Saiyami Kher joins shoot of Vikram Phadnis’ next with Tahir Raj Bhasin and Vineet Kumar Singh in Mumbai

Actress Saiyami Kher is all set to begin the new year on an exciting note as she comes on board an untitled new project directed by ace designer-turned-filmmaker Vikram Phadnis. This project is produced by Reel Euphoria in association with Knight Sky Movies, has officially gone on floors, marking yet another significant milestone in Saiyami’s growing body of work. The upcoming project is a drama, with Saiyami headlining it in a powerful leading role along with Vineet Kumar Singh and Tahir Raj Bhasin. Announcing the project, Saiyami took to her Instagram to share a glimpse from her first day on set along with a spiral-bound copy of the film’s script. Captioning the post, she wrote, “And today every silent prayer finds its way home,” followed by another heartfelt note that read, “New Year, New Beginning. As always, I need all the wishes.” The post reflects both gratitude and excitement as she embarks on this new journey. This will be Vikram’s third directorial venture and his first di...

Vaychiletik review – beautifully-shot Mexican folk music study in the high arthouse style

A tender film about the music of Mayan descendants is hampered by the alofty adherence to a documentary aesthetic where nothing is explained

This film about a flute player and farmer named José Pérez López from Zinacantán in Chiapas, Mexico, teems with beautifully shot images of folks playing music, embroidering, participating in days-long community rituals, and tending their crops of flowers in polytunnels – pretty normal everyday stuff. It feels a little more elevated because it affords a glimpse into the life of descendants of the Mayans who practice ancestor worship and polytheistic beliefs but also have shrines with Catholic saints. The film’s website has a handy chunk of text about Bats’i son ta Sots’leb, the traditional music of Zinacantán, described in fascinating musicological detail.

It’s a shame that kind of explanatory background can’t be found anywhere in the movie. In fact, the subtitles and dialogue never even give the names of the people we are observing for most of the running time. You can only work out that the old guy is named José, and the woman who laughingly scolds him for drinking so much is Elvia Pérez Suárez, presumably his wife, and that they also live with a hard-working younger man named Esteban Pérez Pérez (presumably José and Elvia’s son) and some even younger kids: Esteban’s children? Random kids from next door? Who knows, because this scrupulously verité-style film is determined to adhere to the high-arthouse documentary aesthetic wherein nothing is explained, nothing is contextualised, and there’s no sense of what point or purpose this all serves other than a little digital tourism to a far-flung corner of the globe.

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