Taking the Natyashastra as the point of departure, the lecture delves into two performative practices of northern India - Ramnagar ki Ramleela and Tawaif’s artistry - which are embedded and intermeshed in the histories, geographies and the religions of the land and thus embodied (consciously/subconsciously) in its people.

SitaaurGita Films Screening followed by an after talk with artist at Chakshu Festival - Dance from the perspective of camera

Dance films address issues that relate to society, through the body and movement.
From representation to direct engagement with people and communities in the midst of socio-political relevances, filmmakers bring themselves up to task with translating and disseminating the problems, complications and reflections of interpersonal and world-wide relations.

CineDans invite filmmakers to open up their views and methods of working. For this session, the audience is invited to reflect together on the present ways of how dance films are treating social issues and the impact of those in our surrounding.

SPEAKERS // Tanin Torabi (filmmaker: The Derive) | Dagmar Dachaeur (filmmaker: Competing for Sunlight: Ash)  | Emma Evelein (choreographer/filmmaker Sisters, A flood remains) | Maia Sorensen(filmmaker/choreographer) | Nikita Maheshwary (choreographer/filmmaker)

TUJHKO BANAYA GAYA HAI MERE LIYE
Duration : 20 mins

The piece investigates the representation of women in the Indian pop culture. It questions their objectification, the handed down warped codes of romance and the glorification of sexism in the mainstream that masquerades itself, sometimes as an innocent joke or gets etched in our heads as a catchy item song.

Set on the timeless, iconic romantic nazam from the 1976 Bollywood movie ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, the piece borrows the movement vocabulary from the popular cultural image of a female and male body. It attempts to capture the varied gender equations, the society’s innate permissiveness towards the quintessential ‘chedkhani’ or eve-teasing and how this collective tolerance propagates and contributes to gender-related violence.

Direction: Nikita Maheshwary
Process Collaborators & Performers: Mahesh Saini & Nikita Maheshwary

A short performance work as a part of the lecture presentation ‘Damming the Narmada: Development or Dispossession’ at Ambedkar University, Delhi.

TUJHKO BANAYA GAYA HAI MERE LIYE
Duration : 20 mins

The piece investigates the representation of women in the Indian pop culture. It questions their objectification, the handed down warped codes of romance and the glorification of sexism in the mainstream that masquerades itself, sometimes as an innocent joke or gets etched in our heads as a catchy item song.

Set on the timeless, iconic romantic nazam from the 1976 Bollywood movie ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, the piece borrows the movement vocabulary from the popular cultural image of a female and male body. It attempts to capture the varied gender equations, the society’s innate permissiveness towards the quintessential ‘chedkhani’ or eve-teasing and how this collective tolerance propagates and contributes to gender-related violence.

Direction: Nikita Maheshwary
Process Collaborators & Performers: Mahesh Saini & Nikita Maheshwary

TUJHKO BANAYA GAYA HAI MERE LIYE
Duration : 20 mins

The piece investigates the representation of women in the Indian pop culture. It questions their objectification, the handed down warped codes of romance and the glorification of sexism in the mainstream that masquerades itself, sometimes as an innocent joke or gets etched in our heads as a catchy item song.

Set on the timeless, iconic romantic nazam from the 1976 Bollywood movie ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, the piece borrows the movement vocabulary from the popular cultural image of a female and male body. It attempts to capture the varied gender equations, the society’s innate permissiveness towards the quintessential ‘chedkhani’ or eve-teasing and how this collective tolerance propagates and contributes to gender-related violence.

Direction: Nikita Maheshwary
Process Collaborators & Performers: Mahesh Saini & Nikita Maheshwary

TUJHKO BANAYA GAYA HAI MERE LIYE
Duration : 20 mins

The piece investigates the representation of women in the Indian pop culture. It questions their objectification, the handed down warped codes of romance and the glorification of sexism in the mainstream that masquerades itself, sometimes as an innocent joke or gets etched in our heads as a catchy item song.

Set on the timeless, iconic romantic nazam from the 1976 Bollywood movie ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, the piece borrows the movement vocabulary from the popular cultural image of a female and male body. It attempts to capture the varied gender equations, the society’s innate permissiveness towards the quintessential ‘chedkhani’ or eve-teasing and how this collective tolerance propagates and contributes to gender-related violence.

Direction: Nikita Maheshwary
Process Collaborators & Performers: Mahesh Saini & Nikita Maheshwary

TUJHKO BANAYA GAYA HAI MERE LIYE
Duration : 20 mins

The piece investigates the representation of women in the Indian pop culture. It questions their objectification, the handed down warped codes of romance and the glorification of sexism in the mainstream that masquerades itself, sometimes as an innocent joke or gets etched in our heads as a catchy item song.

Set on the timeless, iconic romantic nazam from the 1976 Bollywood movie ‘Kabhi-Kabhi’, the piece borrows the movement vocabulary from the popular cultural image of a female and male body. It attempts to capture the varied gender equations, the society’s innate permissiveness towards the quintessential ‘chedkhani’ or eve-teasing and how this collective tolerance propagates and contributes to gender-related violence.

Direction: Nikita Maheshwary
Process Collaborators & Performers: Mahesh Saini & Nikita Maheshwary

Performance and Artist Talk during the Morni Hills Performance Art Biennale 2016 at Chandigarh.