The Village House

press release: New Indian Cinema series

India | 2019 | DCP | 91 min. | Maithili with English subtitles

Director: Achal Mishra

Cast: Abhinav Jha, Mira Jha, Satyam Jha

The astonishing debut feature from 23-year-old writer/director Achal Mishra, Gamak Ghar gently and lovingly captures a large extended Indian family over several decades as they gather at the matriarch’s rural home. As the movie follows the inevitable rhythms of change, such as children growing older and moving away to the city, it is the village house itself that emerges as the central character. Mishra keeps the film continually captivating on a visual level through gorgeous fixed-camera long takes and he has split this generational story into three separate chapters that take place years apart, employing a different screen aspect ratio for each segment, techniques that make Gamak Ghar a must to see on the big screen. The narrative mostly avoids moments of tension to favor a flowing series of warm, nostalgic images: food cooking, old men playing (and cheating) at cards, a family gathered around a small television to watch a movie. As time slips away, and the house falls slowly into disrepair, Mishra’s storytelling technique builds to its devastating final moments, resulting in an intimate mini-epic that traces the intertwining of family and nature through the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Gamak Ghar (The Village House) provides a resounding emotional experience through quiet observation of the human condition. “Like master filmmakers Edward Yang and Hou Hsiao-hsien, Mishra understands how cinematic aesthetics can beautifully mirror the invisible momentum of time” (Glenn Heath Jr., The Film Stage).

Screenings mostly take place at 4070 Vilas Hall, 821 University Avenue. Once-a-month Sunday afternoon screenings take place at the Chazen Museum of Art, 750 University Avenue. In accord with current UW Madison policies, masks are required for entry to our venues. All Cinematheque screenings are free and open to the public. Please visit our website for a complete listing of programs and descriptions from September 3 through December 18.

NEW INDIAN CINEMA

Moving beyond behemoth Bollywood productions, India has recently been the source for a great many smaller scale movies that are receiving acclaim at film festivals and art houses in and outside of South Asia. In September and October, the Cinematheque will offer a showcase featuring three distinct new works of cinema from India: Arun Karthick’s Nasir is a Tamil-language film about an ordinary man whose life is upended through extreme cultural nationalism; Achal Mishra’s The Village House, a selection of the 2021 Wisconsin Film Festival, is a powerful and sublime multi-generational story of how the passage of time changes one family; and Pushpendra Singh’s The Shepherdess and the Seven Songs offers an update of a classic Indian folk tale with a feminist twist. These selections have been curated by assistant professor Darshana Sreedhar Mini of UW Madison’s Department of Communication Arts, and the Cinematheque’s Jim Healy. Presented with the support of UW Madison’s Center for South Asia. Special thanks to Sarah Beckham.