Let's celebrate the best of Indian cinema 2018 - from North to South, East to West we present to you 5 films in 5 languages which have caught the Film Critics Guild's attention and won the first FCG awards.

SCREENING IS FOLLOWED BY A CONVERSATION WITH CRITIC SHILPA JHAMKANIDKAR.

FRIDAY:

Lathe Joshi (Marathi)

SYNOPSIS:

Mr. Joshi fondly known as 'Lathe Joshi' for his skill at working the Lathe machine is left jobless. While his family and the world at large, manage to survive or thrive, he struggles to retain his fading identity. Technology rules the changing time; the inevitable human price is 'Lathe Joshi'.

Director’s note:

India is country with a diverse food and art cultures, and at the same time, with second largest population. Globalization appeared and affected the lives of people with the same diversity.

For a person like me, who witnessed this change in the early youth, and stayed in Pune, a city which proudly sticks close to the culture and yet it is one of the highly developing cities in India, the transition was more than significant and evident. I belong to the place and generation, which demarcates the pre and post globalization India.

The need of time saving and productive processes led to automation being introduced. People have often related automation with humans getting out of work. But getting any job isn’t a solution. For a skilled worker his job is what an art to an artist is. And it cannot be replaced with just any activity which keeps his hands busy. As an artist I could relate to this urge more than anything, when I walked through the famous Coppersmith lane which lost its prosperity because people ceased to opt for hand-crafted copper vessels to cheaper, lighter or disposable options. Similar was the case with lathe workers, when the ‘Unproductive’, ‘time consuming’ lathe machines were replaced with automation i.e. CNC, VMC Machines. Many workshops were shut down. There I found my lead character “Lathe Joshi” who is identified for his skills; a lathe artist from a sole surviving workshop in the time of automation.

After meeting several such artists, the story just flowed through me as my own experience since I had waited for this film to come to me for 5 years after my first feature film. And when the film was ready on the paper, with authentic locations, beautiful cinematography and soulful music my whole team of artists worked so incredibly to bring it to life magically.

Duration: 104.5 mins.

Cast:  Chittaranjan Giri, Aswini Giri, Om Bhutkar, Seva Chouhan

Writer Director: Mangesh Joshi

Producer: Sonali Joshi, Mangesh Joshi

Associate Producers: Narendra Bhide, Nitin Sharad Viadya, Leela Talkies

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The Film Critics Guild, India’s first registered association of film critics, is a geographically diverse body comprising of India’s most credible critics representing print, radio, broadcast and the web. The Guild is dedicated to maintaining the highest level of integrity amongst its members and evaluating works of cinema that stand apart in their story telling.

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Harkat Studios, Bungalow #94 (first floor), Aram Nagar 2, Versova, Andheri West, Mumbai 400061.

PLEASE NOTE OUR CHANGE OF ADDRESS (easier to find!) TO BUNGALOW #94 (NEXT TO MATA MANDIR CLOSE TO THE MAIN MAIDAN).

The new address is unfortunately not yet wheel-chair friendly but we're working on it!