The Laughing Club of India unclassified 18+
Mira Nair, 36 mins, India, 1985, 16mm
Nair's colourful documentary explores the power of laughter through the strangely popular phenomenon of laughing clubs in contemporary Bombay. Founded by a medical doctor, Madan Kataria, these clubs bring hundreds of people together, beyond caste or class, to laugh for 40 minutes each day.
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| India Cabaret |
India Cabaret unclassified 18+
Mira Nair, 58 mins, India, 1985, 16mm, Colour
From the acclaimed director of
Salaam Bombay! and
Mississippi Masala, this acclaimed documentary following a group of cabaret strippers in Bombay. Nair challenges representations of Indian women as 'virtuous virgins' committed to their husbands and bound to the home. Interweaving candid interviews with her subjects and observations of their daily lives,
India Cabaret challenges standard notions of respectability and reveals the hypocrisy of men who enjoy the services of strip dancers by night and curse them by day.
Mira Nair
Indian born, Nair's award-winning fiction films including
Salaam Bombay!,
Mississippi Masala,
Monsoon Wedding and the recently released
Vanity Fair. Nair began making documentary films at university with
Jama Masjid Street Journal and has since made
India Cabaret,
The Laughing Club of India and one of the short films in
11.09.01.
