Cat’s Attic | Brair Kani

Nundrisha Wakhloo, Daksh Punj / Documentary / India / Hindi, Kashmiri / 24:56 / 2023

7th March 2024 | 3.15 pm | CD Deshmukh Auditorium | Representative in attendance

Brair Kani, or Cat’s Attic, explores an ancestral house located in Srinagar, Kashmir. A document written by the filmmaker’s grandfather traces the history of the house to shed light on its changing ownership. Through architectural elements and objects with embedded histories, the house comes alive with stories. Using the attic as a site of reflection, the film navigates the relationship between space, belonging and personal history. Inhabiting the confines of the attic, the house spirits exist simultaneously as carriers of collective memory and as manifestations of the emotional landscape. Characters—human, material and mythical—contribute to this temporal experience of the home, as the dilapidated attic stands witness to the lived and living experiences of its inhabitants. The past, present and future are bound by uncertainty as the different narratives create a space that transcends beyond the attic to address the larger themes of home as belonging.

Directors’ bio:

Nundrisha Wakhloo is an independent documentary filmmaker based in New Delhi, India. Her work captures forms of reminiscing in spaces and by people, driven by her own sense of belongingness to her culture. Presently she is the Co-Director of New Delhi chapter of the Video Consortium, a global platform that supports voices in documentary film and video journalism.

Daksh Punj has worked as a freelance filmmaker on documentaries for Discovery, National Geographic, Animal Planet and on advocacy films for various non-profits. He was one of the twelve selected participants of the 20th edition of Bridging the Gap program (2022) hosted by The Scottish Documentary Institute.