Having already earned some big awards, Court is shaping up to become this year's version of the acclaimed 2013 film The Lunchbox.
After its world premiere at the Venice Film Festival, the film won the prestigious Lion of the Future award for a debut project and the Orizzonti (Horizons) Award for Best Film. At the Mumbai Film Festival, Chaitanya Tamhane became the first Indian film director to win the International Competition segment, which honours the best debut film showing at the festival – the film won Best Film and Best Director awards.
As its name suggests, the film is a courtroom drama. When a 65-year-old singing social activist is charged with inciting a sewage worker to kill himself through one of his songs, defence lawyer Vinay Vora (Vivek Gomber) argues against the charge before judge Sadavarte (Pradeep Joshi), while the public prosecutor Nutan (Geetanjali Kulkarni) relies on archaic laws to prove his guilt. The case is used to expose wider divisive issues in Indian society, particularly those of caste and class.
The inspiration for the central story came from a real-life case.
“There is an Indian cultural activist called Jiten Marandi who sings against the injustices in society and the establishment,” says the 27-year-old, Mumbai-based Tamhane. “There was a bomb blast and they said the name of the suspect was Jiten Marandi and instead of getting that Jiten Marandi, they sentenced the activist to death. All these activists began writing letters to the president and said this has to stop. It was bizarre this was happening.”
The film’s star, Gomber, is also its producer. Speaking after a 28-hour flight to the Gijón International Film Festival in Spain late last month, Gomber and Tamhane say the film came about because of their friendship.
"Chaitanya wrote a play called Grey Elephants in Denmark a few years ago and a common friend put us in touch," says Gomber.
“Vivek had the lead role in the play,” says Tamhane. “He played a magician and a mind reader. I was not very easy to work with as I was 22 at the time.”
Gomber says: “I didn’t know this before, but I later found out that when he put the play on before, he had fired the cast, including someone I knew.”
Tamhane says age played a role in the incident. “There was this age thing going on. They were these 30-year-old actors wondering who this young buck was, who thinks he knows everything.”
Despite the backstory, Gomber and Tamhane enjoyed working together and in 2012 their paths crossed again. Tamhane had made a short film but was at a crossroads.
“I told him I’m broke and I’m depressed. I want to write this film, but I need to make some money. I couldn’t afford to go to film school and had put all my money into the short film,” says Tamhane
“I wanted to help him,” says Gomber.
When Tamhane said he wanted to do a film that looked at the Indian legal system, especially the small local courts, it immediately struck a chord with the actor – whose mother is a judge. And so their collaboration began, with Tamhane making it clear he did not set out to create an indictment of the Indian court system.
“I didn’t want to make an easy film where the system is bad, or the people are bad, we have seen that many times before and I was not aiming for that.”
Instead he creates a nuanced view of the Indian legal system, which also branches out to show the contrasting home lives of the main lawyers.
• Court screens at Mall of the Emirates 2 on Monday, December 15, at 9.30pm and again on MoE 12 on Wednesday, December 17, at 6pm. For more information, visit www.diff.ae
artslife@thenational.ae
COMPANY%20PROFILE
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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.
Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.
“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.
“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.
Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.
From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.
Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.
BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.
Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.
Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.
“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.
Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.
“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.
“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”
The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana
Rating: 4.5/5
Who has been sanctioned?
Daniella Weiss and Nachala
Described as 'the grandmother of the settler movement', she has encouraged the expansion of settlements for decades. The 79 year old leads radical settler movement Nachala, whose aim is for Israel to annex Gaza and the occupied West Bank, where it helps settlers built outposts.
Harel Libi & Libi Construction and Infrastructure
Libi has been involved in threatening and perpetuating acts of aggression and violence against Palestinians. His firm has provided logistical and financial support for the establishment of illegal outposts.
Zohar Sabah
Runs a settler outpost named Zohar’s Farm and has previously faced charges of violence against Palestinians. He was indicted by Israel’s State Attorney’s Office in September for allegedly participating in a violent attack against Palestinians and activists in the West Bank village of Muarrajat.
Coco’s Farm and Neria’s Farm
These are illegal outposts in the West Bank, which are at the vanguard of the settler movement. According to the UK, they are associated with people who have been involved in enabling, inciting, promoting or providing support for activities that amount to “serious abuse”.
