Archive - London Indian Film Festival

#Gadhvi

#Gadhvi

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Gaurav Bakshi
Starring: Sanjay Mishra, Rasika Dugal, Akshay Oberoi
Run time: 109 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: FILM, POWER & POLITICS

A retired, nondescript widower Ram Nath Gadhvi inadvertently takes on the establishment and suddenly becomes a social media sensation. He begins to take on Gandhi’s pacifist principles, but is no ordinary Gandhian, believing he is the reincarnation of the Mahatma itself. In the process Gadhvi attracts more and more followers, but also enemies seeking to bring him down, including hired-gun, Omkar, who has been tasked with suppressing the swelling anger against the establishment by shattering Gadhvi’s delusion and crushing his core beliefs. Gaurav Bakshi’s debut feature is a sharp social and political satire that plays out like a thriller where the audience is left guessing about who Gadhvi really is and if he is actually Gandhi’s reincarnation.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

31st October

31st October | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Shivaji Lotan Patil
Starring: Soha Ali Khan, Vir Das.
Run time: 109 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2015
Language: Hindi /Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: India

A roller-coaster ride of a film based on real events. On 31st October 1984, the Prime Minister of India is assassinated by her Sikh security guards. Local politicians use this incident to spark public hatred towards the whole Sikh community. Devender Singh (Vir Das), and his loving family are suddenly trapped in their house as their city is ripped apart. Neighbours betray and turn on each other, death stalks the streets and the city burns, but through this anarchic chaos courage and and humanity makes a stand as Devender’s family and their trusted friends risk everything to make a bid to escape. Vir Das and Soha Ali Khan give intense performances in this must see drama.
Contains some scenes of violence.

72 Miles

72 Miles - Ek Pravas (72 Miles - A Journey)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Rajeev Patil
Starring: Smita Tambe, Chinmay Sant, Chinmay Kambli, Sharvani Solaskar, Isha Mane.
Run time: 96 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Ashok, a 13-year-old boy in 1970s India, is sent away to a borstal boarding school for disciplinary reasons cannot cope with the harsh rigours of the establishment and runs way. On the long 72 mile trip home, which he has to undertake on foot as his money is soon stolen, he falls in with Radhakka, a strong woman with her brood of children who are on a similar journey. The group face the wrath of nature, extreme hunger, prejudice and every step is an adventure where tragedy lurks around every corner. Ashok sees how Radhakka, an illiterate woman with not a penny to her name, maintains the most positive outlook towards life through the most difficult times which he witnesses with her. Directed by Rajeev Patil who made the multiple award-winning Jogwa, the film is an adaptation of Ashok Vhaktar’s novel which is considered a masterpiece of Marathi literature. The film is co-produced by Bollywood megastar Akshay Kumar.

A Billion Colour Story

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: N Padmakumar
Starring: Gaurav Sharma, Vasuki, Dhruva Padmakumar
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: English, Hindi, Urdu with EST | Country: India

Hari’s father Imran is Muslim, but is untethered by religion, as is his Hindu mother Parvati. They’re inspirational parents who are struggling to make their first feature film. Imran firmly believes that India is an incredible country that will always overcome its differences, but as mum and dad run into financial problems, the family has to downsize to rented apartments and come face-to-face with an onslaught of religious prejudices and corruption. As his disillusioned parents discuss whether to stay in the country they love or leave, Hari hatches his own secret plan to save the day.

A Decent Arrangement

A Decent Arrangement

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Sarovar Banka
Starring: habana Azmi, Adam Laupus, Diksha Basu.
Run time: 96 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2011
Language: English | Country: USA/INDIA

In this cross-cultural romance we meet American born copywriter Ashok Khosla, who unable to find love Stateside, travels to Chandigarh to seek his perfect Indian bride. Guided by his well intentioned but overbearing cousin Preeti (a scene stealing Shabana Azmi) he meets the prospective brides and their families but the young women he meets are more than he bargained for. A good match is however found with Amita, a feisty young woman struggling with traditional values, but at the same time Ashok bumps into Lori an adventurous American woman who is travelling through India. As Preeti moves to cement the deal with Amita’s family, Ashok secretly struggles to make up his mind.

A Girl in the River

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Starring: a rare survivor who falls in love and lives to tell the tale.
Run time: 40 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

DOUBLE BILL FROM DOUBLE OSCAR WINNING DIRECTOR SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

Based in Karachi, her documentaries capture key social issues and great moments of contemporary Pakistani culture.

A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness is an honest and at times disturbing documentary about one young woman’s journey. After narrowly surviving an attempted honour killing she must maintain the status quo in her village by making peace with her attempted murderers – her own family. Winner of the Best Short Documentary Oscar in 2016.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

Aaranya Kaandam

Aaranya Kaandam (Anima and Persona)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Thiagarajan Kumararaja
Starring: Jackie Schroff, Sampath Raj, Ravi Krishna, Yasmin Ponnappa
Run time: 153 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

Bollywood Hero Jackie Shroff makes his Tamil debut in this pulsating neo-noir that abounds with characters and a potent mix of blood, sex and drugs that would do Quentin Tarantino proud. Shroff plays an ageing don with performance issues who has to deal with an internal challenge to his throne and a smarter-than-he-looks subordinate who cuckolds him with his sultry moll. Throw in a cocaine shipment worth millions and a rooster fight competition and we get a crackling thriller that shows how Tamil cinema is leading the way in India’s independent film movement. Razor sharp dialogue, a hip soundtrack and moody cinematography ably complement the bravura action sequences. And, incredibly, all the happenings unfold in a single day. The film won India’s National Awards for Best First Film and Editing.

Aarekti Premer Golpo (Just Another Love Story)

Aarekti Premer Golpo (Just Another Love Story)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Starring: Rituparno Ghosh, Chapal Bhaduri, Indraneil Sengupta, Raima Sen
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Bengali | Country: India

Acclaimed Bengali director Rituparno Ghosh switches sides of the camera to act in Kaushik Ganguly’s film, which un-ashamedly shakes the foundations of contemporary Indian sexuality.

Abhiroop (Ghosh) is an openly gay filmmaker from Delhi intrigued by the story of 70 plus Bengali performer Chapal Bhaduri, famous for playing roles as a woman. Abhiroop lures him with money to reveal his tragic true-life story. As film shooting starts, we are taken on an extraordinary journey between past and present, where transgender Bhadhuri’s tortured love for a bisexual man is echoed by Abhiroop’s own affair with his handsome cameraman Basu.

As word gets out about the filmmaker’s disregard for social taboos, the media start to bite with homophobic vengeance, divided loyalties emerge and Basu must also decide between Abhiroop and his suffering wife.

Ganguly deftly plays out a rainbow of emotional nuances, while Ghosh gives a mesmerising and emotionally charged performance.

Abhijaan

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Parambrata Chattopadhyay
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Jisshu Sengupta, Quashiq Mukherjee
Run time: 160 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

A beautiful and tender biopic paying tribute to a legend of Indian cinema, Abhijaan explores the incredible life and work of Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee, from his first foray into film acting as the lead character Apu in Satyajit Ray’s Apur Sansar, to countless other classic roles he has portrayed across his long distinguished career. Soumitra Chatterjee tells his own story while accompanied by a magnificent who’s who of Bengali cinema. Don’t miss it!

Screening in liaison with Bengal Heritage Foundation.

Online Q&A with Parambrata Chattopadhyay and guests

Abosheshey (At the End of it All)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Aditi Roy
Starring: Roopa Ganguly, Ankur Khanna, Raima Sen
Run time: 118 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2011
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Aditi Roy’s stunning debut feature is a gripping journey of a young man in search of his identity. Soumyo (Khanna), returns from San Francisco to Kolkata, the city of his birth at the behest of his estranged mother, the enigmatic and vivacious Suchismita (Ganguly). What should have been a quick journey turns into a voyage of self-discovery and an exploration of the great metropolis that is Kolkata, a living, breathing character in the film. In the ravishing Nandini (Sen), Suchismita’s protégé, Soumyo finds answers to his past and perhaps the future. The film is the Bengali debut of Khanna, one of India’s rising actors, who is an alumnus of acting legend Naseeruddin Shah’s theatre troupe. The film has won the NETPAC award for Best Asian Film. And Ganguly revealed a new string to her bow, singing Tagore standards, for which she won India’s National Award for Best Female Playback Singer.

