Rich menu of Indian films in this year’s Toronto film festival
TORONTO: This year’s Toronto International Film Festival has a rich menu of Indian films, offering a taste of genres from masala Bollywood to shorter slices of life.
North America’s largest film festival and among the largest and most respected worldwide, TIFF will feature as many as eight Indian productions in its selection this year. While TIFF has been around since 1976, and Indian films have been showcased for decades at the festival, this year will mark a debut in its one of its most popular categories - Midnight Madness, which specialises in provocative, edgy and outre cinema. Mumbai-based director Vasan Bala will have the distinction of presenting the first Indian feature to enter this niche, with Mard Ko Dard Nahin
Hota or The Man Who Feels No Pain. Speaking to Hindustan Times, Bala said it was “super exciting” to premiere his film before what is usally TIFF’S most festive audience.
The film is a nod to the Hong Kong martial arts genre, but with a “soul” that is “completely Indian” and set in a middle-class context. It’s also a period piece, harking back to the age of VHS, as Bala said, “It’s a good alternative to go back to those simpler times when you could have hand-tohand combat rather than the guns and bazookas or things exploding nowadays.”
Among the most anticipated screenings will be that of young Assamese director
Rima Das’ Bulbul Can Sing, marking the second successive year she has had a film have its world premiere in Toronto. Last year, her film Village Rockstars was a breakout delight at the festival and went on to win multiple national awards. While that movie examined the lives of a group of children, Bulbul moves up the age bracket to teenagers and their adolescent issues.
Also returning to TIFF is a regular, director Anurag Kashyap, though this year he will bring Husband Material, his first full-on venture based on Bollywood’s pet premise of romance, complications and much music.
Also from India is Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam’s The Sweet Requiem, which touches on the inner lives of Tibetan refugees in Delhi, and Nandita Das’ Manto, a biopic of the acclaimed and controversial writer Saadat Hasan Manto. Rounding off the fiction section is director Sandhya Suri’s short, The Field, a film set in rural India with a female protagonist seeking a sort of fulfilment among the cornfields.
The documentary section offers an eclectic spread, including Circle from Jayisha Patel, a powerful look at Kushbu, the survivor of gang rape in Uttar Pradesh.