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Bombay Boy
This isn't about men in shiny suits
pulling rabbits out of hats. Mumbai-based filmmaker Ashim Ahluwalia's award-winning debut
documentary Thin Air goes beyond that. The 42-minute film on Mumbai's magicians
was made because "I wanted to connect with Mumbai on a gritty level," says the
27-year-old, who returned home in 1997 after six-and-a-half years in the US. Shot over 14
months, Thin Air -- insightful, funny, profoundly sad -- chronicles the lives of
three magicians in a relentless city. "I knew there would be some sadness when I
started the film but I had no idea of the extent," says Ahluwalia. "A person is
there to perform and no one cares. It sums up Mumbai." Thin Air was
premiered at Kathmandu's Film South Asia Festival in October where it won the Best Film
Award. It was screened at the Hanover International Film Festival last month and has been
picked for December's Amsterdam International Documentary Festival. Next, Ahluwalia is
looking at a documentary on Protima Bedi or the opium lifestyle of royals from Gujarat.
"I want to make films on Mumbai," he says, "but the problem is funding. The
West wants exotic poverty, not middle-class urban India." Perhaps Thin Air
can work some magic.
-Anupama
Chopra
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