Abyakto LIFF

Abyakto (Unsaid)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Arjunn Dutta
Starring: Arpita Chatterjee, Adil Hussain, Anubhav Kanjilal
Run time: 87 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

Arjunn Dutta’s debut feature film is a touching story about the relationship between a mother and her son. Abyakto narrates the journey of Indra from childhood, through adolescence to adulthood through snippets from his past, as he is forced to revisit them when he returns to his hometown of Kolkota to take care of property matters a couple of years after his father’s death. The journey into Indra’s past reveal a strained and complex relationship with his mother that has gone on to shape him as a person in the present. Abyakto is a tender and poignant tale about love, regret, loneliness and the search for an identity.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

Ahimsa: Gandhi The Power of the Powerless

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Ramesh Sharma

Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2020
Language: English with no subtitles | Country: India, South Africa

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

A compelling and powerful documentary exploring the roots and global impact of the Gandhian message of non-violence and peaceful resistance. Featuring interviews with renowned world class scholars, African American activists, like the late John Lewis, through to the Dalai Lama; it also shows rare archival footage of non-violent campaigns from India, USA, Poland and Hungary. Sharma’s film decodes the revolutionary power of non-violence and how it inspired movements of resistance across the world, which continue to affect us today.

Online Q&A with Ramesh Sharma and other special guests

Aise Hee (Just Like That)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Kislay
Starring: Mohini Sharma, Harish Khanna, Sadhna Singh
Run time: 113 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

A joyous and inspiring tale of an older woman challenging society’s narrow expectations of her. Mrs Sharma is the quiet ‘ideal’ wife of a government official living in a modest two story house in the small town of Allahabad. When her husband suddenly dies, she is expected to follow Indian custom and move in with her son and grandchildren, but she has other plans. Mrs Sharma wants, at long last, to explore her life and try new experiences, but this soon starts the neighbours gossiping, resulting in family tensions that soon threaten to curtail her new found freedoms.

Online Q&A with Kislay

Amar Colony

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Siddharth Chauhan
Starring: Nimisha Nair, Sangeeta Agrawal, Usha Chauhan, Ayush Shrivastava, Deepak Sharma, Rohit Agrawal, Yash Thakur & Sreejith Vijay
Run time: 76 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Set in a dilapidated apartment block in a small hill town in the lower Himalayas, Amar Colony explores the intersecting lives of six tenants whose mundane existence unravels as they lose sight of their roles in society and give in to sexual desire. However, the emotional cost of their actions may prove too much. Siddharth Chauhan’s feature debut, which premiered at Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival, is a striking and hypnotic drama that grapples with the conflict between community and the individual.

Americanish

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Iman Zawahry
Starring: Aizzah Fatima, Shenaz Treasury, LilleteDubey
Run time: 91 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: English | Country: USA

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Set in Jackson Heights NY, a heartwarming comedy about a first generation immigrant Pakistani mom (Lilette Dubey), is still recovering from her husband dumping her and the girls years ago. She is now conflicted by the tradition of getting her grown daughters, Maryam and Sam, hitched to suitable Pakistani boys. None too impressed by the young men who come to dinner at mom’s, they decide to take matters into their own hands.

Q&A with Iman Zawahry and guests

An American in Madras

An American in Madras | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Karan Bali
Starring: Kamal Haasan, Radha Viswanathan, K. Hariharan.
Run time: 80 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: English, Tamil, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

BFI player link

This fascinating and fast-paced documentary traces the journey of American-born filmmaker Ellis R. Dungan who arrived in India in 1935 intending to stay for 6 months but ended up staying for 15 years! During this period, he brought many technical innovations to the developing Tamil Film Industry of the 1930s and ’40s, and infused a sense of professionalism into its filmmaking. All this, without understanding a word of the language! Dungan directed the great Tamil superstar MGR’s first film, Sathi Leelavathi, as well as famed Carnatic vocalist MS Subbulakshmi’s most famous films, Sakuntalai and Meera. The film traces Dungan’s Indian connection right up to 1994, when on a trip to India, the Tamil Film Industry felicitated him in Chennai for his contribution to its development, a good 43 years after he had left India.

Radhika Apte

Radhika Apte Screen Talk

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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The accomplished actress discusses her stunningly varied career.

 

Radhika Apte is that rarity – an Indian actress who is equally successful across the independent, commercial and international sectors. She starred in box office successes like Padman, Andhadhun and Kabali, shone in indies Parched, Phobia and Bombairiya and made a global mark with The Wedding Guest and The Ashram. In addition, she won the Jury Award at the Tribeca Film Festival for her bravura performance in Madly. She also has a cult following on Netflix, headlining the originals Ghoul, Lust Stories and Sacred Games. Equally at home in both London and Mumbai, Apte is a vivacious new-age artist whose acumen on the entertainment industry is sought after.

Sharmila Tagore

An Evening with Sharmila Tagore

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016


Starring: Sharmila Tagore
| Year: 2016

The luminous Sharmila Tagore’s precocious talent was discovered by the great Satyajit Ray and he cast her in the globally acclaimed The World of Apu (1959) and again in Devi (1960), Nayak: The Hero (1966), Days and Nights in the Forest (1970) and Company Limited (1971). Her glittering career in Hindi cinema began with Kashmir Ki Kali (1964). She won the Filmfare award for best actress for Aradhana (1970) and India’s national film award for best actress for Mausam (1975) and best supporting actress for In the Forest… Again (2003). Other memorable performances include Amar Prem (1972), Daag (1973), Namkeen (1982), Shubho Mahurat (2003) and Life Goes On (2009). She was on the Cannes jury in 2009 and in 2013 the Indian government accorded her the Padma Bhushan. Filmfare and the IIFA have also accorded her lifetime achievement honours.

Anima State

Anima State | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Hammad Khan
Starring: Uns Mufti, Malika Zafar, Osman Khalid Butt.
Run time: 80 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2013
Language: Urdu with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan

A man with a bandage mask across his face goes on a shooting spree across a Pakistani city, gunning down random people. He soon realises that his actions have no consequences and nobody appears to be interested in his murderous deeds, and so he decides to go on live television with a view to committing suicide on air. And that’s when there is a huge twist in the plot. The film is an unflinching and surreal look at contemporary Pakistan and will provoke and entertain in equal measure. Racy and unafraid of controversy from start to finish, the film is an exhilarating cinematic ride, dealing with persecution, paranoia and that blurry line between dreams and harsh reality. With this, his second feature after Slackistan, Hammad Khan firmly establishes himself as the boldest voice in British Pakistani cinema.

Anita & Me (2Oth Anniversary Screening)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Metin Hüseyin
Starring: Chandeep Uppal, Anna Brewster, Sanjeev Bhaskar
Run time: 92 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2002
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the movie adaptation of Meera Syal’s seminal semi-autobiographical book. Meena Kumar lives in a small, predominantly white village in the Midlands, where she finds conflict between her heritage as Punjabi and the culture she was brought up in as British. Dealing with issues of race and identity with tact and understanding, this coming of age film is an important landmark in British Asian cinema.

Followed by a Q&A with the iconic writer and actor Meera Syal (TBC)

Anurag Kashyap in Conversation

Anurag Kashyap Screen Talk

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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FILMMAKER CONVERSATIONS

The Martin Scorsese of India. A rare chance to hear the experiences of India’s most famed cult director.

