AKASHAGOPURAM

AKASHA GOPURAM - Castle in the Air

Akasha Gopuram means castle in the air . It is an adaptation of the Henrik Ibsen classic Master Builder . It is directed and screenplayed by K.P.Kumaran.It tells the story of Albert Samson, a high esteemed architect, who always thinks about his career' showing little love to his wife or subordinates. His assistant Alex is a talented architect who wish to part with Albert and to go on his own. He needs an approval to his design from Albert to do the work and that Albert denies. He is flirting with Alex's girl friend and mentally tortures Alex. Since Albert is mentally disturbed , there comes a beautiful young girl , Hide Varghese, who is an admirer of Albert, whom she saw in her school days. Her company inspires him to complete his dream project Akashagopuram, but the life ends on a tragic note.


The film is not impressing the audience mainly because of the touch of drama and also of the real adaptation of the drama. The talent of Mohanlal is not properly used. Nitya, a new entrant to the film world excelled in her role. Bharath gopi, though in a small role, made his presence felt. After all , any creative work is made basically to satisfy the creator. If he or she is satisfied, then others have nothing to tell.

Cinematography of the film is done by Mr.Manoj Thundiyil and editing by Mr.Ajith Kumar. Sound is made by Mr. Nigel Holland.

Casts include Sreenivasan, Manoj.K.Jayan, Geethu Mohandas and Swetha Menon.

Dreams of Dust

DREAMS OF DUST

‘Dreams of Dust “ a 2006 Burkino Faso-France-Canada production in French language directed by Laurent Salgues , is depicting the painful life of Africans who works in gold mines of Burkino Faso to make a better future. Once the gold was abundant , but now a rare element , the workers hopefully hope to get good catch one day. Mocktar, basically a Niger, came there after the death of his younger daughter ,bond to a girl of similar age and to her mother. Even though he met with mine accident and injury, he continues there and after getting a good catch, the euro he received has been given to the mother of Mariana and leaves the place.
Director has beautifully blotted out the frames in the desert and in limited shots established the attitude and psyche of each character. Screenplay by the director himself and the cinematography by Crystal Fournier are excellent. Annie Jeans has compactly edited the frames. Sound was given by Thierry Morlass-Lurbe, Luc Mandeville and Stephane Bergeron is also impressive.
Cast- Makena Diop, Rasmane Onedrago, Fatou Tallsalgues, Joseph .B.Tapsoba and Souleymane Zoure.
Producers – Sophie Salbot , Mare Daigle

Thagavalagam

Thagavalagam

Thagavalagam is a Dhan Foundation ICT initiative for advancing development through ICT . Dhan foundation conscious of the technological change and poor being left out in the whole process has initiated, Thagavalagam theme with the objectives to make information technology accessible to poor by developing relevant schemes through research and pilot activities.The project experiments and conducts socially relevant and needed programmes related to micro finance , agriculture, health and other social development as an organizational programme. It also collaborates with research and academic institutions one-governance and computer education at schools.
Thagavalagam Village Information Centre
Thagavalagam is the brand name of the Village Information Centre . It offers a variety of Information and Communication Services which include computer training e mail and browsing work sending applications for obtaining birth and death certificates , sending queries to Aravind eye hospital about eye problems to specialist doctors queries about crops and animals etc . Video Conference in Eye care agriculture fisheries, veterinary science legal consultation education etc is also a regular service in the Thagavalagams.

Thagavalagam Community College : The Hub
Thagavalagam Community College is the hub coordinating the Thagavalagams and is started with the objective of providing quality computer education to students of poor families at affordable fees. The courses offered are
Post graduate Diploma in Computer Application
Diploma in Computer Application.
Certificate course in Computer Application
Thagavalagan Offline Centers: ALCs are adult learning centers which provide computer based adult literacy for poor women in the villages. The illiterate adults learn to read and write Tamil with the help of the software.
Thagavalagam Groups
It consists of poor women and is promoted with the objective of providing ICT based livelihoods. The members are trained in computer software and hardware at the thagavalagams free of cost and they in turn undertake various job works. Sectoral groups are being promoted with various users of the thagavalagams like agriculture, fishermen, youth groups etc. These sectoral groups form the thagavalagam development association which manages the VICs.
Content development
The content developed includes different educational content, different software for services like agriculture and animal husbandry being used by farmers in thagavalagams. A team of VIC operators are also trained and involved in the content development. A wide range of location specific content is available at all thagavalagams.
website www .dhan.org

Lailas Birthday

Laila’s Birthday- a film by Rashid Masharavi

Laila’s birthday is a Palestine-Tunisian- Netherlands film directed by Rashid Masharavi . It tells about the story of a judge , who has been retrenched from service due to lack of money to pay. He is earning his bread as a taxi driver. Still he is enjoying the life and strictly follows the rules and regulations of the country. The story rounds on a day from his life. His wife requests him to come before 8 PM on that day to celebrate their daughter’s birthday. He agrees, drops the kid in the school and visiting the Ministry of Justice to enquire about his posting. The officials are very arrogant and irresponsive. He leaves the place and begins his duty. While on duty, he denies a passenger to smoke in the vehicle, insisting one to use the seat belt and not permits a Palestinian guerilla to enter his vehicle with a pistol. He tries 2-3 times to buy a bag to gift his daughter, but situations do not allow him to do that. Tries to buy a cake, that also fails. In the day time, he has to face bomb attack, attend a hospital case, blockades in the street and a plenty. It’s the reality in Palestine , but the people some how manages their life. Totally frustrated, he is back home and to his surprise , he gets a cake that a passenger forgot to take, the flower basket placed accidentally by a marriage party on his vehicle and a necklace , he casually purchased from a poor boy collectively makes the birthday a remembering event.

The direction and the camera work is simple and attractive. The music, script and editing also need special mention. Mohamed Bakri as the judge performed excellently.

“ I wanted to describe the confusion that currently reigns in the life of Palestinians… After more than half a century of Israeli occupation, after having struggled for freedom, negotiated for peace and waited for progress, we have only gone backward”, Rashid says.

Rashid born in 1962 and raised in the Shati refugee camp, Gaza Strip, is a self-taught film maker.In 1996, he founded the Cinema production and Distribution Center, which offers workshops to young Palestinian film makers . The CPC also initiated the Mobile Cinema Project , which brings screening to refugee camps.