Railways & The Moving Image
Director ANAL SHAH
Countries India, United States
Duration 42 min
Synopsis
Seamlessly weaving together archival footage of trains in Indian cinema, with the filmmaker's own images and reflections, Chalchatra -Railyatra is a poetic documentary exposition about the parallels and intersections between railways and cinema in India. Within two years after Lumiere's Arrival of a train a la Ciotat, a film was made in Bombay of another train arriving at the Churchgate Station. Ever since then, trains have been an integral part of the Indian imagination in movies. Together they transcend cultural boundaries and help create a modern identity and new sense of nationhood. But at the core of it lies the journey from the village to the city and the return back to the village. It is this journey that becomes the departure point for the film exploring multiple metaphors that the train creates in the history and practice of cinema in India.
Seamlessly weaving together archival footage of trains in Indian cinema, with the filmmaker's own images and reflections, Chalchatra -Railyatra is a poetic documentary exposition about the parallels and intersections between railways and cinema in India. Within two years after Lumiere's Arrival of a train a la Ciotat, a film was made in Bombay of another train arriving at the Churchgate Station. Ever since then, trains have been an integral part of the Indian imagination in movies. Together they transcend cultural boundaries and help create a modern identity and new sense of nationhood. But at the core of it lies the journey from the village to the city and the return back to the village. It is this journey that becomes the departure point for the film exploring multiple metaphors that the train creates in the history and practice of cinema in India.