Wednesday, September 26, 2007

Reel route to real world for XLRI kids

XLRI students are a happy lot.

For, film-watching at college has now become a part of their time-tables.

In an effort to make the students aware of life beyond their immediate corporate surroundings, XLRI authorities have decided in a first-of-its-kind initiative to screen movies to “educate” students.

And the students are certainly not complaining about such an education.

This evening, Bafta award-winning film-maker Brian Wood’s film The World Without Water was screened for the students and faculty members.

Wood’s compelling movie tells the intimate and revealing story of the dramatic impact of the battle for water ownership on the lives of four disparate groups of people across the developing world.

It studies the fates of families in Bolivia, India, Tanzania and the USA.

The other films on the watch-list will also mainly be award-winning documentaries and films.

“Be it the industrial sector or the corporate world, there are always two sides to an issue. Mostly managers are only aware of what is going on within the boardrooms but are completely oblivious of what takes place in the real world. So we thought, why not use film as a medium to make aspiring managers aware of real situations?” said Madhukar Shukla, senior faculty at the B-school and the brain behind such exclusive film shows.

So, from films on the Narmada water issue to films about children in brothels and even a speech by Magsaysay award winner P. Sainath, students here have already seen almost five award-winning movies in the past month.

Introduced in the last semester, the films are generally based on some current social issue and explores topics through which students can get a clear picture of how multinationals work beyond the confines of their office space. They will also be exposed to the kind of problems that common people are facing in the name of globalisation.

Earlier, the films shown comprised a lecture by Mohammad Yunus, Drowned Out on the Narmada Issue, Born Without Brothels and next in line would be the BBC special documentary on the 60th year of Indian Independence.

“Right now we are concentrating on general and contemporary issues but later we will take up more relevant issues like environment, rural business and social entrepreneurship,” said Shukla.

The B-school is also planning to screen some international documentaries in the coming days.

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