City: Mumbai
Location: Alliance Française auditorium
Date: Tue, 2012/07/31 – 6:30pm
In partnership with The Root Reel
The Rat Race, by Miriam Chandy Menacherry (78’)
Ganesh pays homage to Mooshik the sacred rat before setting out with a torch and stick to kill 30 rodents every night. He reports to his boss, Behram Harda, who once dreamt of setting the silver screen ablaze with his boogying skills, but ended up maintaining records of the 2.8 million rats killed by his department over 35 years. 2000 young men compete in tests of speed, strength and accuracy to land one of the 30 job openings for night rat killers in India’s commercial capital.
The Rat Race, winds its way through the grimy underbelly of Mumbai, through dimly lit alleys, crowded markets and overflowing garbage bins, to tell the story of the city’s rat killers. Through their tales of love, sacrifice and survival one glimpses the human face of development, amidst the rough and tumble of a rapidly changing metropolis.