Movies and music come alive at TIFR

Every Sunday, the Homi Bhabha Auditorium at the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) comes alive.Students and faculty eagerly await the screening of movies from Images—the film club.

"Images has successfully completed two decades and is a popular recreation on campus," said Shantanu De, doctoral student in financial mathematics.

The club is a welcome break for students and faculty who spend most of their time on campus—studying, reading, or conducting research; sometimes spending over 17 hours at a stretch.

"We have made arrangements so that our faculty and students can take a break and unwind," said Kishore Menon, PRO, TIFR.

The movies are screened in a special auditorium constructed to seat an audience of 1,000. "We avoid from screening commercial movies. Films by Bergman and others which have won good reviews from world cinema critics are screened. The membership of the club can be obtained at Rs200," said De.

In addition to the film club, the TIFR campus has an active music association. "The Amateur Music Association (AMA) has been functional for past 30 years. Our audience has a classical taste more towards Carnatic and Hindustani music. However once in awhile we have Hindustani and Western classical fusion and ghazal performances as well," said Naren HR, a student of Condensed Matter, Physics department.

AMA ropes in established classical musicians and singers, and conducts performances once a month. "We’ve had performances by singer Ashwini Bhide-Deshpande, sitar player Pandit Arvind Parekh and violinist Sangeeta Shankar,” he said.