Anurag Kashyap is a unique talent and is India’s best-known filmmaker on the global festival circuit. His Netflix series Sacred Games was a global smash hit and is set for season 2.  He flits across genres, ranging from edgy, provocative fare like Dev. D, Ugly, Raman Raghav 2.0 to the two-part Godfather-like rural gangland epic Gangs Of Wasseypur, the political punch of Gulaal and Black Friday, and the unusual love stories Manmarziyaan and Mukkabaaz. Known for his outspoken nature, Kashyap pulls no punches on stage, and his deep insights on cinema are valued around the world.

Aparna Sen In Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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Strand: IN CONVERSATION + UK PREMIERE: THE RAPIST

Join us for a rare talk by India’s greatest and longest standing woman writer director, known for her frank and honest views on women’s experience, filmmaking in Bengal and other matters. Aparna who first came to international attention as a child actor in the legendary director Satyajit Ray’s classic Teen Kanya (Three Girls) (1961), soon established herself as an established filmmaker in Bengal and then internationally with the acclaimed feature 36 Chowringhee Lane (1981), a slew of acclaimed hits followed, making her one of the most famous names in Bengali cinema.

This discussion will be followed by the UK premiere of Sen’s powerful new film, The Rapist.

The Rapist
Dir. Aparna Sen
With: Konkona Sen Sharma, Arjun Rampal, Tanmay Dhania
132 mins | 2021 | India | Cert: 18
Hindi with English subtitles
UK PREMIERE

Aparna Sen’s Busan premiered drama tells of a survivor of rape of and the struggles she goes through to reconcile her life and future. Aparna Sen’s powerful drama world premiered at Busan. Naina (Konkona Sen Sharma), a professor in criminal psychology, is married to academic Aftab (Arjun Rampal). Their lives change one night when Naina is raped and her friend killed. She testifies and the rapist is sentenced. Naina deals with her trauma when she finds she is pregnant. Director Aparna Sen examines the psychology of violence and raises disturbing questions about gender, class and legal rights.

Introduction by Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen
Interview by Jane Crowther (Editor of Total Film and Vice Chair of the UK Film Critics’ Circle)

Apur Panchali

Apur Panchali (Apu's Song) | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Starring: Parambrata Chatterjee, Ardhendu Banerjee, Parno Mitra.
Run time: 97 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

One of the greatest child characters in cinema history is the little boy Apu in Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song of the Little Road). Kaushik Ganguly’s heart-touching, jewel box of a film is inspired by the real-life actor Subir Banerjee, who played the young Apu. 58 years after Pather Panchali a film student goes in search of Subir. He carries news that a German film festival are keen to honour Subir, but the student discovers a reticent older man, whose life has ironically reflected the tragic character he played. With sparkling character performances and intercut with Ray’s Apu trilogy, this film is cineaste heaven.

Arishadvarga LIFF

Arishadvarga

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Arvind Kamath
Starring: Mahesh Bung, Sudha Belawadi, Avinash
Run time: 135 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Kannada with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

An aspiring actor doubling as an amateur gigolo gets caught up in a sticky situation after accepting a surprise gift from an anonymous client. Anish is desperately trying to make it as an actor but his dire financial situation pushes him to look for an escape, which he finds with an anonymous wealthy client. Called to her place one day for a rendezvous, he turns up only to be met with a surprise gift, ‘a murder’. He finds himself framed for a crime he didn’t commit with a witness who is convinced he is the culprit. Arishadvarga is a smart and tense neo-noir thriller that will have you guessing who did it till the very end.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Arvind Kamath & Cast

 

Arjun & Alison

Arjun & Alison

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Sidharth Sharma
Starring: Monique Squeri, Shiv Jhala, Oliver Squires, Kulvinder Ghir
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 18 |
Language: English | Country: UK/India

Set between Birmingham and London, Sidharth Sharma’s outstanding directorial debut is an unflinching look at a racially motivated murder and its aftermath. Arjun (Jhala), from India, and Alison (Squeri), from the United States, are students at a university in Birmingham whose lives are transformed forever when their black friend dies after a racist attack. The prime suspect is Gordon (Squires), the leader of the university’s controversial ‘English Society’. Besides dealing with the trauma of their friend’s death, Arjun and Alison also have to confront the ghosts of their own pasts. The film successfully pulls off the feats of taking a balanced look at race relations in contemporary Britain, the dorm lives of overseas students and the country’s thriving drug and gun subculture. Featuring an all-British cast and crew and an Indo-British director and finance, the film is a shining example of co-production between two countries linked forever by history and culture.

Arshinagar

Arshinagar (Mirrorsville)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Aparna Sen
Starring: Dev, Rittika Sen, Waheeda Rehman, Jishu Sengupta.
Run time: 134 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

This breathtaking musical adaptation of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet ties in with the Bard’s 400th anniversary celebrations globally. Arshinagar is a fictitious slum that the warring Khan and Mitra clans want to acquire to redevelop as malls and apartments. While the Khan and Mitra goons continue to engage in violent battles to seize the slum by fair means or foul, Bishwananath Mitra’s son Ronojoy and Sabir Khan’s daughter Zulekha happen to meet and fall in love at first sight. Aware of the consequences if their families come to know of their relationship, Rono and Julie conduct their love affair in secret. India’s best-known female director Aparna Sen deliciously re-imagines Shakespeare as a taboo Hindu-Muslim love story. Entirely told in rhyming verse, the musical set pieces are energetic, inventive and blend Indian and Western choreography to rapturous effect. And it is always a pleasure to see the reclusive legend Waheeda Rahman make a rare on-screen appearance.

Article 15

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Anubhav Sinha
Starring: Ayushmann Khurrana, Sayani Gupta, Isha Talwar, Manoj Pahwa, Kumud Mishra
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Hindi, English with English subtitles | Country: India

OPENING NIGHT GALA

We are delighted to open our 10th birthday celebrations with the World Premiere of Anubhav Sinha’s hard-hitting Article 15. India’s hottest male star Ayushmann Khurrana (Andhadhun, Badhai Ho) plays a police officer from a privileged urban, international, background, whose very first posting is to rural north India, where three teenage girls have gone missing. His honesty does not sit well with the existing, deeply entrenched corrupt system where, in 2019, a 1000-year-old practice where human beings are divided on the basis of caste continues. Beginning as a riveting police procedural that is a True Detective like deep-dive into the Indian bayou, Article 15 soon elevates to a gutsy exposé of a deeply flawed structure. The film’s title is a reference to an article of the Indian constitution that prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste, religion, race or sex.

Q&A with Director Anubhav Sinha, cast and crew

 

Asha Jaoar Majhe

Asha Jaoar Majhe (Labour of Love)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Starring: Ritwick Chakraborty, Basabdutta Chatterjee.
Run time: 84 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

A cinematically sublime, must-see debut feature that evokes the legacies of Bengali masters like Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak. Labour of Love is a seemingly simple tale set within the crumbling back lanes of modern Kolkata. A man carries out his solitary domestic routine in his small apartment. As the story transpires however we realise that there is another inhabitant of this same apartment. A woman also lives there, but through the hard toil of their lives the couple co-exist on opposing work shifts. Their love strongly binds them, but they are only truly together in the magical forests of their dreams. With its haunting score and soundscape Aditya Vikram Sengupta’s poetic film expands the story of two ordinary lives, caught by love and longing, into a magnificent sensory universe.

Ashutosh Gowariker

Ashutosh Gowariker in Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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Join us to hear one of the finest Indian commercial directors of his generation reflect on his career so far. Known for his sweeping narratives, Ashutosh Gowariker directed Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan in the Oscar®- nominated Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India (2001) and won the Audience Award at Locarno International Film Festival that year. Under his direction, star Shah Rukh Khan delivered one of the finest performances of his career in Gowariker’s Swades (2004), as did Aishwarya Rai and Hrithik Roshan in the Mughal-inspired epic Jodhaa Akbar (2008).

This talk will be BSL interpreted.

