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December 21, 2016

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HONOLULU, HAWAI‘I—Since the Honolulu Museum of Art launched the Bollywood Film Festival in 2008, the event has grown into one of the museum’s biggest, most popular film series of the year.

On screen, audiences can look forward to seeing the best of Bollywood’s 2016 productions featuring such megastars as Salman Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, and Ajay Devgan.

And on stage, the theater offers a special performance treat. To celebrate the festival’s milestone 10th anniversary, this year the program includes local Bollywood dance troupe Aaja Nachle Hawaii performing traditional and contemporary Indian dance on three separate occasions including, for the first time, an evening dedicated entirely to live Bollywood dance. Aaja Nachle Hawaii closes the festival with a bang Jan. 22 with “Bollywood on Stage!” a dance concert featuring classical and folk traditions as well as contemporary Indian dance. The group collaborates with taiko drummers on select numbers for a one-of-a-kind Japanese/Indian fusion experience.

The festival is even the theme for Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday: Bollywood on Jan. 16. Aaja Nachle Hawaii returns to teach families some Bollywood dance moves, and kids can make “marigold jewelry” out of tissue paper and tassel key chains, and get a henna tattoo.

Full Schedule

Opening-night reception: Jan. 7 at 6 p.m.
$35 general admission, $30 museum members
The festival kicks off with a celebration to rival an Indian wedding. Guests can dance and sing with classic Bollywood tracks and enjoy a live performance by dance troupe Aaja Nachle. a buffet dinner from India Café is included with admission. Wine, beer, and soda are available for purchase. Dear Zindagi screens at 7:30 p.m..

Dear Zindagi
Directed by Gauri Shinde. India. 2016. 150 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 8 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 10 at 1 p.m. + 7 p.m.
In this New York Times Critics’ Pick, Kaira (Alia Bhatt) is a promising cinematographer living in Mumbai. When her love life gets complicated and the building association kicks her out of her apartment, she finds herself moving back to the affluent family home in Goa. While there, she meets the eccentric Dr. Jehangir Khan (Shah Rukh Khan) who helps Kaira gain a new perspective on life. Director Gauri Shinde burst on the scene with English Vinglish in 2012, and her sophomore project is a well-crafted indie drama.

Read the New York Times review.

Banjo
Directed by Ravi Jadhav. India. 2016. 140 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 8 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 11 at 1 p.m. + 7 p.m.
Tarrat (Riteish Deshmukh) is on a mission—to put the spotlight on the banjo in the colorful streets of Mumbai. Together with his bandmates Grease (Dharmesh Yelande), Paper (Aditya Kumar) and Vaajya (Raja Menon), they play music that reaches Chris (Nargis Fakhri), a talented musician in New York who goes to Mumbai to join Tarrat to create a whole new sound.

See the trailer.

Baar Baar Dekho
Directed by Niya Mehra. India. 2016. 141 min. Hindi with English subtitles. 
Jan. 12 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 13 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 14 at 7 p.m.
Math genius Jai Verma (Sidharth Malhorta) is living the life—he has a promising career and the perfect girlfriend in Diya Kapoor (Katrina Kaif). But when marriage enters into the mix, Jai’s life is thrown into chaos and starts time traveling into the future. As he sees his future life with Diya start to disintegrate, Jai formulates a plan to travel back in time to fix the mistakes he was about to make.

See the trailer.

Ae Dil Hai Mushkil
Directed by Karan Johar. India. 2016. 157 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 12 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 13 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 14 at 1 p.m.
In this story of unrequited love Ayan Sanger (Ranbir Kapoor) is the sweet, quirky son of an industrialist, who nurtures a hidden passion for singing. Alizeh Khan (Anushka Sharma) is the charming and funny—but neglected—youngest daughter in a daunting family of aristocrats. Saba Taliyar Khan (Aishwarya Rai Bachchan) is a stunningly beautiful divorcee who pours her pain into her poetry. Follow the three characters’ lives as they intertwine and connect—and find closure in the romantic and unromantic.

See the trailer.

Te3n
Directed by Ribhu Dasgupta. India. 2016. 136 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 17 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 18 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 19 at 1 p.m.
This remake of the 2013 Korean hit Montage is an emotionally charged, gripping thriller. It’s been eight years since John Biswas’s (Amitabh Bachchan) granddaughter Angela was kidnapped. While the world has moved on, John hasn’t given up his quest for justice. He continues to visit the police station where he’s shunned and ignored every day. He seeks the help of Martin Das (Nawazuddin Siddiqui), a cop-turned-priest whose life was also altered by Angela’s death. When another kidnapping echoes Angela’s ordeal, Father Martin is once again dragged into the investigation by officer Sarita Sarkar (Vidya Balan), as John doggedly pieces together the identity of Angela’s kidnapper from little bits of information that he collects through his own investigations.

See the trailer.

