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Colours of Passion (Rang Rasiya)
Director: Ketan Mehta
A sensuous story about the trials and loves of revolutionary
Indian artist Raja Ravi Verma
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Firaaq
Director: Nandita Das
The story of how the Hindu-Muslim riots that ravaged
Gujarat in 2002 altered the lives of a number of different
characters |
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Midnight Lost and Found
Director: Atul Sabharwal
Caged behind iron bars at his lonely late-night pharmacy,
Arvind spends the night with his Batman comic books,
looking forward to the brief exchanges he has with a
prostitute who stops by each night to buy condoms |
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Quick Gun Murugan
Director: Shashank Ghosh
Comedy about a Bollywood gunslinger on a mission to
save vegetarians and the world! |
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Ramchand Pakistani
Director: Mehreen Jabbar
He crossed one line. And three lives changed forever. |
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Tahaan – A Boy with a Grenade
Director: Santosh Sivan
Hope in the valley of paradise. |
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Last Thakur
Director: Sadik Ahmed
The 'Western' genre excellently retold in Bangladesh – a lone
gun-man rides into town... |
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Welcome to Sajjanpur (Mahdev ka Sajjanpur)
Director: Shyam Benegal
Comedy about a frustrated writer who pens letters for
fellow villagers, getting everyone in trouble. |
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Slumdog Millionaire
Director: Danny Boyle
The fascinating story of a young man from the Mumbai
slums whose success on India's 'Who Wants to be a
Millionaire' reveals his true desire. |
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| Pusan International Film Festival, Pusan, Korea, October 2nd-10th, 2008 |
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Firaaq
Director: Nandita Das
The story of how the Hindu-Muslim riots that ravaged Gujarat
in 2002 altered the lives of a number of different characters. |
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Flowers of the Sky
Director: Prasanna Vithanage
The story of true love between mothers and daughters while
describing a mother’s contrition and a daughter’s
forgiveness. |
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Kanchivaram
Director: Priyadarshan
A father’s simple dream of wanting to drape his daughter in
a silk sari is difficult to realise amidst the social turbulence
in 1940’s India. |
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Ramchand Pakistani
Director: Mehreen Jabbar
He crossed one line. And three lives changed forever. |
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Tahaan – A Boy with a Grenade
Director: Santosh Sivan
Hope in the valley of paradise. |
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Ocean of an Old Man
Director: Rajesh Shera
An old teacher in the Andamans is haunted by memories
of his students after the tsunami in 2004. |
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Midnight Lost and Found
Director: Atul Sabharwal
Caged behind iron bars at his lonely late-night pharmacy,
Arvind spends the night with his Batman comic books,
looking forward to the brief exchanges he has with a
prostitute who stops by each night to buy condoms. |
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(Un) Ravel
Director: Siddharth Sinha
An adolescent boy, Ashu, is caught between the emotional
conflicts of his everyday life and his approaching manhood.
From school bullying to his sexual awakening, Ashu is
influenced by beauty and solitude of his habitat where he
finds an emotional anchor. |
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Children of the Pyre
Director: Rajesh S.Jala
In Baranashi, India, seven children take off the burial clothes
from the dead bodies and sell them, mostly surreptitiously.
