30 – 6:30 PM
Venue: KCC Library
KCC is proud to present a series of talks honoring Shyam Benegal – the pioneer of parallel cinema and storytelling excellence – as a part of Fridays @ KCC Library. A storyteller who brought real, raw narratives to life, Benegal showed us the heart of India through his lens.
Let’s celebrate the art, vision, and passion he left behind, redefining Indian cinema forever!
