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NYIFF  Comes to Town – A Movie-Watching Marathon!

Yes, it’s that time of the year when New Yorkers get wrapped up in intriguing cinema from the Indian sub-continent, wonderful stories of the diaspora and varied lives – thanks to the New York Indian Film Festival  (NYIFF) which has been a gift of the Indo-American Arts Council and Aroon Shivdasani to New York City. For 18 years we have been privileged to enter into so many different worlds and different possibilities – all through the magic of cinema.

A press conference was held at the Indian Consulate hosted by Consul General Sandeep Chakravorty where members of the media got to meet the participating filmmakers for the 18th New York Indian Film Festival which opens on May 7, showcasing more than 75 films. It was quite an eye-opener to see so many new film directors and so many shorts and documentaries this year. This year there are 15 women filmmakers participating and so many social issues from gender to equality to poverty are addressed. Film-making is a passion that many young Indian-Americans have embraced and the stories are bound to be a rich, diverse lot.

This press conference with its mandatory samosas and wine was a bitter-sweet event with a tinge of sadness for this will be the final film festival as its creator and founder Aroon Shivdasani takes a final bow and retires. NYIFF has indeed been a trailblazer and has inspired so many new film festivals and events for the arts.  CG Chakravorty spoke very eloquently about the impact of the festival on New York City and expressed the hope that others will pick up the baton from Aroon and continue the work done so well by NYIFF.

Indeed, NYIFF will be irreplaceable for over the years its had such a wonderful mix of famous and emerging directors. Even its advisory board is a gathering of formidable creative minds – Salman Rushdie, Shashi Tharoor, Mira Nair, Shabana Azmi, Deepa Mehta, Shyam Benegal, Mani Ratnam, Madhur Jaffrey, Sabrina Dhawan, and Sakina Jaffrey. The festival has had so many major creative names involved with it – who can forget Ismail Merchant, James Ivory and Ruth Jhabvala?  Just so many national award winning movies have been shown here – before they were even selected for those honors!  And I recall seeing ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ at NYIFF – before it became the big world-wide sensation that it became.

Aseem Chhabra, Director of the Festival, does the delicious – and thankless – task of seeing of hundreds of movies to select the ones we finally get to see. A few years back at the 14th NYIFF I wrote about the stunning gathering of film directors, the gift of thoughtful cinema and the power of independent films.  That year we saw an unbelievable array of powerhouse directors including Anurag Kashyap. Aparna Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta,  Gurinder Chadha, Nagesh Kuknoor, and Nagraj Manjule. All at the same festival, in the same room!

In the Q and A with Nagraj Manjule, who won the National Award for best picture for “Fandry’ a film about caste in India, someone asked him,  “Whenever Godzilla strikes, he strikes New York. In your film, Godzilla was the fandry or pig striking the village. How was it,  handling this subject?”

“America needs a big fear,” replied Manjule with a smile. “They don’t get scared by chote mote dar (small fears). They need Godzilla and they need it again and again. India has many fears – small, unknown fears hidden in its heart. To be afraid in India, you don’t need a Godzilla. I hope soon we will get relief from these fears and then we will deal with Godzilla!”

It is rare treasures like these you are likely to unearth during the little gem of the New York Indian Film Festival – so do not miss this final one which runs from May 7 to 12. This year has strong, unforgettable films from ‘Nude’ to ‘Omerta’ with great features, shorts and documentaries, so prepare for a major movie-watching marathon.

One hopes NYIFF will continue and flourish. As Aroon Shivdasani has said, “2018 will always be a milestone in my life. God speed to my successors. Take this precious gem to the next level. Love it, enjoy it, continue breathing life and joy into it.”

Photos from 2018 NYIFF Press Conference and Stills from the movies at the festival

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