NFT1, BFI Southbank, Friday 23rd June, 6.30-8.00 pm

Asian Vibes London & Asian Vibes Bombay (Double Bill)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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LIFF is thrilled to bring this rare double bill screening of Asian Vibes to the big screen, providing a definitive guide to the birth of two iconic music movements

Dir: Ashim Ahluwalia | 104 mins | 2002, 2004 | India, France | Cert: 12A | English

ASIAN VIBES LONDON
A FILM ON ASIAN DJ CULTURE FOR MCM FRANCE
An essential guide to the paradigm-shifting British Asian electronic music scene. From the rubble of race and class conflict in the 1980s emerges a new breed of British Asian artist – politically sensitive, culturally complex and musically radical. The film documents a whole range of personalities, ranging from Bhangra pioneer Kuljit Bhamra, TJ Rehmi, Cornershop, Asian Dub Foundation, FunDaMental and Apache Indian, to another generation of artists such as Shiva Sound System and Swami.

ASIAN VIBES BOMBAY
A FILM ON THE BIRTH OF MUMBAI ELECTRONIC MUSIC
In Mumbai what was old is made new again as an emerging DJ culture rewires Bollywood film music. This electrifying documentary explores new forms of sound emerging from the frenetic metropolis. From rickshaw drivers flexing their bass speakers to dissident hip-hop DJs merging turntables with tablas, Asian Vibes Bombay is a pop riot. Combining underground video aesthetics, archival Bollywood clips and an exploratory documentary approach. It celebrates the chaotic energy of contemporary India while reaching back to discover how it all began. Featuring Bappi Lahiri, Kersi Lord and others.

Autograph

Autograph

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Starring: Prasenjit Chatterjee, Nandana Sen, Indraneil Sengupta.
Run time: 132 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Bengali | Country: India

A hit film in Bengal, this is a tale of ambition and the corruptive nature of fame in the film industry. Shubhobroto (Sengupta) is a young writer/director with a vision to re-make the master filmmaker Satyajit Ray’s classic film Nayak. He approaches the reigning superstar Arun Chatterjee (played by real-life super-hero Prasenjit Chatterjee) with the proposal.

Much to his surprise the movie-god agrees to fund the film and be its lead. Shubhobroto celebrates with his live-in girlfriend and budding actress Srinandita (Sen) and he drafts her in to play the film’s female lead. As the production develops, the promise of fame makes Shubho increasingly arrogant as he slips into his own world.

Meanwhile Arun focuses his affections, on and off screen, on Srinandita and confides in her about his troubled past. The trio find themselves spiralling into a strange and yet poignant love triangle. With a talented ensemble cast and a compelling narrative, the film provides an insightful view into contemporary Kolkata society and a window into the inner workings of the Bengali film industry.

Avijatrik (The Wanderlust of Apu)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Subhrajit Mitra
Starring: Arjun Chakrabarty, Sabyasachi Chakrabarty, Sreelekha Mitra, Barun Chanda, Tanusree Shankar
Run time: 136 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

AUTUMN EDITION

Subhrajit Mitra revives Satyajit Ray’s enduring and endearing character of Apu after 60 years with a film that takes off from where The Apu Trilogy ended in 1959. After the death of his beloved wife, Apu is unable to settle and follows his wanderlust, setting out with his 6 year old son Kajol, to explore the world. They have many adventures along the way, but Apu is still trapped in a surreal space, as he imagines discourses with his lost wife, that presses on the real world and soon threatens to alter his path.

B.A Pass

B.A. Pass

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Ajay Bahl
Starring: Shilpa Shukla, Shadab Kamal, Rajesh Sharma, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Geeta Sharma.
Run time: 100 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2012
Language: Hindi / Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: India

The Graduate meets film noir in this sizzling tale of seduction and betrayal. Circumstances force a small town, shy teenager, Mukesh, to move in with his aunt and her dull offspring in the neon-lit lanes of Delhi’s Paharganj. Called over to do some chores he is seduced by a gorgeous cougar whose husband is away. Mukesh and the woman’s relationship is forged in lust, lies and deceit, which leaves him spinning and entranced, that is until she farms him out to entertain her lady friends with dangerous consequences.

Babylon Sisters showing at LIFF 2017

Babylon Sisters

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Gigi Roccati
Starring: Nav Ghotra, Rahul Dutta, Amber Dutta, Renato Carpentieri
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Italian, Hindi with EST | Country: Italy

Set in the backstreets of Trieste, Italy, this feelgood, song-soaked film highlights the power of sisterhood. Young Indian immigrant Kamala and her parents have just moved into a tenement with other immigrant families and an old Italian teacher who accuses them of eating local cats. As an eviction notice looms, the drastically different women of each family fight together to save their home.

Badman

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Soumik Sen
Starring: Gulshan Grover, Chunky Pandey, Rishi Kapoor, Manisha Koirala, Farah Khan
Run time: 84 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: India

Screening with GULSHAN GROVER in attendance*

A mad, comic caper where the legendary villain of Bollywood, Gulshan Grover, decides to re-launch himself in the film industry, but this time as a hero! The not so young Grover enlists the help of his dysfunctional sons and begrudging Bollywood stars including Chunky Pandey and Farah Khan to help him achieve his transformation. Guided by his ‘friends’ our hero soon slips into increasingly hilarious and delusional situations as they plan his launch movie. Badman explores the dark yet funny side of Bollywood where almost anything is possible. It’s epic mockumentary style is a first for Indian cinema.

*The screening at Cineworld Wembley and Stratford Picturehouse will be followed by a Q&A with Gulshan Grover.

Gulshan Grover will NOT be present at the Cineworld Leicester Square screening.

BAFTA Masterclass: Successful Directing in India

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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GURU LOUNGE

A chance to hear from BAFTA-nominated Anurag Kashyap (Sacred Games, Gangs of Wasseypur) and Richie Mehta (Delhi Crime, India in a Day) as they discuss their careers and the evolving landscape of cinema and television in India

Guru Lounges are open to all emerging talent working in film.

Limited capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Baganiya (Garden of Memories)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Humaira Bilkis

Run time: 56 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Bhojpuri, Bengali with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Filmed over the course of several months in Bangladesh’s remote tea fields, Baganiya follows the incredible lives of three labourers. Padmoluv Bunarjee, in the last stages of his life, still remains nostalgic of his British Colonial masters. Young Chieftan Sojoy Yadav feels trapped by history, but continues his work in the tea fields and school drop out Chandan wants to elude this work and exploitation altogether. Through the lives of these three individuals from different generations, Humaira Bilkis weaves an elegant tale of labourers, whose lives are still impacted by the framework of colonial rules that still govern the tea industry.

Online screening in partnership with Bertha DocHouse.

Online Q&A with Humaira Bilkis

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Baishey Srabon

Baishey Srabon (Seventh August) | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Starring: Prasenjit Chatterjee, Raima Sen, Paramabrata Chatterjee, Goutam Ghose
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2011
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

The teeming city of Kolkata, known for its food, music, poetry and cinema, is reeling from an unusual sensation – fear. A serial killer is on the loose, killing people in the dead of night seemingly randomly. But it’s clear that the killer is Bengali, because he or she leaves clues at the murder site in verse. The police are baffled and have no choice but to bring back their serial killer specialist (Prasenjit), a mealy-mouthed scotch-swilling, cheroot-chomping hedonist who was dismissed from the department years ago under a cloud. Making a stupendous comeback as an actor is the award-winning director Goutam Ghose who matches the film’s all-star cast note for note. The film’s frank use of Bengali swear words shocked a few, but delighted many when released in Bengal and it went on to become one of the biggest hits in history. It was also a critical darling and won some 25 Indian awards.