Wazir
Directed by Bejoy Nambiar. India. 2016. 104 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 17 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 18 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 19 at 7 p.m.
Wazir is a tale of two unlikely friends—wheelchair-bound chess grandmaster Pandit Dhar (Amitabh Bachchan) and Anti-Terrorism Squad officer Daanish Ali (Farhan Akhtar). Brought together by grief and a strange twist of fate, the two men help each other win the biggest games of their lives.

See the trailer.

Shivaay
Directed by Ajay Devgan. India. 2016. 158 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 20 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 21 at 1 p.m.
Shivaay (Ajay Devgn) is a fearless Himalayan mountaineer who worships Lord Shiva through the tattoos that cover his body. When his nine year-old daughter Gaura (Abigail Eames) asks to see her estranged mother (Erika Kaar) in Bulgaria, the pair set off—and Gaura is kidnapped. Shivaay transforms into the Destroyer to save her. Shivaay is the story of an extraordinary man in an extraordinary circumstance.

See the trailer.

Sultan
Directed by Ali Abbas Zafar. India. 2016. 170 min. Hindi with English subtitles.
Jan. 20 at 7 p.m.
Jan. 21 at 7 p.m.
Local wrestling legends Sultan Ali Khan (Salman Khan) and Aarfa (Anushka Sharma) dream of international fame. When they lock horns, romance blossoms and their dreams and aspirations become intertwined and aligned. However, the path to glory is a rocky one. This box-office hit—part of a recent Bollywood wave of sports films—is a classic underdog tale about a wrestler looking for a comeback.

See the trailer.

Live Concert: Bollywood on Stage!
Jan. 22 at 6 p.m.
At the door: $30 general admission, $25 museum members
In celebration of the 10th Annual Bollywood Film festival at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Aaja Nachle Hawaii explores the dance forms that have influenced Indian cinema over the decades, from classical and folk to modern and even burlesque, through the interpretive storytelling tradition that is at its core.

Aaja Nachle, which in Hindi means “come, let's dance!” is Oahu’s only Bollywood and Indian folk dance group, founded in 2012 by Nada McClellan and Sai Bhatawadekar. The group is known for its energetic, joyful performances, which inspire everyone to move and be moved by the beauty and rhythm of the music. They choreograph Bollywood film songs, folk dances like bhangra, garba raas, and laavni, as well as fusion pieces with elements from classical and world dances.

Special thanks to sponsors Indru and Gulab Watumull and the J. Watumull Fund.

Also in January

Carlos Barbosa-Lima: Music of the Americas, Hawai‘i, and Spain
Jan. 6 at 7:30 p.m.
$35 general admission, $30 museum members
Fresh off a tour in South America, legendary world-class guitarist Carlos Barbosa-Lima returns to Honolulu with a special concert celebrating the music of the Americas and Hawai‘i. The program will include arrangements from composers such as Antônio Carlos Jobim, George Gershwin, and Hawai‘i’s own Byron Yasui. 

Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday: Bollywood
Jan. 16 11 a.m.-5 p.m., entertainment and art activities end at 3 p.m.
Free admission
With the Bollywood Film Festival in full swing, Bank of Hawaii Family Sunday continues the celebration of Indian culture through art, music, and dance. Kids can make “marigold jewelry” out of tissue paper and tassle key chains. Then they can learn some moves with dance troupe Aaja Nachle, and get a henna tattoo.

Chamber Music Hawaii: Wu Han & Tresemble
Jan. 16 at 7:30 p.m.
Tickets $45 (premium seating) and $35 available from chambermusichawaii.org or by calling (808) 489-5038
Chamber Music Hawaii is delighted to welcome acclaimed pianist Wu Han, co-artistic director of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, in an exhilarating program including Philippe Gaubert’s Medailles Antiques, Malcolm Arnold’s Oboe Quartet, Madeleine Dring’s Piano Trio and Erno Dohnanyi’s Piano Quintet in C minor

ACM Animation Retrospective
Jan. 23 at 6 p.m.
Since 2004, the Academy for Creative Media at the University of Hawai‘i–Mānoa has been training filmmakers and animators. As one of ACM’s three tracks of study, the animation program focuses on character animation and animated film production. The ACM trains its animators in 2D as well as 3D animation techniques.

Join us for a journey through the history of the ACM Animation Track as we present a collection of original animated films created by ACM students over the last decade. Please note: Not all animated films are suitable for young children, parental discretion is advised.

The Cinema Travellers
Directed by Shirley Abraham and Amit Madhesiya. India. 2016. 96 min. Hindi and Marathi with English subtitles.
Jan. 28 at 4 p.m.
This understated documentary follows two “travelling cinemas”—trucks outfitted with projects to bring film to rural India. For more than seven decades, four-wheel theaters like these have brought the wonder of the movies to faraway villages. But in the age of digital technology, this story captures in a nutshell the changing nature of film.As the cinema projectors crumble and film reels become scarce, we see a benevolent showman, a shrewd exhibitor and a maverick projector mechanic bear a beautiful burden—to keep the last traveling cinemas of the world running.

