Synopsis
Every morning several TV channels carry programs on Astrology which are followed closely by some sections.
The film will speak to the production houses making these programs, astrologers featured in the TV shows, other astrologers who are not featured, and 4 persons who follow these channels.
Prabir Ghosh heads ‘The Science and Rationalists' Association of India’ and Sanal Edamaruku President of The Indian Rationalist Association will speak against superstition.
Indian Astrology, studies the position of the planets at the time of birth.
Based on this a horoscope is made. An entire set of predictions can be provided to the person covering his life.
Mallika from Mumbai is unable to get married. She appears on a show and asked to wear specific set of gems. We follow her to a jewelry shop which was advertised on the same channel.
A childless couple appears on the channel and they will do a set of instructions as recommended by the astrologers.
These instances will highlight the connections between the programs, commercials and the business which benefit from the commercials.
Radha’s son gets married after the horoscopes are matched, Vinod is able to save his marriage after making offerings, Dimple for her son’s career, Vinay brings harmony in his life.
All of them have astrologers who are usually referred to as ‘Gurujis’.
Some of the issues featured will be the birth of a child, marriage, business failure in a family, education and career problems. It will not be like one person has only this particular problem but some of the characters will have a multiple set of issues to deal with.
Renuka in Chennai has her baby. Within hours her horoscope is written and future predicted.
Anil and Radha are unable to get their son married. Finally the horoscopes match and they are able to find a bride.
From a TV program Vinod from Pune is asked him to donate copper, wheat, red flowers to the Planet Sun on a Sunday to bring harmony in his married life.
Dimple from Delhi
Vinay who had business problem with his elder brother says “I close my eyes and listen to him.” A court case ended in a compromise and all ended well.
Prabir Ghosh heading ‘The Science and Rationalists' Association of India’ feels the basic principle in astrology that fate is predetermined, is flawed.
Sanal Edamaruku President of ‘The Indian Rationalist Association’ says that his organization fights for scientific temper, and exposes superstition and blind belief.
The film will speak to a few astrologers who regularly appear on TV. They will talk about their shows.
The film will take an objective stand on this issue and explore the human emotions involved.
Does the astrologer become a psychiatric counselor exercising mind control? Is there mental security that one derives from it? What are the marketing strategies used by the channels? These are the issues that the film will raise.
My Life with the Planets
The Kapoor family is intently watching the astrology programme on TV. Someone is taking notes. Most of their decisions in life are made by the suggestions on the channel. They say it is a blind faith they have in this programme. This family will appear at various situations in the film as they deal with their everyday problems.
That morning they have to decide whether a business decision should be taken or not. The astrologer says that
Earlier they would go to the astrologer’s house and ask him for advice and he would make the predictions. But
The film will speak to the production houses which make these programs.
Renu the daughter from the same family was asked to wear specific set of gems to do well in her exams. She
commercialization of astrology and the nexus between money and faith.
The film will speak to a few astrologers who appear on TV channels. They will say why astrology has become popular on TV.
Is it because everybody wants quick ready made answers,which caters to their requirements?
Is it because everybody wants quick ready made answers,
Ashish Guruji is based in Varanasi. He has appeared in Discovery and BBC but is against astrology channels. He
He speaks of the personal relationships that he has with the families who consult him.
Prabir Ghosh heads ‘The Science and Rationalists' Association of India’ feels that astrology is unscientific.
Vinay is 39 years and lives in Agra. He also does not watch astrology on TV but follows Ashish Guruji in Varanasi.
basically show whether it is possible to pin point the exact time of birth on which most astrological predictions
are made.
The film will also explore the human emotions that are involved in astrology.
So in giving away one’s decision making capacity, there is total mind control being exercised by the astrologer. Is there some kind of a security that one derives from it? These are the issues that the film will raise.
My Life with The Planets: Treatment
Earlier people who believed in astrology would visit the astrologers personally or the astrologers would come over to the client’s place.
All this has changed with information coming right into the living rooms in the form of technology and new content. Also with the pace of globalization setting rapidly into India
The style will be cinema verite. The camera will be unobtrusive and will merely observe the situations especially the family interactions. The interviews will be kept to as minimal as possible and most of the spoken material will be visualized.
The film will explore the emotional transformations of the characters involved be it their faith, desperation, feelings of insecurity or happiness. It will capture the human predicament that ordinary people are caught it. This will be offset with the confidence, enthusiasm of the astrologers who appear on the TV sets.
So in a way is it predator-victim situation -- in giving up their minds to someone sitting in an inanimate object like the TV set? On the other hand this complete subservience and belief to this framework also means that healing is taking place at another level. The film will capture the essence of this complex set of patterns that will emerge out of these contradictory elements.
In my film ‘My Life with The Planets’ I will be specifically following one family as they go about with their daily lives and also as they interact with the daily astrology programmes which come on TV. The subsequent decisions that this family takes as a result of the advice they see on the TV set will provide the basic structure of the film.
The decisions that this family would take could be anything from starting a new business, to the marriage that they are planning for one of the members, to what career the son in the family should take or what precautions that they should take if they decide to travel. These will be everyday events that happen in the lives of an ordinary person.