Barefoot to Goa

Barefoot to Goa | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Praveen Morchhale
Starring: Purva Parag, Farrukh Jaffar, Saara Nahar.
Run time: 80 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

A hit at festivals around India, Barefoot to Goa explores with great sensitivity the Indian middleclass dilemma of what to do with ageing parents and the intergenerational ties that powerfully bind families together. Diya and Prakhar live with their busy parents in bustling Mumbai. Their grandmother in rural Goa regularly sends her son and family countless letters asking them to visit, but never gets a reply, even though her grandchildren love her dearly. One day the kids discover that their mum has been hiding the un-opened letters in a box. They read that their grandmother is ill and upset, decide to set off to see their grandmother in Goa by themselves.

Bend it Like Beckham

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Gurinder Chadha
Starring: Parminder Nagra, Keira Knightley, Anupam Kher
Run time: 112 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2002
Language: English, Punjabi, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

Come along and help celebrate this hit movie’s 20th anniversary! Gurinder Chadha’s joyous, feel good drama tells the story of Jess, whose parents are trying to raise her in a traditional Indian way, but all she wants to do is play football like her idol, David Beckham. While her flamboyant elder sister is preparing for her ornate wedding and a life of married bliss, Jess chances upon a professional women’s football team and sees an opportunity to chase her dreams… and a soccer ball.

In cinema introduction by Director Gurinder Chadha and other special guests

Q&A with BBC’s Sunny & Shay Grewal

Bengal Shadows

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Joy Banerjee & Partho Bhattacharya
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Madhushree Mukerjee, Richard Toye
Run time: 48 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Bengali, English, French with English subtitles | Country: France/India

This hard-hitting documentary brings to light a lesser-known episode of the Second World War – the 1943 famine, during which time several million people starved to death in Bengal. Today, numerous historians, researchers and writers, from both India and Britain, blame the British Empire for the famine that occurred whilst the subcontinent was under its rule. Some historians allege that Winston Churchill was accountable for the famine and even refer to it as a crime against humanity. The film gives a voice to historians, researchers and survivors, who were witness to these tragic events.

22 June: Post screening discussion with Professors Amartya Sen & Tirthankar Roy

Bhasmasur

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Nishil Sheth
Starring: Trimala Adhikari, Mittal Chouhan, Raghav Dutt, Imran Rasheed, Bhushan Vikas, Ravi Goswami
Run time: 75 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2017
Language: Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: India

The former thief Dhaanu is heavily in financial debt, he returns to his Rajasthan village from the city to hide from a moneylender. His back against the wall, he decides to sell the prized family donkey, Bhasmasur, with whom his son, Tipu, shares a special bond. The trio set off by foot on a journey across the arid desert  towards the city. Along the way numerous events take place bringing the absent father and his son closer together. As they arrive in the city however their relationship is put to an unexpected test.

Bird of Dusk

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Sangeeta Datta
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Nandita Das, Aparna Sen, Kaushik Gangully, Dorothee Wenner, Konkona Sen Sharma
Run time: 92 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali and English with English subtitles | Country: UK/India/Spain

A fearless, elegant and poetic insight into the career and private life of the late and legendary director Rituparno Ghosh, who we are proud to say attended our festival in our early days. Sangeeta Datta’s film invites reflections by some of Indian cinemas finest actors and filmmakers who recall Ghosh’s impact on their lives including Sharmila Tagore, Aparna Sen, Arjun Rampal, Nandita Das and Prasenjit Chatterjee. These are montaged with Ghosh’s films and his interviews depicting amongst other things an artist’s relationship to their beloved city Kolkata and a personal crusade to find their non-gender specific identity.

Q&A with Sangeeta Datta and guests

BitterSweet

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Starring: Akshaya Gaurav, Suresh Vishwakamra, Anil Nagarkar
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

World premiered at Busan Film Festival, Ananth Mahadevan’s story is based on true life Indian crop workers struggles. In need of money, young Sugana quits college to work in the sugarcane fields with her family. Workers arrive by the truckload to work in this cash rich industry, but nothing is how it seems. Suguna discovers a harsh truth. She is absent for three days to accommodate her menstrual cycle and upon her return learns that she will have to pay a fine for the missed days. Hard up for money and with the system rigged against her, Sugana faces a harrowing choice that will affect the rest of her life.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Online Q&A with Ananth Narayan Mahadevan

Bombay Talkies

Bombay Talkies | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Karan Johar, Dibakar Banerjee, Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Amitabh Bachchan, Katrina Kaif, Randeep Hooda, Rani Mukerji, Saqib Saleem, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Naman Jain, Vineet Kumar Singh.
Run time: 127 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Hindi / Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Mumbai’s spectacular homage to 100 years of Indian cinema is a compilation of four films shot by some of its finest directors. Karan Johar’s Ajeeb Dastaan Hain Yeh is the story of a cheeky, gay man Avinash who becomes friends with his female boss Gayatri. She invites her new friend home for dinner but Avinash soon discovers Gayatri’s husband has a secret. Dibakar Banerjee’s Star is based on Satyajit Ray’s short story about a struggling actor who gets a role as an extra in a Bollywood film, and he has this one last chance to prove himself to the world and his daughter. Zoya Aktar’s joyful Sheila Ki Jawaani tells of a 12-year-old boy whose dad wants him to play football, but he secretly wants to dance like his Bollywood goddess Katrina Kaif. With the help of his sister the boy chases his dreams. Cult director Anurag Kashyap’s Murabba shows a young man, Vijay, from small town Uttar Pradesh travelling to the lights of Mumbai to fulfil his father’s almost impossible last wish, to request a favour of Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan. Don’t miss this red carpet movie!

BOMgAY - The Pionering shorts of Riyad Vinci Wadia

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Brahman Naman

Brahman Naman

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Q.
Starring: Shashank Arora, Tanmay Dhanania, Chaitanya Varad.
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2016
Language: English | Country: UK/India

PLAY TRAILER >

Festival favourite director ‘Q’ (Gandu, Tasher Desh) returns with this In-Betweeners style coming-of-age comedy backed by a rock anthem score. Set in 1980s Bangalore, know-it all teenager Naman (Shashank Arora), and his fellow nerdy mates Ajay and Ramu win every local quiz competition and get hammered on the prize money. Then their big chance comes as the All-India Quiz Final in Calcutta is announced. The three quiz musketeers set out on a chaotic train ride north, but on the journey Naman has a mighty crush on the super-quiz heroine Naina. Naman and his mate’s quest for glory by outsmarting their rivals gets confused with exploding testosterone levels and the trio slide into a mad-cap adventure with hilarious consequences.

(Contains some explicit sexual scenes).

Bread & Belonging

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Sonia Filinto

Run time: 51 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2020
Language: Konkani, English, Kannada with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Set in the small but vibrant Indian state of Goa, Sonia Filinto’s documentary tells a heart-warming story of food and cultural migration through the lens of Goa’s most famous bread, pão. The film follows Alzira and her family who have been quietly following their love for baking for generations, but are nowadays struggling to keep their business alive in a changing world. Not far away, Kiran and his co-workers run a bakery with the tenacity of migrants, adapting to a new trade, new language and even new food. Meanwhile, Marius, a returning migrant with family roots in Goa, is on a mission to bring pão back to its former glory.

Online Q&A with Sonia Filinto

Also streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Brick Lane

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Sarah Gavron
Starring: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Satish Kaushik, Christopher Simpson
Run time: 102 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2007
Language: English, Bengali, Arabic with English subtitles | Country: UK, Bangladesh

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

Director Sarah Gavron’s (Rocks, Suffragette), BAFTA winning debut feature tells the story of Nazneen (Tannishtha Chatterjee), who’s mother always told her she was a born survivor. Trapped within the four walls of her small flat in East London, in a loveless marriage with the middle aged Chanu, Nazneen however fears her soul is quietly dying. Hearing stories of her sister’s carefree life back in Bangladesh, Nazneen struggles to accept her lot, and tries to plough on with her life, that’s until a handsome and hotheaded young market trader comes knocking at her door. Actor Tannishtha Chatterjee gained international notoriety with this controlled, yet commanding central performance.
 

