7 Islands and a Metro
Werk
A frayed rug round his shoulders,
My father came down the Sahyadris
And stood at your doorstep,
With only his labour in his hands.
From “Mumbai” by Narayan Surve
.
The multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of intolerance, the Bombay of closed textile mills, of popular culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts, the metropolis of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado. This film is a tale of the cities of Bom Bahia / Bombay / Mumbai, through a tapestry of fiction, cinema vérité, art objects, found footage, sound installation and literary texts. It is a chronicle of the journey of a scattered bunch of insignificant fishing hamlets to the coveted stature of a prime metropolis.
The narrative is structured around fictional exchanges between Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Manto, the two legendary writers who lived in this metropolis, over the art of chronicling these multi-layered overlapping cities.
Shot mainly during the monsoon the film portrays some extremely beautiful yet ruthlessly violent features of Bombay that, generally, are not part of the popular narratives. By juxtaposing fictional segments enacted by actors with actuality shots and reality-inducing testimonies the film tries to challenge
My father came down the Sahyadris
And stood at your doorstep,
With only his labour in his hands.
From “Mumbai” by Narayan Surve
.
The multilingual Bombay, the Bombay of intolerance, the Bombay of closed textile mills, of popular culture, sprawling slums and real estate onslaughts, the metropolis of numerous ghettos, the El Dorado. This film is a tale of the cities of Bom Bahia / Bombay / Mumbai, through a tapestry of fiction, cinema vérité, art objects, found footage, sound installation and literary texts. It is a chronicle of the journey of a scattered bunch of insignificant fishing hamlets to the coveted stature of a prime metropolis.
The narrative is structured around fictional exchanges between Ismat Chugtai and Sadat Hasan Manto, the two legendary writers who lived in this metropolis, over the art of chronicling these multi-layered overlapping cities.
Shot mainly during the monsoon the film portrays some extremely beautiful yet ruthlessly violent features of Bombay that, generally, are not part of the popular narratives. By juxtaposing fictional segments enacted by actors with actuality shots and reality-inducing testimonies the film tries to challenge