At the crematory, each child narrates their own view of the
city. |
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The Dance
Director: Saba Dewan
The film captures the voices of fifty young dancers at a
cattle fair in Bihar, India, while meditating on the
significance of gender, sexuality, labor, and popular
culture. |
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Indian Cinemas – From North to South
Director: Hubert Niogret
Looking at what defines Indian cinema when the
thousands of films produced each year emerge from
within socially, religiously, and politically independent
‘region-states.’ |
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Ghatothkach – The Master of Magic
Director: Singeetam Srinivasa Rao |
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Return of Hanuman
Director: Anurag Kashyap |
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Mumbai Cutting
Directors: Revathi, Ruchi Narain, Ayush Raina, Shashank
Ghosh, Kundan Shah, Sudhir Mishra, Rahul Dholakia,
Manish Jha, Jahnu Barua, Rituparno Ghosh, Anurag
Kashyap
Eleven stories unfold about the city of Mumbai - a city
that is sometimes a gateway to hell, a city where
strangers can change your life, a city of dissimilar lives in
similar circumstances, a city of dreams and blurred
realities. |
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Toronto International Film Festival, Toronto, Canada, September 4th-13th 2008 |
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Firaaq
Director: Nandita Das
The story of how the Hindu-Muslim riots that ravaged
Gujarat in 2002 altered the lives of a number of
different characters. |
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Kanchivaram
Director: Priyadarshan
Prakash Raj stars as Vengadam, a humble, charming silk
weaver living in Kanchivaram, a town in Tamil Nadu known
for its fine silk saris. In the late forties, India faced the
convulsive change of independence, but Vengadam lives
within the same rigid social structure endured by his
ancestors. He works weaving expensive saris from the rarest
silks, but could never afford the gorgeous garments he
produces. And so he dreams: by the time his baby daughter
grows up, he will have woven a sari for her wedding day. |
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Yes Madam, Sir
Director: Megan Doneman
Kiran Bedi, the first woman to join the Indian Police Service,
is arguably India's most controversial daughter, both revered
by her supporters and reviled as a self-centred publicity
seeker by her critics. In this captivating examination of her
life, Australian documentarian Megan Doneman shows that
whatever people may think of Bedi personally, there is no
disputing her professional achievements. |
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New York, I Love You
Directors: Fatih Akin, Yvan Attal, Randy Balsmeyer, Allen
Hughes, Shunji Iwai, Scarlett Johansson, Shekhar Kapur,
Joshua Marston, Mira Nair, Natalie Portman, Brett Ratner,
Jiang Wen, Andrey Zvyagintsev
And who doesn't love The Big Apple? In a series of overlapping
love stories all set in New York City, thirteen directors and a
huge, star-studded cast range from Central Park to Chinatown,
the Village, the Upper East Side and Coney Island, all in search
of what makes the heart beat faster. It turns out the city that
never sleeps never stops pining either. |
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Heaven on Earth
Director: Deepa Mehta
This is a brilliant work by one of Canada’s most daring
filmmakers, humanist and empathetic even toward its
villains, yet at the same time a universal indictment,
refusing to let any of us off the hook. |
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Sam and Me
Director: Deepa Mehta
Sam Cohen (Peter Boretski) can't stand his family. He's old,
he's cranky, he's too clever for his own good. And he can't
understand why his son Morris won't let him return to
Israel to die. The last thing he needs is some toadying
babysitter to keep him out of trouble. Enter Nikhil, who
arrives from India full of hope and dreams, looking
forward to working with his uncle in Morris's hospitalsupply
business and pocketing some of the promised land's
big money. What he gets is Sam, and Sam doesn't want
him around any more than Nikhil wants to chase after
some geriatric troublemaker. It's the beginning of a
beautiful relationship. |
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| 65th Venice International Film Festival, Venice, Italy, 27th August-6th September 2008 |
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Zero Bridge
Director: Tariq Tapa
Zero Bridge is the story of Dilawar, a teenage pickpocket
planning to escape his strict uncle, Ali Muhammed, a mason
who struggles to make ends meet and to raise the rebellious
youth. Dilawar’s plans take a twist when he forms an unusual
bond to Bani, a bright, nurturing woman whose life he ruined
during a recent stealing spree. Dilawar’s actions lead him to a
moral crisis that endangers his friendship with Bani, as well as
both of their futures. |
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| Tribeca Film Festival, New York, USA, April 24th-May 4th 2008 |
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Eclipse
Director: Mark Lapwood
Contrasting the harsh realities of people who live on the
streets of Mumbai with the natural beauty that
surrounds them, Eclipse is a meditative visual journey
that features stunning images and a hypnotic score. |
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Story of the Red Hills
Director: Remo
Renowned
Bollywood choreographer Remo crosses India
to Bengal to recount this colorful, melodramatic, and
moving story of the redemptive power and magic of
dance. |
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Ramchand Pakistani
Director: Mehreen Jabbar
He crossed one line. And three lives changed forever. |
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Before the Rains
Director: Santosh Sivan
An idealistic young Indian man (Rahul Bose) finds himself
torn between his ambitions for the future and his loyalty
to the past when people in his village learn of an affair
between his British boss (Linus Roache) and a village
woman (Nandita Das). |
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Donkey in Lahore
Director: Faramarz K-Rahber
While performing at a puppet festival in Lahore,
Pakistan, Brian met and fell head over heels for Amber, a
young Muslim woman from a highly traditional Pakistani
family. Though it would be more than two years before
he laid eyes on her again, Brian grabbed destiny with
both hands, converting to Islam, changing his name to
Aamir, and plunging himself into the complicated rituals
that govern courtship in Pakistan. |
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Sita Sings the Blues
Director: Nina Paley
In her debut feature, veteran comic strip writer Nina
Paley employs an arsenal of colorful animation
techniques in a witty retelling of the ancient Sanskrit
epic Ramayana. |
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