In cinema Q&A with Sarah Gavron and Monica Ali

 

Still from The Bridge film showing at LIFF 2017

Bridge

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Amit Ranjan Biswas
Starring: Soumitra Chatterjee, Sandhya Mridul
Run time: 100 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: UK, India

Satyajit Ray’s beloved actor Soumitra Chatterjee heads up the cast of this life-affirming tale. On a suicide bridge outside Kolkata, two strangers meet with one idea in mind. An elderly widower sees a young woman about to jump. Forgetting his own suicide attempt, he stops her from jumping. Taking her into his care, he discovers her story, and what had seemed a dead end to both lives morphs into a crossroads.

Brit-Asian Shorts Part 1

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Brit-Asian Shorts Part 2

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

BSL Special Double Bill: For Each Other & Double Discrimination

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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SHORT FILMS

For Each Other
Year: 2019 | Country: India
Director: Rima Das | Run time: 22 mins | Language: Assamese with English subtitles

Malti is an earnest shop owner and Ramen a flamboyant tempo driver. Together they pave the way to connect their quaint neighbourhood in Assam to the outside world but when testing times befall their town will they be able to stand up for each other.

Double Discrimination
Year: 2015 | Country: UK
Director: Rinkoo Barpaga | Run time: 28 mins | Language: Silent with English subtitles

Double Discrimination is a personal yet hard hitting documentary by Rinkoo Bargapa, exploring peoples experiences of racism within the Deaf community.

BSL Signed Q&A with special guests

Bulbul Can Sing LIFF

Bulbul Can Sing

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Rima Das
Starring: Arnali Das, Manoranjan Das, Banita Thakuriya, Pakija Begam
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Assamese, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Assamese director Rima Das returns to LIFF with this groundbreaking coming-of-age tale that has swept up prestigious awards at Berlin, Dublin, Singapore and Mumbai film festivals. Three teenage best friends in rural Assam, northeast India, are forging their distinct personalities, but as the girls secretly meet boys, they soon come face to face with outmoded cultural traditions that challenge their family and place in the community, but most importantly their bonds as loyal friends. Rima Das made a global splash with Village Rockstars and Bulbul Can Sing continues to prove her humane, world-class talent.

BSL signed screening Stratford Picturehouse.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Rima Das

 

Call Me Dancer

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Leslie Shampaine, Pip Gilmour

Run time: 84 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2023
Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: USA

This live-your-dream documentary charts the journey of Manish, a charismatic teenage street dancer from Mumbai, who dreams of entering the world of ballet against the wishes of his struggling parents. He gains tutorship from a master Israeli ballet teacher who gives him the determination to keep going. But when he is pitted against another boy who’s got the attention of the Royal Ballet School in London, Manish realizes he must push himself to his physical limits if he has any chance to succeed.

Gurinder Chadha directing refugee camp VH

Chai With Chadha

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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FILMMAKER CONVERSATIONS

Join us for a rare in-depth conversation with the UK’s most prolific drama director of Indian origin. Gurinder Chadha’s richly diverse career started with high-impact shorts at the end of the 1980s followed by her 1993 hit Bhaji On The Beach, which became an instant classic. Her mainstream mega hit was of course the unforgettable Bend It Like Beckham, which like much of her scripts referenced a uniquely British Asian experience. Ahead of releases of her much anticipated new feature Blinded By The Light and new ITV drama Beecham House, we find out what drives and inspires this iconic talent.

 

Chasing Sustainability: Tales From South Asia

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Sidra Altaf (The Sea's Guardian), Omkar Khandagale and Aditya Thakkar (Droughtlands) and Joel Elias (Green Wars)

Run time: 76 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2021

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

A collection of three short films curated by Dr. Anjali Jayakumar looking at the effect climate change has on the people and ecosystem of South Asia, from the mangroves and sea life of Karachi, the droughts of Maharashtra that have effected the sugarcane plantations and the livelihoods of the workers to the farms of Kerala and the impact environmental regulations have had on their lives.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 48 hours]

Chhello Show (Last Film Show)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Pan Nalin
Starring: Bhavin Rabari, Bhavesh Shrimali, Richa Meena
Run time: 100 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Gujarati with English subtitles | Country: India, France

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Samay, a mischievous nine-year-old boy living in a remote village in Gujarat discovers film for the first time and is spellbound. Against his fathers he regularly visits the local cinema and forms a bond with the projectionsist who, in exchange for his lunch box, lets him watch movies for free. As their friendship grows, Samay learns more about the endless possibilities cinema brings and sets off in pursuit of his 35mm dreams, unaware of the adventures that lie in wait. Pan Nalin’s latest is not only a homage to the cinema of the past, but a joyous reminder of the awe and wonder of a child’s imagination. This feel-good film was an audience favourite at Tribeca Film Festival.

Q&A with director Pan Nalin

Chuskit LIFF

Chuskit

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Priya Ramasubban
Starring: Jigmet Dewa Lhamo, Morup Namgyal, Yangchen Dolma
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2018
Language: Ladakhi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Based on a true story in the mountains of Ladakh, we meet Chuskit – a joyous and strong-minded young girl whose dreams of going to school are cut short after an accident leaves her unable to walk. While her friends start school she is confined to life indoors in the company of her strict grandfather, Dorje, who is adamant she must stay at home. As her battle with her grandfather intensifies and Chuskit’s hopes are getting crushed the family decides on a dramatic path of change.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Cinemawala

Cinemawala

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Kaushik Ganguly
Starring: Paran Bandopadhay, Parambrata Chatterjee,Arun Guha Thakurta.
Run time: 105 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

The new tale by Kaushik Ganguly, one of West Bengal’s most accomplished directors, depicts a love-torn nostalgia for the passing age of film. Pranabendu Das is a semi-retired cinema owner from a small town in West Bengal. He owns a movie theatre ‘Kamalini’ named after his former wife. He and his ageing projectionist lovingly tend their film stock and wonderfully ancient movie projector, but the audience doesn’t come any more and the cinema is falling into disrepair. Meanwhile for Pranabendu’s opportunist son Prakash, who has no idealist aspirations, business comes first, he stashes pirated DVDs of new films in the family home and sells them in town. As Pranabendu faces the heart-breaking closure of his beloved cinema and the police come to call about Prakash’s bootleg activities, father and son both purveyors of cinema in their own ways, come to loggerheads.

City Of Gold

City of Gold

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Mahesh Manjrekar
Starring: Shashank Shende, Seema Biswas, Ankush Choudhary
Run time: 145 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Hindi. Marathi, English | Country: India

Set at a similar time as Slum Dog Millionaire, this is a powerful tale about a great time of change in Mumbai – regarded by many as the ‘City of Gold’. The Dhuri family of mill workers, headed by their strong-willed mother, played by the great Seema Biswas (Bandit Queen), live on the edge of the slums. They struggle to survive the abyss of poverty as Mumbai’s great mills are struck down by political corruption and commercial greed, to make way for glittering new shopping malls and 5 star hotels. As dad looses his job and they tip into the abyss, the young sons and daughters must all make heart-wrenching decisions to save the family: mixing with the darker side of under-world power; and trying to marry themselves off to men with jobs. None is as great as that of budding writer son, Baba, who is un-able to sell his scripts and makes an even more desperate sacrifice.

Venus

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Eisha Marjara
Starring: Debargo Sanyal, Jamie Mayers, Pierre-Yves Cardinal, Zena Darawalla, Gordon Warnecke
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: English. no English subtitles | Country: Canada

An award-winning, laugh-out-loud comedy about alternative family values, self-empowerment and love. Sid is a Montreal Punjabi, who after years of struggling with their gender identity has decided to come out as a woman. Other than Sid’s mom crying a lot, all seems to be moving in the right direction, that is until a 14-year-old boy turns up and insists that Sid is his long lost dad from a teenage affair. Shocked – obviously, Sid’s world rapidly spirals out of orbit as Sid attempts to nurture this latch-on teenager who thinks having a transgender Dad is “cool”, an in-the-closet partner and an about to combust Punjabi mom.