Cinema Angel
Directed by Hideyuki Tokigawa. Japan. 2016. 94 min. Japanese with English subtitles.
Jan. 25 at 1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 27 at 1 p.m.
Jan. 28 at 1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
A 122-year-old movie theater, the Daikokuza, is slated to close down. One night, Asuka, a new employee at the theater, meets a mysterious old man who knows everything about the cinema. Meanwhile, Akira, who has grown up with Daikokuza, dreams of making his own film one day. On the day the theater is to be shuttered forever, the mysterious old man appears in front of Asuka again. What was the last surprise the old movie theater gave to the town?

The film is based on real-life theater “Cinefuku Daikokuza,” which closed August 31, 2014, the same day filming began. The filming wrapped September 14, 2014, and the theater was demolished a day later.

See the trailer.

Lecture: A Streetcar Named Desire Preview
Jan. 18 at 10 a.m.
Free
Audiences can get a behind-the-scenes preview of Hawaii Opera Theatre's upcoming production of A Streetcar Named Desire with a lecture and discussion with the stars of the show.

Visit hawaiiopera.org for more details.

Lecture: Pompeii and the 2000 year-old Papyri
Jan. 26 at 7:30 p.m.
The eruption of Mount Vesuvius buried the cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum under a mount of volcanic ash. Excavations began in the 19th century, revealing an almost intact city. In Herculaneum a vast library was discovered at the Villa dei Papyri, containing hundreds of carbonized burnt papyri. The material was largely unreadable until new scientific methods in the last 20 years have begun to reveal new and important works from antiquity. Dr. Roger MacFarlane of Brigham Young University will present an illustrated lecture, reviewing the magnificent finds at Pompeii and his research using these new techniques to read burnt papyri at Pompeii and Herculaneum and in Egypt.

Sponsored by Archaeological Institute of America, LLEA University of Hawai‘i

They Call Us Monsters
Directed by Ben Lear. USA. 2016. 84 min.
Jan. 29 at 1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
Jan. 31 at 1 p.m. + 7:30 p.m.
In California, violent juveniles between the ages of 14 and 17 can be tried as adults. Typically, they have committed heinous crimes—murders and attempted murders—leaving their victims’ families shattered. And yet, they are still kids, with a greater capacity to change and one day return to society. What is our responsibility to these kids? And to their victims? Do they deserve a second chance? In this documentary, director Ben Lear follows three teenage juvenile offenders as they take a screenwriting workshop in a Los Angeles County prison and attempt to express themselves through their scripts, while they wait to find out their fates. Their situation is one legislators across the country are grappling with as they attempt to reform our juvenile justice system. Interesting fact: Ben Lear is the son of legendary TV producer Norman Lear (All in the Family, The Jeffersons).

See the trailer.

Kū Kanaka
Directed by Marlene Booth. Hawaii. 2015. 30 min.
Jan. 29 at 4 p.m.
In August 1969, 15-year-old Terry Young dove from a rock wall into shallow water. Terry hit his head on sand, becoming in one split second a quadriplegic. Paralyzed from the neck down with only limited use of his hands and arms, Terry finished high school and college, competed as a wheelchair athlete, got arrested for the cause of Hawaiian sovereignty, graduated as a PhD in history, and was a pioneering professor in the new field of Hawaiian Studies.

Director Marlene Booth tells the story of how Terry, who took the Hawaiian name Kanalu (“the wave”), learned from being disabled to value the life he lived rather than mourn the life he lost. He used that insight to offer hope to dispossessed Native Hawaiians. At the same time, he lived by the indigenous Hawaiian practice of kuleana, his responsibility to ask for help rather than go it alone as a rugged American individualist. In classrooms, on cable television and even from his hospital room, Kanalu inspired thousands. But when his body eventually gave out, he asked for help from his doctors to end his life. In a hospital room overflowing with friends and family, ʻukulele and song, Kanalu Young said aloha, challenging his people to help each other as a way to revive Hawaiian culture and repair the loss of their illustrious past.

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About the Honolulu Museum of Art

One of the world’s premier art museums, the Honolulu Museum of Art presents international caliber special exhibitions and features a collection that includes Hokusai, van Gogh, Gauguin, Monet, Picasso and Warhol, as well as traditional Asian and Hawaiian art.

Located in two of Honolulu’s most beautiful buildings, visitors enjoy two cafés, gardens, and films and concerts at the theater. The museum is dedicated to bringing together great art and people to create a more harmonious, adaptable, and enjoyable society in Hawai’i.

Locations:

Honolulu Museum of Art: 900 S. Beretania Street
Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House: 2411 Makiki Heights Drive
Honolulu Museum of Art School: 1111 Victoria Street
Honolulu Museum of Art at First Hawaiian Center: 999 Bishop Street
Honolulu Museum of Art Doris Duke Theatre: 901 Kinau Street (at rear of museum)

Website: www.honolulumuseum.org

Phone: 808-532-8700

Hours:

Honolulu Museum of Art: Tues–Sat 10 am–4:30pm; Sun 1–5 pm; closed Monday.

Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House: Tues–Sat 10am–4pm; Sun noon–4pm

Admission (permits entry to both museums on the same day):

$10 general admission; children 17 and under are free.