Heritage Week will have a 'filmi' take

AHMEDABAD: These fictional films are the top eight winners of the Ahmedabad Film Project (AFP) in genres ranging from comedy to mystery to reflective. The winner is the short film 'Mystery Painter', which is about a painter in the walled city of Ahmedabad. He draws beautiful sketches of the ancient monuments to make people remember how the city once looked.
The element of fiction is added when police come to the scene and the painter disappears.
"The film was inspired by our everyday negligence of the splendor amidst us. We have created a film for the common people, to realize the value and beauty of their heritage, before it vanishes forever."
Another interesting film, 'Introspection' revolves around a photographer who finds himself in the midst of the old city. The shutterbug mentions how each frame, each picture clicked by him, has a part of him within. Adhish Panchal, the director says, "Shooting in the Walled City made the entire team nervous. But looking back at the film, the best shots could not have been possible had we not shot it there."
While these films provide food for thought, 'Daaya Baaya' by Vinay Panjwani takes a comic take on religious beliefs of 'pol' citizens and their naivety when a man spins a story of his dog being the descent of God, so that the dog never has difficulties surviving in his absence.
"The gullible people of pols were the inspiration for the story. The attitude of the people in these pols is a heritage itself," says Panjwani.
The Ahmedabad Film Project had 68 teams and over 650 participants from all over India who shot films in various parts of the Walled City.
Explaining the idea behind these films, Ritam Bhatnagar, 23, organizer of AFP says, "Through this movement, we have gathered 860 minutes of coverage of the old city, part of which we plan to showcase to the UNESCO."