Q&A with Director Eisha Marjara and others

Sexy Durga still from the film

CLOSING NIGHT: Sexy Durga

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Starring: Rajshri Deshpande, Kannan Nayer, Vedh
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Malayalam with English Subtitles | Country: India

The festival closes with a gripping film noir, white-knuckle ride. Sexy Durga won the prestigious Tiger Award for Best Film at this year’s Rotterdam International Film Festival and a host of other accolades worldwide. On a long and lonely midnight highway, North Indian migrant Durga and Kabeer, a Kerelite youth, are running away from their past. They hitch a lift, but soon realise that their all-male car hosts are seriously unhinged small time gangsters transporting arms. As their journey takes a sharp road bend into a surreal hell, complete with masked and mysterious Durga Puja festivities, the couple must fight to survive the night. Not to be missed.

The screening is accompanied by a filmmaker Q&A and presentation of the Satyajit Ray Short Film Award with a screening of the short film.

Court

Court

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Chaitanya Tamhane
Starring: Vivek Gomber, Vira Sathidar, Geetanjali Kulkarni.
Run time: 116 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >          FILM WEBSITE >

Chaitanya Tamhane’s tightly scripted and confidently directed second feature is set around a single court case in a Maharashtran town. Within this seemingly simple courtroom drama, a subtle and fascinating exploration of state of the nation India, westernised versus revisionist traditionalist values is uncovered. The outcome is increasingly unsettling, even dangerous, as the seeming stability and order of the British Raj based court system, is pitted against a changing India. Tamhane’s fixed camera framing of tableaux-like scenes of the court and city streets, cleverly creates a sense of increasing unease in the viewer. An ageing, activist, folk singer is charged with inciting a sewerage worker to commit suicide by one of his ‘inflammatory’ songs. His defence lawyer, a westernised man defends the right’s of the artist, while the female Prosecutor states the singer, as the police have described him, is a threat to national security.

Court

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Chaitanya Tamhane

Run time: 116 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

Chaitanya Tamhane’s tightly scripted and confidently directed second feature is set around a single court case in a Maharashtrian town. Within this seemingly simple courtroom drama, a subtle and fascinating exploration of the state of the nation India, westernised versus revisionist traditionalist values is uncovered. The outcome is increasingly unsettling, even dangerous, as the seeming stability and order of the British Raj based court system, is pitted against a changing India. An ageing, activist, folk singer is charged with inciting a sewerage worker to commit suicide by one of his ‘inflammatory’ songs. His defence lawyer, a westernised man defends the rights of the artist, while the female Prosecutor states the singer, as the police have described him, is a threat to national security.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

CRD

CRD

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Kranti Kanade
Starring: Mrinmayee Godbole, Saurabh Saraswat, Vinay Sharma, Abhay Mahajan.
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi and English with English subtitles | Country: India

Set in the world of college theatre, CRD probes fascism and fierce competition in the arts. The battleground is an inter-collegiate drama competition where an autocratic acting coach pushes his students to mental and physical extremes. One of his most gifted students rebels against his methods and forms a rival drama troupe to compete against his own college team. He must now delve deep to find his storytelling voice while at the same time trying to keep his anger in check and rein in his rampant sex drive. This astonishing film heralds the arrival of a bold new voice in world cinema where all limits are breached and boundaries crossed. Be prepared for a breathtaking journey, the likes of which you’ve never been on before.

Cycle

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Prakash Kunte
Starring: Hrishikesh Joshi, Bhau Kaman, Priyadarshan Jadhav, Deepti Lee
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2017
Language: Marathi with English Subtitles | Country: India

In the village of Bhugaon Keshav is a well-known astrologer, with an even more famous yellow cycle, known as Sunshine. The cycle, inherited from his grandfather after he passed away, is Keshav’s most prized possession. One evening two wandering thieves  steal his bike and as Keshav pines away for his beloved machine, he is unable to focus on his astrology and his predictions start going wrong. Unable to see Keshav crestfallen, the villagers band together to plan to somehow reunite the two. Cycle is a magical and life affirming story of love, hope and happiness.

Death of a Gentleman

Death of A Gentleman | London Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Sam Collins
Starring: Kevin Pietersen, Ravi Shastri, N. Srinivasan, Lalit Modi, Giles Clarke.
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: English | Country: UK

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

A hard-hitting documentary of interest to cricket and non-cricket fans alike. Cricketing journalists Jarrod Kimber and Sam Collins set off on a journey to report on the current state of health of Test cricket and to investigate the impact of 20:20 cricket on the five-day game. They end up in something more sinister than they could ever have imagined. During their thrilling three-year journey they criss-cross the globe from London to Australia, from India to Dubai and back again, during which they meet players, the game’s administrators, fans and controversial cricket financiers, resulting in a film that is about much more than cricket. This is a film about passion, about money, about power and it’s a film about standing up for what you care about before it is too late.
The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness

Dekh Indian Circus

Dekh Indian Circus (Watch Indian Circus)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Mangesh Hadawale
Starring: Tannishtha Chatterjee, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Virendrapratap Rathore
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2011
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Kajro (Chatterjee of Brick Lane) and her mute husband Jethu (Siddiqui) eke out a tough existence in rural Rajasthan. Against the backdrop of state elections a circus comes to a nearby town, their children Panni and Ghumroo nag their parents to go. Kajro finally relents and unable to pay for transport sets off with her kids on foot across the desert to fulfil this small dream for them, but the journey will require sacrifices as the parents become puppets in the circus of local politics. Stunning cinematography captures the severe beauty of the Rajasthan countryside while the cast led by Chatterjee and Siddiqui (also see in Gangs of Wasseypur), deliver powerfully underplayed performances in this small film with a big heart. The film won the Audience Choice Award at the Busan Film Festival.

Delhi Belly

Delhi Belly

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Abhinay Deo
Starring: Imran Khan, Vijay Raaz, Kunaal Roy Kapur.
Run time: 145 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2011
Language: Hindi with English | Country: India

Aamir Khan’s special welcome message at LIFF 2011 > 

Irreverent, crude and downright rude this fabulous new comedy caper from modern Mumbai cocks its hat at bad-boy cults like Snatch and The Hangover, with perhaps a little peppering of the Beatles.

Led by Tashi (played by the puppy dog-eyed, teen-heart throb Imran Khan), a dopey bundle of mates find themselves in a whole lot of trouble when they accidentally mix up a bag containing a stool sample (one of them ate the wrong Tandoori Chicken), with another bag which Tashi’s trolley-dolly girlfriend has been asked to carry a bag full of smuggled diamonds!

All sh*t breaks out when the smugglers, led by a particularly nasty villain Cow Boy (played by Vijay Raaz, Monsoon Wedding), set off after them. It also gives Tashi a chance to consider whether he wants to settle down to a suburban marriage with his nice airhostess and Mummy and Daddy in-laws, or take a bite of the wild side. Expect rickshaw chases, upset stomachs and of course, a riot of mix-ups and chases, with unsuspecting English tourists ducking for cover.

Delhi in a Day

Delhi in a Day

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Prashant Nair
Starring: Victor Banerjee, Lillete Dubey, Kulbhushan Kharbanda, Lee Williams, Anjali Patil.
Run time: 88 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2011
Language: English | Country: India

Like Monsoon Wedding, this dark comedy explores the life of Delhi’s upper class society and the huge class differences between the nouveau riche and their have-not servants. A naïve young English man Jasper (Williams) making his first trip to India comes to stay at the mansion of the eccentric Gambhir family who, as he is the son of a powerful business associate, make a fuss of him. Mukund (Kharbanda), the jovial patriarch of the family, struggles to meet the demands of his sharp-tongued wife Kalpana (Dubey), who runs their team of servants, with a rod of iron. Idealistic Jasper is however immediately attracted by one of the servant girls Rohini (Patil), a pretty nineteen year old who dreams of being s Bollywood star, but when Jasper’s money disappears the status quo of the house is rocked.

