Filmmakers have always come unstuck at finding the right spaces to screen independent films. A few communities in the city, however, are making it their mission to organise indie screenings that allow audiences to keep a track of critically-acclaimed films and engage with it intelligibly. In line with this idea, cinema enthusiasts flocked to the India Habitat Centre, Lodhi Estate on Thursday to attend the screening of the 2019 Hindi film Eeb Allay Ooo!. This social satire marks the directorial debut of Prateek Vats, an alumnus of Film and Television Institute of India (FTII). It was also the first major screening organised by Kriti Film Club—a film screening group in Delhi, which has been showcasing documentaries since 2000—this year.
A delight for cinephiles
Eeb Allay Ooo! follows the life of the protagonist Anjani Prasad, a young migrant who takes up the job of keeping monkeys away from public buildings. The film, which was selected at the 70th Berlin International Film Festival in 2020, also won the Golden Gateway Award in the India Gold category and the Young Critic’s Choice Award at the Mumbai Film Festival 2019. The screening of the 98-minute-long film was followed by a discussion with the writer, Shubham, also a former FTII student. Talking about the love the film—it recently released on Netflix—has received, Shubham remarked, “People around the world have received the film well. I believe it is a sign that people understand how the system works and how workers are being exploited.”
Elaborating on the creative process, Shubham further shared, “The absurdity of the job attracted us but we did not want to make just a film about the odd job. We wanted to respond to the world around us.” Shorya Vashisht (21), a Rohini resident, who attended the screening with his friend Harshit, said, “I have watched the film before but today, we got a chance to discuss the film with the writer, which was very insightful. Such screenings are a great way to bring people, who are into good cinema, together.”
For the love of films
One of the oldest film screening groups in the city, Kriti Film Club functions as an independent non-profit organisation that strives to create a space for alternative cinema. “We felt that a lot of great films were being made but they were only being seen and shown in film festivals. The content these films showcased needed to reach a larger audience. Our mission, thus, was to create a space for unconverted audiences,” said Aanchal Kapur, founder of the club. The organisation routinely screens films—they usually focus on documentaries, independent films—and believes in creating discourse around the issues that these bring forth. “We do not function like a film festival or an award show. Our aim is to showcase cinema that matters,” concludes Kapur.