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Lassi with Lavina Guide to Upcoming Events – NYIFF 2018 

Women Directors Tell Stories of Love and Loss

The New York Indian Film Festival, organized by the Indo-American Arts Council (IAAC)  has always prided itself on being about real people, ordinary people, and at the cinematic table there’s room for stories from every kind of independent film maker, in every format and in every regional language. There are features, documentaries and shorts, stories about marginalized people, be it outcasts, gays, minorities, women or children – and this year is no exception.

 

In fact, reflecting the times, this year women are front and center, with at least 15 films made by women filmmakers, telling their own stories, and that includes features, documentaries and shorts.
There’s of course a heartfelt tribute to the late Sridevi with the film ‘English Vinglish’in which we got to see a totally different and deglamorized side of the superstar as she played an ordinary housewife who overcomes her insecurity with the all-powerful English language and in the process, finds herself, her voice and transforms her life.  Oh, the indignities women have to face as they make their way both at home and the world!

‘English Vinglish’ is directed by Gauri Shinde, who says, “It is inspired by my mother whose discomfort with the English language did not stop her from realizing her full potential as a human being, a mother, a wife and a professional. It is my way of saying ‘sorry’ and ‘thank you’ to my mother and a tribute to women.”

Sharmila Tagore, Soumitra Chatterjee, Aparna Sen,  Nandita Das, Konkona Ken Sharma in ‘Bird of Dusk’

Another film to watch out for at the festival is ‘Bird of Dusk,’ a documentary by Sangeeta Datta whose earlier films include ‘Life Goes On’ with Sharmila Tagore, Om Puri, and Soha Ali Khan. This year at the festival we get to see her documentary on Rituparno Ghosh- ‘Bird of Dusk’ which is on the international film festival circuit and a short film on Sister Nivedita (Margaret Noble) for the Nivedita Museum.

The cast of ‘Bird of Dusk’ includes some very distinguished names from the world of cinema including Soumitra Chatterjee, Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Prosenjit Chatterjee, Arjun Rampal, Konkona Sen Sharma, Nandita Das, Kaushik Ganguly, Anindya Chatterjee, Dorothee Wenner, Subhadip Sarkar. After the screening there is a discussion with director Sangeeta Datta which should certainly give film fans lots of food for thought.

The Hungry

A must-watch from a woman filmmaker is ‘The Hungry’ by Bornila Chatterjee, whose earlier film ‘Let’s Be Out, The Sun is Shining’ premiered at the 2012 NYIFF where it won the Audience Award. ‘The Hungry’ has an intriguing story – it follows Tulsi Joshi, a widow and bride-to- be “who comes to her own wedding seeking revenge for the brutal murder of her first-born son. Based on Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, it is about the violence that exists between power and love – a macabre fairytale set in the elite circles of north India.” It stars some notable actors including Naseeruddin Shah and Tisca Chopra.

Another intriguing film is ‘Venus’ directed by Eisha Marjara, dealing with gender issues in a changing world. This story of a transgender woman who meets a teenaged son she didn’t know she had, and how her life changes with the knowledge, is sure to raise troubling questions. The lead is New Yorker Debargo Sanyal in a challenging role.

Venus at NYIFF

 

Women Directors at NYIFF

The woman power at NYIFF is tremendous and here is a list of all the films done by women directors:

Features & Documentaries:

Gauri Shinde (English, Vinglish)
Eisha Marjara (Venus)
Bornila Chatterjee (The Hungry)
Sangeeta Datta (Bird of Dusk) – documentary
Vandana Kataria (Noblemen)
Vrinda Samartha (Limitless) – documentary

The short films should be a great watch where complex stories unfold in a matter of minutes.

These are the directors of the short films:
Sudeshna Sen (Mehndi)
Molly Karna (Arrangement)
Priyanka Matto (The Homestay)
Sudha Padmaja Francis (Eye Test)
Vibha Gulati (Forbidden)
Natashja Rathore (Still Rolling: The DDLJ Story)
Ayesha Ninan (Tara Versus)
Anusha Bose (Shame)
Mansi Jain (Everything is Fine)

 

Amongst the wide variety of short films you also get to see a performance by Soha Ali Khan in ‘Sound Proof’, a 30 minute film about a young divorced woman moving into a Mumbai apartment and the strange things which follow.

Short films, many hardly 20 minutes each, take on social issues which affect so many lives in India. ‘Shame’, for instance, is about the parallel worlds of the haves and the have-nots and what happens when these lives intersect. This film is directed by Anusha Bose and tells the story of Fanny Lobo , a lowly house-keeping staff, and what happens when she starts aspiring for the high life. Says Bose: “The character of the protagonist, Fanny and the premise of the film was inspired by a real incident; one that made me consider the thankless jobs of those who provide for us silently; unrewarded, often slighted and mostly invisible.”

Women’s Stories

Besides the films by women directors, several of these strong films center around the marginalized lives of women. At the same time, there are also many films made by male directors in which women battle the injustices and inequalities of our world.

The opening night film ‘Nude’ , directed by  Ravi Jadhav, is a Marathi film about a woman who in order to survive and to look after her 12-year-old son takes on the job of a nude model in an art school, something which is totally frowned on by society. This powerful film is followed by a post-screening discussion with director Ravi Jadhav and the cast.

Another film which takes on current social problems is ‘Ajji’ in which a little girl is found raped and dumped in a trash heap in the slums. The fact that the rapist is a local politician’s son ensures there will be no positive outcome – but the child’s grandmother Ajji, old and powerless, nevertheless boldly takes it on and does not allow this rape and murder to be forgotten. This story is so reminiscent of what is happening in today’s India and the post-screening discussion with producer Siddharth Anand Kumar should be a potent one.

There are just so many women directors as well as male directors addressing urgent issues of gender and inequality, that it might be a tough call selecting which films to see! And don’t forget there are  75 films including Merchant-Ivory classics as well as the latest – ‘Omerta’ from the powerful director Hansal Mehta and the wonderful actor Rajkummar Rao.  Both these noted film personalities are going to be present. Lots of discussions, parties and after-parties  with some of New York’s bold-face names.

So what are you going to see and what are you going to miss? You might just have to camp out at the New York Indian Film Festival  for a week to catch it all.  To make it a little easier to make hard choices, here is the complete schedule of the film festival. Choose wisely!

NYIFF 2018 Schedule

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