• Umbra 5 | 'Spaces' | April 2016
The fifth issue marks a significant turn in the journey of Umbra: it is the point at which the magazine begins to develop tendencies of speculation, poetry and the anecdotal – an upheaval that marks a radical reformation in its earlier, stated mission of cold, bureaucratic reportage. The issue therefore operates through a subject that is remarkably broad and overarching in its implications: ‘Spaces’, which it thinks and contemplates through the work of such individuals and entities as R.V. Ramani,  J.L. Nehru, the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) and the films of Alfred Hitchcock.
In this Issue
Article

Time-traveller, perpetual flaneur, social scientist and poet Ahmed Akash continues his quasi-fictional journey through the porous, soluble annals of the history of Indian cinema

Interview

An interview with one of the country's most singular filmmakers, R V Ramani. A discussion of his creative references, his process and the autonomy - both aesthetic and economic - he has managed to establish.

Review

A contemplation of the transformation of human life into a specimen in the digital age - a phenomena studied in the light of Laura Poitras' acclaimed 'Citizenfour'.

Festival Report

A filmmaker, a cinephile and a long-time resident of Goa laments the decline in the quality of a festival once identified as one of the most relevant film-gatherings in the world.

Conversation

A discussion of how only the most pungent sensations of each film come to form its memory in the minds of its spectators. Also, recollection of a pre-independence movie studio in Lahore and a chance encounter with Nehru.

Reprint

A reprint of a 1972 Cinema Vision report of the now legendary Heggodu experiment undertaken by the founder of Ninasam, pioneering cultural activist, K V Subbana.

Umbra 5 | 'Spaces' | April 2016

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