Fareeda Mehta

Education

Mehta studied social sciences at Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) in Bombay and later film directing at the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII), Pune.

Career

Also she collaborates closely with the Press Trust of India and organizations such as United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, National Council of Educational Research and Training, North America Air Defense and NFDC.

She has also worked on several films directed by Kumar Shahani and Mani Kaul as an assistant. Her first feature film as a director was the 2002 film Kali Salwaar starring Sadiya Siddiqui, Irrfan Khan, Kay Kay Menon and Vrajesh Hirjee. Her film is based on a story by Saadat Hasan Manto, the leftist Urdu short story writer of the nineteenth century.

Almost the entire film was shot in her neighbourhood in Mumbai, focusing on a lively bazaar.

Although the main themes are displacement and the sense of loss in an anonymous metropolis, the setting breathes a striking intimacy. According to Fareeda, Kali Salwaar does not have a message per se, but deals with exchange of energies.

In a silent way it creates contemplative spaces in which the audience can pause and let imagination, emotions, and memory roam free. Kali Salwaar has been shown in many international film festivals, including the Indian Panorama in the International Film Festival of India, Goteborg film festival, Rotterdam International film festival (2003) and Durban International Film festival (2003).

lieutenant was nominated for "Best Film" at the Bogota film festival.

In her own words: "Perhaps cinema is the best form to show the unfolding of Destiny. Destiny, not as predetermined fate, but as it is getting made – as an unfolding of time and events within time. lieutenant gets made as people meet and exchange – a few words, or a look, or money.

Seemingly inconsequential encounters change you forever and each time.

In Kali Salwaar, I try to come close to this pulse of random movement and imperceptible ‘happening’.".

Achievements

• After graduating at the FTII, Pune as a film director, Mehta made her first short film Hawa Ka Rang in 1990, which was awarded the first prize at the Turin Film Festival.

Views

Quotations: "Perhaps cinema is the best form to show the unfolding of Destiny. Destiny, not as predetermined fate, but as it is getting made – as an unfolding of time and events within time. lieutenant gets made as people meet and exchange – a few words, or a look, or money.

Seemingly inconsequential encounters change you forever and each time.

In Kali Salwaar, I try to come close to this pulse of random movement and imperceptible ‘happening’.