Last weekend, as part of Bangalore Art Weekend, Platform Film Club hosted a screening, followed by a conversation featuring two talented filmmakers, Ashok Vish and Neel Soni. The session, held at Sabha, Bangalore, brought together a full-house for an afternoon of cinema followed by a discussion around the films and the processes behind them.
As a creative endeavor that engages with all forms of the arts through our Bookazines, digital platform, and Platform Stage, Platform Film Club is another extension of this eagerness to support the arts. The previous screening had featured Stolen by Karan Tejpal, while this edition focused on two emerging filmmakers and their work.
The programme included Automagic, a Kannada film by Ashok Vish and Babli by Night, Neel Soni’s debut BAFTA nominated film. The audience was invited to first experience the films and then stay back for a conversation with the filmmakers.
Automagic unfolds through an encounter between two strangers. The film follows Madhu, an androgynous artist, and Ratnakar, an auto driver. Their interaction begins with hesitation, as the driver does not know how to react to Madhu’s gender identity. Taking place over the course of a single auto ride, the film documents what it is to be queer in a city through a simple conversation.
Babli by Night takes quite a different approach. The film follows Babban, a Muslim transgender forest guard in Uttarakhand, whose life unfolds away from the more visible spaces of queer activism in India. Over four years, Neel Soni documented Babban’s life with a close and attentive lens.
The conversation that followed tackled the origins of both films, the choices that shaped their visual language, and the different ways the filmmakers approached their subjects. It also touched on how their personal backgrounds informed their practice, and what it means to observe lives and stories through the camera.
Words Platform Desk
Date 7.4.2026