Pickle Jar – Community of Cinema Lovers!

Pickle Jar is a Bengaluru based community of cinema lovers, who are bound by their passion for watching movies and their commitment to social issues. This community consists of members from different walks of life who, while holding full time professional roles, come together and conduct film festivals that leave a lingering taste and some happy memories long after they are over, just like a pickle!

The community was founded by Vasanthi Hariprakash, a well-known Radio and TV personality in Bengaluru. Known for her vibrant enthusiasm and her passion for all things social, she says she thought of this group after reading an article by the well-known actress Shabana Azmi on her contemporary actress Smita Patil. While the article initially seeded only a thought to catch up on a Smita Patil movie, it eventually – on prodding by a friend – transformed into a bigger vision, why not get some more folks and see the movie together?

And, that led to creation of Pickle Jar, a community that converses, co-creates and curates cinema.

Their journey began in 2016 with a Smita Patil Film Festival, the first of its kind in Bengaluru in May last year that was inaugurated by Shyam Benegal, and it was a huge success. It managed to enliven back Smita Patil into our lives and showcased her as a classic actress to the newer generation who had only heard about her. What made the festival different though was the conversations that made people reflect and think deeper, and of course left a lingering taste and memory long after it was over, much to their liking!

Charged with the response they received, in November last year, they hosted the Hrishikesh Mukherjee Film Festival that had renowned actor Amol Palekar conversing and sharing many unknown nuggets on the one of the best film makers known for his simplicity. Much before Steve Jobs coined the phrase, Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication, Hrishikesh Mukherjee had lived it while making his films!

Since its inception, the group has been progressing ahead and getting some nods, pats and applauds by some greats of Indian cinema like Shyam Benegal, Mahesh Bhatt, Amol Palekar TS Nagabharana, and some younger directors like Vikas Bahl, Raam Reddy and Suman Kittur.

The next on the card for them is Travel Talkies, a film festival scheduled to be held later this month in Chennai (16 and 17 Dec), where they will feature some travel related feature films, must-watch documentaries and, short films from across the country. As always with Pickle Jar, the festival will be unique in quite a few ways. It intends to show 7 feature films in 5 Indian languages to show case the beautiful multilingual diversity of India. This time around, they are also planning to show some short films to showcase new talent. These travel-based short films will be judged by a renowned jury. And, most importantly will encourage and inspire women to travel solo and see the world!  Entry to the show that is being held at Wandering Artist, Chennai is free.

So, if you happen to be in Chennai for that weekend and are a travel and movie buff, you know where to go!

Meanwhile I am so glad that my city Bengaluru, largely known as a Startup city in the IT industry, is transforming itself to be art, culture and literary hub too, with such fledgling initiatives like Pickle Jar.

Love you, Bengaluru!

Swapna Narayanan is an author of short stories and poems currently based in Bengaluru, India.