Hides and Strings

The documentary film is about the Film and Television Institute of India including the views expressed by students, staff and Ex-Director Shri Jagat Murari. The filmmakers from the institute are 'Rays of Hope' for the alternative or New Indian Cinema.

With the severe drought and lack of jobs, Aagaswadi village’s youth are forced to leave home for the city. Desperate for water, Bhimrao digs a well. This documentary follows the people of Aagaswadi’s struggles against the drought and its negative impact.

With only music and images, this film captures the grim struggle for existence of a family of unskillled labourers working on the construction of a new building.

Maya is a teenager young girl who is working as a housemaid in a rich family. She is required to do all household work and also look after a small child. She toils from dawn to dusk and cannot get peaceful sleep. She, therefore, wants to get rid of it. One night, she kills the child in the cradle and then, relieved of her burden, quietly sleeps on the ground.

FTII Screen Acting Diploma Film of 2010: an Anthology film with 6 stories.

A man (psychopath), walking around isolated roads at night, encounters a woman who triggers off his childhood memories of torturing and killing a rat, and further leads him to slash another woman - a hooker to death. He has another encounter with the first woman, this time interacting with her - albeit in an unusual manner over a game of SCRABBLE. This leads to passion between the two and... it is the woman who is seen washing up and cleaning the blood off her hands.

The journey of news coming alive, when an athlete featured on the front page falls in love with a tennis starlet featured on the last page of a newspaper.

The film is about a young boy who has just finished graduation and is waiting for the result of a competitive examination. He is quite sure about getting through the examination, but his mother generally grumbles and assumes that her son is not capable of doing anything in this world. Discouraged and fed up with all this, he goes to his college and meets his girlfriend. He does not want to lose these moments. One fine morning he is awakened by the excited voice of his mother informing him that he has been selected in the competitive examination!

People are involved in daily encounters without ever being aware of how they are connected with one another. A taxi reveals all.

A man leaves his house. Another applies for leave in his office. A third finishes his tea. Another gets himself shaved. All four are fresh entrants in the world of crime: kidnapping to be more precise. But the father of the kidnapped boy refuses to pay up. The son has already played this trick before and collected good ransom. The father does not believe this time it is a real thing; The kidnappers get desperate. The son has in idea. The plot thickens.

A cynical young man and a romantic young womanencountered each other on a night bus journey. Eachspins a story around the other. It turns out that she isgoing to meet someone, she has never seen before. Heis apprehensive. She herself is not so sure.

The passage from adolescence to youth is a phase during which a girl emerges in a distinctive period of her life to another significant phase. Most often there is a synchronous transition in her physical state with that of her emotional state of mind. This film poignantly depicts such a transition in a girl's life. Her changing attitudes towards her playmates, and objects around are brought out very vividly in this film.

Ramesh is a poorly paid employee in the city Power House. His only child has high temperature, but he mistakes it for common fever. At the Power House, employees including Ramesh demand a pay rise. When the management turns down this demand, they plot to turn off the main switch of the Power House for a few minutes in order to teach a lesson to authorities. Ramesh is entrusted with this job. In the meantime, the doctor takes the decision to immediately operate on Ramesh's child. Ramesh is not aware of this. In the Power House, Ramesh turns off the main switch. The lights go off in the operation theatre too...

A girl comes to Karla Caves to meet her lover planning to elope with him. She waits for a long time, but her lover does not turn up. All of a sudden, her attention is drawn towards a massive statue of a male and a female entwined in each other's arms. She feels as if the carved image is conveying the message of the noble relationship between man and woman. As she wanders about in the caves, she realizes that it is shameful and cowardly to run away with her lover. She has been transformed.

In modern society, communication between individuals is becoming more and more difficult. Two persons may be in the same physical environment, yet it seems that a Glass Pane - invisible but strong, and very much there separates these individuals. Almost Antonioniesque in its composition, this short film is a study of a married couple who are unable to communicate with each other.

Shama and Ravi are members of a Marxist party. Shama loves classical Indian music, a luxury of a few, and Ravi is in love with quotations and the philosophy of Marx - a need of the masses. Due to a strike, Ravi is compelled to work full-time for the party. Shama decides to give up music reluctantly and joins Ravi.

A call from 'Who Wants to Be a Millionaire' transforms the life of a humble Indian farmer, as he, along with his family and village, embarks on a journey to discover the true meaning of winning.

Two siblings escape into a world of adventure aboard a broken ship—until growing up starts to pull them apart.

Sudhir - staying in a city without family roots - symbolizes the need for commitment in all young, sensitive and thinking individuals all over the world. The family is a fast-disintegrating social institution and Sudhir's Saturday night represents a true 'dolce vita' - without Fellini's irony, but sickly and sweet. The ridiculously elementary encounter with a mother prostitute as well as his final grandiose speech to the little runaway boy lose their power — and induce a facile fulfillment.

These poor people find that their lives, hopes, desires and even dreams are ruled by the powerful. They are deprived of their natural spontaneity and thought process. As a consequence, the victim's action and reaction is programmed and they are performed mechanically as a ritual. In this film, a family of three falls victim to a middle-aged officer, who controls their lives. The woman is thrown in prison, the man becomes a toy in the hands of the officer and their child looks on innocently.