'Rang Rasiya' screened at New York's Queens Museum

NEW YORK: Ketan Mehta's "Rang Rasiya," based on the life of iconic Indian painter Raja Ravi Varma, was part of a special screening at the Queens Museum of Art here.
    
"Rang Rasiya" and "Amal" by Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta were screened last evening as part of the recently concluded 2008 MIAAC Film Festival that showcased some of the finest Indian independent and Diaspora films.
    
From his early days under royal patronage to his trial for blasphemy for his increasingly eroticised work, Mehta brings to life Varma's search for his muse, the birth of Indian modern art, the dawn of Indian cinema, and inspiring the Indian Independence movement.
    
"Amal" had been named the best film at the MIAAC fest which ended last Sunday.
    
In the movie, Mehta makes a gently humorous debut with a wry, fable-like tale of contemporary India.
    
When Amal, a sensitive autorickshaw driver in chaotic New Delhi, generously allows a dishonest, seemingly homeless curmudgeon to cheat him of his fare, strange events are set in motion that affect both in far-reaching ways.
    
Mehta, who also co-wrote the film, conveys with immediacy the noise and chaos of a burgeoning working-class Delhi, as its members rub shoulders and scruples with the new rich classes.
    
While the lead role is played by Rupinder Nagra, the movie also stars Koel Purie, Naseeruddin Shah, Seema Biswas and Roshan Seth.
    
The Queens Museum of Art is also hosting an annual South Asian visual arts exhibition "Erasing Borders" from October 19. It will end on November 19.