'Muslim cultures of Bombay Cinema' kicks off

Abu Dhabi: Muslim Cultures of Bombay Cinema, a film festival and the first of its kind, kicked off on Thursday evening. The festival will run until March 22.

The festival celebrates and explores the rich influence of Muslim cultures on the cinema of Bombay from the 1930s to the present and includes the work of key Muslim directors, Mehboob Khan, Sohrab Modi, and Kamal Amrohi.

Muslim cultures are expressed in Bombay cinema through the influence of the Urdu language on a cinema that is often termed "Hindi" cinema, through Islamic poetic forms, story-telling traditions, and musical expression, and through distinctive forms of social life.

Through Muslim cultural idioms widely inform Hindi-Urdu cinema they are most articulately manifest in the three broad genres that are represented in this festival: the Historical, the Courtesan Film, and the Muslim Social.

The festival will feature 14 films drawn from these genres that have been selected on the grounds of their historical and aesthetic importance.

Some of these film have never been subtitled into English before nor widely seen since their original release.

Filmmakers and actors will attend the screenings for Q&A, and a workshop will take place on the topic involving experts on Islamic art, culture and society in South Asia.

Factfile:

Screening Schedule

Historical Films

Muslim Social Films

New Wave Films

Courtesan Films