News Releases

UWI Film Programme launches Indian Cine Club

For Release Upon Receipt - March 19, 2010

St. Augustine


Quiet, please. The film is about to start. The Indian Cine Club feature film, that is.

Cheeni Kum, the second of several Indian movies to be featured by The University of the West Indies (UWI) Indian Cine Club, will be screened from 5 to 8 p.m. on March 25th at the Centre for Language Learning (CLL) Auditorium, UWI St. Augustine.  

Cheeni Kum (English title: Less Sugar, 2007, 136 minutes, directed by R. Balki) is the story of Buddhadev (Amitabh Bachchan), the curmudgeonly and lonely head chef at one of London’s top Indian restaurants. One evening, a customer, Nina (Tabu), a young software engineer, sends back a dish to the kitchen for having “cheeni zyadha hai” (too much sugar). Buddhadev is outraged at Nina for having the temerity to criticise one of his dishes, but soon the two become friends, and fall in love.

 

When Nina agrees to marry Buddhadev, they fly to India to inform Nina’s father, an elderly, cricket-loving widower (Paresh Rawal). The father, disgusted at the disparity in age between his daughter and Buddhadev, refuses to permit his daughter to marry the chef, and embarks on a hunger strike in protest. A stalemate ensues, one that could see Buddhadev lose the first bit of real happiness he has known in his life.

The Indian Cine Club is an initiative of The UWI St Augustine Campus Film Programme, in conjunction with the Indian High Commission and the Mahatma Gandhi Institute for Cultural Cooperation.

“What we want to do is simple: to showcase films from India on an ongoing monthly basis,” said Dr. Christopher Meir, UWI Lecturer in Film, who is coordinating the new film series. “India is home to one of the world’s most popular cinemas as well as one of the medium’s greatest artistic traditions. We hope to bring both of these to the St. Augustine campus over the months to come.”

A variety of Indian films will be screened on the last Thursday of every month and they are free of charge and open to the public.

For more information, please contact Dr. Christopher Meir at Christopher.Meir@sta.uwi.edu.

About UWI

Over the last six decades, The University of the West Indies (UWI) has evolved from a fledgling college in Jamaica with 33 students to a full-fledged University with over 40,000 students. Today, UWI is the largest and most longstanding higher education provider in the English-speaking Caribbean, with main campuses in Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, and Centres in Anguilla, Antigua & Barbuda, The Bahamas, Belize, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Christopher (St Kitts) & Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent & the Grenadines. UWI recently launched its Open Campus, a virtual campus with over 50 physical site locations across the region, serving over 20 countries in the English-speaking Caribbean. UWI is an international university with faculty and students from over 40 countries and collaborative links with over 60 universities around the world. Through its seven Faculties, UWI offers undergraduate and postgraduate degree options in Engineering, Humanities & Education, Law, Medical Sciences, Pure & Applied Sciences, Science and Agriculture, and Social Sciences.

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