Fareeda Mehta (born July 1959) is an

Indian Indian or Indians may refer to: Associated with India * of or related to India ** Indian people ** Indian diaspora ** Languages of India ** Indian English, a dialect of the English language ** Indian cuisine Associated with indigenous peoples o ...

film director who makes short films, documentaries and feature films. Also she collaborates closely with the

Press Trust of India The Press Trust of India Ltd., commonly known as PTI, is the largest news agency in India. It is headquartered in New Delhi and is a nonprofit cooperative among more than 450 Indian newspapers. It has over 500 full-time employees , including abo ...

and organizations such as

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

NCERT National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) () is an autonomous organisation of Ministry of Education, the Government of India. Established in 1961, it is a literary, scientific and charitable Society under the Societies Re ...

NORAD North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD ; , CDAAN), known until March 1981 as the North American Air Defense Command, is a combined organization of the United States and Canada that provides aerospace warning, air sovereignty, and pr ...

and NFDC.

Early life and education

Mehta studied social sciences at

Tata Institute of Social Sciences Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) is a multi-campus public university in Mumbai, India. It is Asia's oldest institute for professional social work education and was founded in 1936 in the then Bombay Presidency of British India as the S ...

(TISS) in Bombay and later film directing at the

Film and Television Institute of India The Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) is a film institute under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (India), Ministry of Information and Broadcasting of the Government of India and aided by the Central Government of India. ...

(FTII), Pune.Kali Salwaar (2002) - Fareeda Mehta
Cinephilanderer.com website, Published 3 August 2009, Retrieved 3 June 2021

Career

After graduating at the FTII, Pune as a film director, Mehta made her first short film ''Hawa Ka Rang'' in 1989, which was awarded the first prize at the Turin Film Festival. She has also worked on several films directed by

Kumar Shahani Kumar Shahani (7 December 1940 – 24 February 2024) was an Indian film director and screenwriter, best known for his parallel cinema films '' Maya Darpan'' (1972), '' Tarang'' (1984), '' Khayal Gatha'' (1989) and '' Kasba'' (1990). His films w ...

and

Mani Kaul Mani Kaul (25 December 1944 – 6 July 2011) was an Indian director of Hindi films and a figure in Indian parallel cinema. He graduated from the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) where he was a student of Ritwik Ghatak and later be ...

as an assistant. Her first feature film as a director was the 2002 film '' Kali Salwaar'' starring

Sadiya Siddiqui Sadiya Siddiqui is an Indian film and television actress who rose to fame playing the role of Priya on the Zee Tv show '' Banegi Apni Baat''. She is also known for playing Nanda in Star Plus's ''Tu Sooraj Main Saanjh, Piyaji''. She won an ITA A ...

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and

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. Centred on a Muslim prostitute coming from Muzzafarpur to Mumbai, '' Kali Salwaar'' was an almost abstract odyssey into migration, marginalization, and displacement. Her film is based on a story by

Saadat Hasan Manto Saadat Hasan Manto (; Punjabi, , , ; 11 May 1912 – 18 January 1955) was a Pakistani writer, playwright and author who was active in British India and later, after the 1947 partition of India, in Pakistan. Writing mainly in Urdu, he produc ...

, 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. ''Sultana'', the main character, together with her husband and pimp ''Khudabaksh'', soon find out that life in Mumbai is often beyond their control. With nothing left to make ends meet, ''Khudabaksh'' is attracted to fakir mysticism, leaving behind his wife, alone with the desperate wish to find a black garment to wear during '' Moharram'', the Islamic month of mourning. 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 The International Film Festival of India (IFFI), founded in 1952, is an annual film festival currently held in Goa, on the western coast of India. The festival aims at providing a common platform for the cinemas of the world to project the excel ...

, Goteborg Film Festival,

Rotterdam International Film Festival International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, focused on independent and experimental films. The inaugural festival took place in June 1972, ...

(2003) and

Durban International Film Festival The Durban International Film Festival (DIFF) is an annual film festival that takes place in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. It was founded in 1979 by Teddy Sarkin and Ros Sarkin. Presented by Centre for Creative Arts at the Univ ...

(2003). It 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. It 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’".

Filmography

Short films

Documentary films

Feature films

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mehta, Fareeda Hindi-language film directors 1959 births Living people Film directors from Mumbai Film and Television Institute of India alumni Indian women screenwriters