The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : `Kaya Taran' screened at MCC

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Thursday, Sep 22, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

`Kaya Taran' screened at MCC

Staff Reporter

CHENNAI: "Art can come closer to truth than the media," said Sashi Kumar Menon, chairman, Media Development Foundation, at the screening of his film `Kaya Taran' at the Madras Christian College on Monday. The screening followed paper presentations on issues of form and content in cinema by students from various city colleges.

The event was part of the attempts of the Department of Communication to "sensitise students to understand quality cinema," said V. Rajagopalan, Head, Department of English and course co-ordinator of communication. Winfred Chelliah, co-ordinator of the self-financed stream, called Menon's films `an original and alternative perspective of the world.'

`Kaya Taran' or Chrysalis uses the massacre of Muslims in Gujarat in 2002 as a mode of entry into the 1984 pogrom against Sikhs after Indira Gandhi's assassination.

The film incorporates theatrical and surrealistic moments to keep the viewer from identifying fully with its story.

Mr. Sashi Kumar introduced the film as an attempt to work against the constraint of a narrative, which did not allow full creative freedom. ``I have sought to sabotage the narrative by playing a self-reflexive role and using an alienating mode that does not allow emotional plunging into the narrative,'' he said.

"The sense of contained or implied violence is of more impact than actually seeing violence, especially at a time when all kinds of violence fill our screens," he said in response to questions after the screening.

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