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By Gemma Brosnan Dos Santos THE London Indian Film Festival launches from 15- 20 July in London with a range of cutting-edge movies from some of India’s hottest independent talents.
If you’re thinking Bollywood, think again, as these are films that challenge, make you think and show a more realistic view of India today in all its colour and diversity.
The Festival ‘s selection of films are screened across London, opening in the city centre at Cineworld (Haymarket), then Barbican, Nehru Centre, Watermans and Genesis cinemas. The Festival covers a wide range of themes from family dramas, coming-of age tales to twisted urban romance. What pervades many of these movies is a new more assured Indian cool, experimenting with cinematic styles, new technology and influenced by themes both East and West, which has helped them win favour in cities like Mumbai.
The festival opens at Cineworld (Haymarket) on 15 July with the UK premiere of the challenging Love, Sex Aur Dhokha, (Love, Sex and Betrayal), by director, Dibakar Banerjee. Through three intertwined tales, this controversial film explores sexuality, voyeurism, love and betrayal in modern India. The film has un-known actors, but its radical revision of challenging the romantic Indian fairy-tale romance was a big box office hit when it was released in India in March.
India is the largest film producing country in the world producing up to 1,000 films a year, out stripping Hollywood, but apart from mainstream Bollywood, very few of these films are seen in the UK.
Festival Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney explains: “Apart from just showing great movies, we also aim to help get these film talked about and screened more broadly in cinemas in the UK, in the same way that Iraniain cinema has been. London of course has a huge Asian audience for these movies, but many Brits would also like to see what’s going on in the 1.2 billion strong India today and cinema is a great way to do this”.
Other highlights in this festival include the high-impact City of Gold, by director, Mahesh Manjrekar, on the forgotten history of mill workers of Bombay, whose livelihoods were crushed when the mills were converted into the glitzy shopping malls and five star hotels. Meanwhile, Last Chance Mumbai is a sophisticated multi-strand ensemble exploring the connective lives of the city’s inhabitants over a 24 hour period by acclaimed director, Saeed Akhtar Mirza.
Road to Sangam directed by Amit Rai, explores ideas of Nation India and sometimes conflicting religious identity. It tells the story of one Muslim man’s desire to help take Mahatma Gandhi’s remaining ashes to the holy river and explores how many Muslims in India seem themselves 60 years after independence. The closing movie is the UK premiere Vihir (The Well) by award winning director Umesh Kulkarni (world premiered at Berlin), which is stunningly filmed amongst the grandeur of the rolling Indian plains of two adolescent friends who inspire each other’s journey to manhood.
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