Saat Rasta, Sahitan Chauki, Lal Baug, where the mill workers lived was called – Girangaon, the city of mills.
“I blessed Mumbai. As long as I live here, people will never go hungry.”
“I have never tasted Non-Veg food. Except eggs, prior to 1965.”
“You can give a blessing to the people. But you don’t know what they’ll do with that, do you?”
Lakshmi skyline
Cosmopolis: Two Tales Of A City
A diptych that looks at the changing nature of cosmopolitan Bombay/Mumbai
Documentary | 14 min 30 sec | English | India
Tale 1: The Forgotten City (1 min. 17 sec.)
A poem called Mumbai, about a city built by workers. A skyline where mill chimneys are replaced by glinting, cylindrical highrises that mimic their shape, but do not hold their memory – but serve a drink called Cosmopolitan. A singer who recites the names of train stations, a map in song. In the eye of change, a forgotten city.
Tale 2: Defeat of a Minor Goddess (13 min.)
This is a film about food and faith. Anapurna, the goddess of food walks the earth and comes to a city by the sea where one of its inhabitants treats her to a gorgeous meal of fish. Pleased, she blesses the city with gastronomic abundance and even reigns as its (very popular) patron deity. However, very soon she faces competition with the arrival of her sister, Laxmi, the goddess of wealth. The rivalry between the goddesses manages to divide the city with all the classical intrigue, insecurity and jealousy that make up a good old fashioned battle.
The city spirals into an escalating war over food and property, livelihood and living. Vegetarians don’t want to live with non-vegetarians, Saraswat Brahmins don’t want Jain neighbours and fishmongers don’t want people of other communities to sell fish. Interweaving the fictional war between the goddesses with a documentary exploration of Bombay’s food politics, the film interrogates the divisive politics that characterizes contemporary Mumbai, under its cosmopolitan costume.
Festivals
- Persistence/Resistance 2008
- Lille 3000, 2006
- Kara Film Festival, 2005
- Film South Asia, Kathmandu, 2005
- A Billion Eyes Film Festival, 2005
- Cinematexas 9
- South Asian International Film Festival, New York
- British Council Digital Film Festival 2004 (Awarded)
BUY COSMOPOLIS: TWO TALES OF A CITY – INTERNATIONAL
Director
Paromita Vohra
Producer
Devi Pictures
Camera
Mrinal Desai (Tale 1)
Setu (Tale 2)
Sound
Paromita Vohra (Tale 1)
Gissy Michael, Hari M &
Vipin Bhati (Tale 2)
Editing
Jabeen Merchant (Tale 1)
Kavita Pai (Tale 2)
Actors
Paromita Vohra (Tale 2)
Renuka Shahane (Tale 2)
Category
Films