At a boarding school in Switzerland, a 16-year-old girl watched -Alfred Hitchcock's North by Northwest as part of her A-Level film studies class.
“I suddenly felt something rush through my body,” recalls Gauri Chadha, now 27. “I couldn’t identify what it was. I had never felt such a connection with anything. With the help of my professor at that time, I realised this was what I wanted to do with the rest of my life. Since then, that is what I have been doing every day.”
An established filmmaker today, Chadha learnt the ropes at the University of Miami and then at Met Film School, Ealing Studios, in London. A resident of Mumbai, Chadha has dipped her toes in Bollywood and Hollywood, working on projects such as Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol and Love Breakups Zindagi (both in 2011), and Gandhi of the Month last year.
She came into her own with Gawah, a documentary she wrote, produced and directed, which explores the lives of the victims of the 2008 Mumbai attacks (dubbed 26/11) – 12 coordinated shootings and bombings across the western Indian city that left 164 dead and at least 308 injured.
“I was in film school in London at the time. We had to do a documentary as one of our assignments and I couldn’t find a source of inspiration. Then I went for a Thanksgiving dinner and suddenly my phone started buzzing. I switched on the news and 26/11 was happening in front of me,” Chadha recalls. “I had always been so disconnected with where I’m from, and this was the first time where I felt a pull. I needed to explore this. I really wanted to understand something so close to me, yet so far. That’s how the journey began – through 26/11.
“I realised that it’s not right for me as a filmmaker to push my own opinion, not knowing where we come from as a country,” she says. “That’s when I decided to include the [India-Pakistan] Partition, which led to the largest migration of human population in history. I wanted to understand what that generation had gone through, how we relate to those experiences today. I decided to use a hybrid of both laments, but something was missing. I needed farther comparison.”
The missing link came to Chada in the form of another round of attacks in Mumbai in July 2011 – bomb explosions that killed 26 and wounded 130. “The very next day I was at the sites, listening to people’s stories,” Chadha recalls.
Gawah has been submitted to about 25 film festivals around the world. Chadha, who is waiting to hear back from them, says she has been overwhelmed by the response in the two months since she released the official trailer of the documentary through YouTube on November 26 last year, the fourth anniversary of the attacks.
Did touching upon such a sensitive subject take an emotional toll?
“Yes, it did have an effect on me,” Chadha says. “This kind of thing definitely takes a toll, but I exorcised that weight through the film. Through my creative tools, I redirected it into the film.”
Chadha explains that, through her films, she intends to explore subjects with strong psychological elements.
“I want to provide an outlet for people who don’t have a voice – but in an entertaining manner,” she says. “I am drawn to stories of redemption, of people who’ve struggled, who’ve achieved something just by having a dream and standing by it.”
Meanwhile, her own dream is about to turn into reality – even if only a few festivals decide to screen Gawah, it is bound to be a success. But Chadha is not sitting idle while she waits. She is working on another documentary and already is writing the script of her first -feature film.
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MATCH INFO
Chelsea 1
Alonso (62')
Huddersfield Town 1
Depoitre (50')
Overview
What: The Arab Women’s Sports Tournament is a biennial multisport event exclusively for Arab women athletes.
When: From Sunday, February 2, to Wednesday, February 12.
Where: At 13 different centres across Sharjah.
Disciplines: Athletics, archery, basketball, fencing, Karate, table tennis, shooting (rifle and pistol), show jumping and volleyball.
Participating countries: Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Qatar and UAE.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
How it works
Booklava works on a subscription model. On signing up you receive a free book as part of a 30-day-trial period, after which you pay US$9.99 (Dh36.70) per month to gain access to a library of books and discounts of up to 30 per cent on selected titles. You can cancel your subscription at any time. For more details go to www.booklava.com
If you go...
Etihad Airways flies from Abu Dhabi to Kuala Lumpur, from about Dh3,600. Air Asia currently flies from Kuala Lumpur to Terengganu, with Berjaya Hotels & Resorts planning to launch direct chartered flights to Redang Island in the near future. Rooms at The Taaras Beach and Spa Resort start from 680RM (Dh597).
Strait of Hormuz
Fujairah is a crucial hub for fuel storage and is just outside the Strait of Hormuz, a vital shipping route linking Middle East oil producers to markets in Asia, Europe, North America and beyond.
The strait is 33 km wide at its narrowest point, but the shipping lane is just three km wide in either direction. Almost a fifth of oil consumed across the world passes through the strait.
Iran has repeatedly threatened to close the strait, a move that would risk inviting geopolitical and economic turmoil.
Last month, Iran issued a new warning that it would block the strait, if it was prevented from using the waterway following a US decision to end exemptions from sanctions for major Iranian oil importers.
The biog
Name: Gul Raziq
From: Charsadda, Pakistan
Family: Wife and six children
Favourite holes at Al Ghazal: 15 and 8
Golf Handicap: 6
Childhood sport: cricket
Pots for the Asian Qualifiers
Pot 1: Iran, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, China
Pot 2: Iraq, Uzbekistan, Syria, Oman, Lebanon, Kyrgyz Republic, Vietnam, Jordan
Pot 3: Palestine, India, Bahrain, Thailand, Tajikistan, North Korea, Chinese Taipei, Philippines
Pot 4: Turkmenistan, Myanmar, Hong Kong, Yemen, Afghanistan, Maldives, Kuwait, Malaysia
Pot 5: Indonesia, Singapore, Nepal, Cambodia, Bangladesh, Mongolia, Guam, Macau/Sri Lanka
SHOW COURTS ORDER OF PLAY
Centre Court (4pm UAE/12pm GMT)
Victoria Azarenka (BLR) v Heather Watson (GBR)
Rafael Nadal (ESP x4) v Karen Khachanov (RUS x30)
Andy Murray (GBR x1) v Fabio Fognini (ITA x28)
Court 1 (4pm UAE)
Steve Johnson (USA x26) v Marin Cilic (CRO x7)
Johanna Konta (GBR x6) v Maria Sakkari (GRE)
Naomi Osaka (JPN) v Venus Williams (USA x10)
Court 2 (2.30pm UAE)
Aljaz Bedene (GBR) v Gilles Muller (LUX x16)
Peng Shuai (CHN) v Simona Halep (ROM x2)
Jelena Ostapenko (LAT x13) v Camila Giorgi (ITA)
Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x12) v Sam Querrey (USA x24)
Court 3 (2.30pm UAE)
Kei Nishikori (JPN x9) v Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x18)
Carina Witthoeft (GER) v Elina Svitolina (UKR x4)
Court 12 (2.30pm UAE)
Dominika Cibulkova (SVK x8) v Ana Konjuh (CRO x27)
Kevin Anderson (RSA) v Ruben Bemelmans (BEL)
Court 18 (2.30pm UAE)
Caroline Garcia (FRA x21) v Madison Brengle (USA)
Benoit Paire (FRA) v Jerzy Janowicz (POL)
The burning issue
The internal combustion engine is facing a watershed moment – major manufacturer Volvo is to stop producing petroleum-powered vehicles by 2021 and countries in Europe, including the UK, have vowed to ban their sale before 2040. The National takes a look at the story of one of the most successful technologies of the last 100 years and how it has impacted life in the UAE.
Read part four: an affection for classic cars lives on
Read part three: the age of the electric vehicle begins
Read part one: how cars came to the UAE
'Midnights'
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