It would mean spending time with the family at length and documenting their interaction with each other while they are watching the astrology programmes, or at meals discussing various issues, or while taking some decisions related to their future.
Besides that I also plan to speak to others since it is important to offer different counterpoints especially while dealing with a sensitive subject like astrology. The purpose of the film is not to be judgmental about it but to present it in the most objective manner possible.
The TV channels who broadcast these programmes as well as the production houses making the advertisements for the objects related to astrology will also be included in the film.
Before astrology became a part of TV technology it was a whole set of relationships that were established between the various parties. The astrologer was there at the most crucial moments when the family needed them -- to advice, consult and to console.
But with TV taking the place of an astrologer with whom they have no connection at all the cold, impersonal factor sets in. Along with the astrologer presenting his solutions there are the consumerist objects that are sold side by side which comes as a package. These objects are sold through tele-shopping facilities and are available online. There is a whole industry attached to these objects as well as making of the advertisements for these objects.
Thus faith and consumerism are combined together to do the healing and on the way the mystery and spiritualism that was there earlier in astrology is lost.
Link to Suma Josson's showreel
Link to film ‘Niyamgiri You are Still Alive’
Note on Suma Josson
Born in Kerala, Suma Josson graduated in English Lit. from the College of St.Teresa, Minnesota, U.S.A. Having begun her career as a journalist, she switched over to the visual medium. Since then she has made two feature films and many documentary films on a wide range of issues. Her film on the suicide of farmers in Vidarbha, Maharastra has won awards.
Janmadinam, her first feature film, in 1999 has won several awards and has travelled to various International Film Festivals and Universities abroad. It was premiered at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival.
Also contributed to the documentary, 'Trading Images', an international co-production with IFU, (International Women's University, Hannover) and the German television company, NDR in 2001. This was made along with four other women filmmakers from: the U.S, Africa, China and Germany.
She is also a poet and fiction writer and has published three books: Poems and Plays, A Harvest of Light (a collection of poems, Orient Longman), and ‘Circumferences’ (a novel, Penguin). Mahua Tola Gets A School, is a book on an experimental primary school system in Madhya Pradesh, India.
'Saree' is her second feature film made in 2001. This film has also traveled to several international film festivals.
'Gujarat: A Laboratory of Hindu Rastra' was made two days before the last assembly elections in Gujarat in 2003. It is set in the post-Godhra violence, which engulfed Gujarat in March 2002.
‘Ayodhya to Varanasi: Prayers for Peace’, 2004 looks at the Ram Temple issue as the film travels from Ayodhya to Varanasi.
‘Before the Last Tree Falls’, 2006 is a study on the suicide of farmers in Wayanad, Kerala.
‘I Want My Father Back’, 2007 is a study on the suicide of farmers in Vidarbha, Maharastra.
Raghuvanshi, The Seed Man, His Stories (2010) a plant breeder in Varanasi, U.P.
She has made three films on the Niyamgiri issue. This is on the awaiting eco-disaster and the eviction of indigenous groups in Niyamgiri Hills if Vedanta/Sterlite is given permission to mine bauxite on these ranges.
‘If You Give Niyamgiri, Niyamgiri Will Eat Us Up’ (2007) and ‘Dead gods haunt a land once called Niyamgiri’ (2008) and recently ‘Niyamgiri You are Still Alive’ (2010).
e-mail: sumajosson@yahoo.com Tel: 91-22-28401605/ 91- 9969198284
Awards: I Want my Father Back
Won the first prize at the Kathmandu International Mountain Film Festival, Dec, 2008
Won the first prize at the 3rd Short and Documentary Film Festival, Karimnagar, India, 2009
‘Niyamgiri You Are Still Alive’ won the Vasudha, Environment Award at the International Film Festival of India in Goa, 2010.
Film crew
Cameraman
Rakesh Haridas
Editor
Nisha J
Rakesh Haridas, Director Of Photography
Qualification
Diploma in Cinematography, Film & Television Institute of India, Pune - 2002-‘05
Documentaries
I Want My Father Back
Suma Josson
Dead Gods Haunt a Land called Niyamgiri
Suma Josson
‘Lakshmi & Me’
Directed by Nishtha Jain
Format – DV, Genre – Documentary
Supported by ITVS International, USA, Danish Film Institute
At my doorstep’
Directed by Nishtha Jain
Format –HDV, Genre – Documentary
Feature films
Dhasaiyinai Thee chudinum (ongoing project)
Language – Tamil
Format – Red
For AGNO3, Chennai
Nisha Josson
Editor
Edited and scripted Dheere Dheere a 30-min documentary film on Magasaysay Award winner Rajendra
Singh, pioneer of water harvesting in Rajasthan.
Edited, co-scripted shot Touch 4, a 22-interview docu on commercial sex workers in Sangli
Asst. Editor to documentary filmmaker Thomas D. Hayes
Jus Punjabi TV Time Warner Cable, New York: Video editor, Jus Punjabi, Astoria, New York
Wildlife Conservation Society, New York: Editor, Motion Graphics animator for WCS’ Animal Behavior Research series – a six-part DVD project.
‘Niyamgiri You are Still Alive’ (2010) by Suma Josson a film on the indigenous groups fighting a bauxite mining company
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