Dev.d

Dev.D

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Abhay Deol, Mahie Gill, Kalki Koechlin
Run time: 144 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi | Country: India

From Anurag Kashyap, who’s at the vanguard of cutting edge Indian directors, comes this brilliant, luxuriantly visual contemporary re-telling of the classic story of Devdas. Teenage Dev is forced to leave his childhood sweetheart, Paro, behind when he is sent abroad. He struggles through his studies and years later returns home to India where his family hopes he will marry Paro. However, Dev’s promiscuity sees him lose her. He realises too late that he truly loves her and becomes tortured by regret, hurtling into a downward spiral of drugs and alcohol, with his only solace coming from Chanda, a prostitute with traumas of her own. Inevitably, Dev falls foul of the law and redemption proves elusive. The film’s path-breaking narrative struc-ture and rousing musical score capture the zeitgeist and underbelly of modern India, with Deol’s laconic portrayal of Dev instantly establishing him as the poster boy of alternate cinema from the subcontinent.

Dhanak

Dhanak (Rainbow) | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Nagesh Kukunoor
Starring: Krrish Chhabria, Hetal Gada, Vipin Sharma, Suresh Menon, Vijay Maurya.
Run time: 103 mins | Certificate: PG |
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

This uplifting, enchanting and magical story revolves around the relationship between a 10-year old girl Pari, a Shah Rukh Khan fan and Chotu, her blind 8-year old brother who is a die-hard Salman Khan devotee. Inspired by seeing Shah Rukh Khan endorsing sight restoring surgery, Pari leads her brother on an epic journey across the desert state of Rajasthan to the location where the actor is shooting his latest film in the hope that he will arrange for the vision restoring operation and fulfil the promise she had made to Chotu that he will regain his sight when he turns nine. On the way they meet a host of colourful characters that sometimes help and sometimes thwart their plan but always push them in the right path towards their destination. The film won the Generation Kplus section of the Berlin Film Festival earlier this year.

Dobaaraa

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Taapsee Pannu, Saswata Chaterjee, Rahul Bhatt
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

OPENING NIGHT GALA | RED CARPET FROM 17:00

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES


India’s internationally best known director, Anurag Kashyap, returns to the festival, this surreal Sliding Doors style story, telling of a young nurse (Taapsee Pannu), who moves in with her husband and daughter, next to a derelict house. Searching through the new place they come across an old camcorder. Playing it during an electric storm the nurse, freakishly connects live to a little boy who lived in the house decades before, but died. In an attempt to stop the boy’s death she begs him not to go next door to the deserted house. He delays and this not only disrupts time, but her own life story with terrible consequences.

Q&A with Anurag Kashyap and other special guests
Interview by Anna Smith (Girls On Film Podcast, Deadline & BBC)

Ciné Lumière screening in liaison with:

Doob (No Bed of Roses)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Parno Mittra, Nusrat Imroz Tisha, Rokeya Prachy
Run time: 86 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh/India

Successful movie director Javed Hasan finds himself in a midlife crisis, questioning whether marriage and career have demanded too much from him. A tryst with Nitu, his daughter’s childhood friend, turns into a national scandal and his loving family is torn apart. Javed and Nitu marry, but it’s no bed of roses for the couple as they receive the wrath of judgmental Bangladeshi society. The latest film from Bangladesh’s most renowned filmmaker features a powerful central performance from internationally respected Indian actor Irrfan Khan. The film has been festooned with accolades at the Moscow and Shanghai film festivals. 

Q&A with director Mostofa Farooki

Dug Dug

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Ritwik Pareek
Starring: Altaf Khan, Gaurav Soni, Yogendra Singh
Run time: 107 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: India
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: 2021

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Ritwik Pareeks striking and infectiously funny satire explores the roots of faith and the commercialisation of religion. After a freak accident kills an alcoholic middle aged man named Thakur, the Dug-Dug brand motorcycle he is riding is taken away from the scene and locked up at a nearby police station. The following morning, the bike mysteriously appears back at the site of the crash. It is once again taken away by baffled police but once again the next day returns to the scene of the accident. Word of this strange occurance spreads through the village leading the locals to believe they are witnessing divinity and the work of a higher power at play.

Q&A with Ritwik Pareek

Earth

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Deepa Mehta

Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1998
Language: Hindi, English with English with subtitles | Country: India, Canada

Set during the bloody and violent partition of India in 1947, Deepa Mehta’s second film in her “elemental trilogy” is an extraordinary tale of politics, love and revenge.

As India teeters on the brink of self-rule, Lenny – an eight-year-old, polio-stricken Parsee girl – witnesses the deep divisions that are soon to ravage her country. Part of a wealthy, non-partisan family in Lahore (an Indian city soon to become the capital of Pakistan), Lenny is looked after by her loving nanny Shanta (Nandita Das), who is caught between the affections Hasan, a peace advocating Muslim (Rahul Khanna) and Dil Navaz, the charming Ice Candy Man (Aamir Khan).

As reports of violence begin to surface in radio broadcasts and the political tensions grow, Shanta’s life is thrown into turmoil as she tries to keep Lenny safe, while the effects of the impending partition bring devastation to communities.

Eaten By Lions

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Jason Wingard
Starring: Antonio Aakeel, Jack Carroll, Asim Chaudhry, Johnny Vegas, Nitin Ganatra, Kevin Eldon and Darshan Jariwal
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: English (no subtitles), | Country: UK

Two brothers, one mother, three dads.

Omar and Pete are half-brothers. When their parents are eaten by lions they embark on a journey to find Omar’s real father. What follows is a funny, heart-warming journey of self-discovery for both boys…in Blackpool. The Choudray family represents a truly contemporary example of modern multicultural Britain – but what will the brothers make of their eccentric newfound family. In contrast to the old-fashioned stereotypes about Blackpool, the comedy is sharp, current and non-stop. It tells a charming tale of one boys search for his biological father and his own sense of identity, and the unexpected ways in which friendships and a sense of belonging are formed in a multicultural society.

Q&A with Jason Wingard and special Guests

Still from the film Egghead

Egghead (Ondu Motteya Kathe)

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Raj B Shetty
Starring: Raj B Shetty, Amrutha Naik, Shreya Anchan
Run time: 123 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Kannada with English Subtitles | Country: India

Pawan Kumar, winner of the LIFF2013 Audience Award for Lucia, returns with a warm-hearted comic tale of a young bald man Janardhan, trying to find his soulmate, who would see the person he really is, beyond the shine on his head. Janardhan is frustrated by the girls that pass him by, but one day in an identity mix up his family thinks he is in love with a large girl and much to his horror bring her into the clan, but as Janardhan struggles to be free of the girl he is forced to learn some important lessons on happiness.

Elippathayam (Rat Trap)

Elippathayam (Rat-Trap) | Classic

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Starring: Karamana Janardhanan Nair, Sharada, Jalaja, Rajam K. Nair.
Run time: 121 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 1982
Language: Malayalam with English subtitles | Country: India

In this milestone of Indian cinema revered director Adoor Gopalakrishnan deftly documents the tale of a man and his three sisters who cannot comprehend the sweeping changes arising from the demise of feudalism in the southern Indian state of Kerala. Drawing from the experiences of his own family, Gopalakrishnan sets the action in a crumbling mansion where once-proud lives disintegrate in near silence. The film won the Sutherland Award at the London Film Festival in 1982, the only Indian film to have won the coveted award after Satyajit Ray’s win in 1959 for The World of Apu.

Emuthi Puthi (The Very Fishy Trip)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Kulanandani Mahanta
Starring: Pratibha Choudhury, Neetali Das, Srishti Sharma
Run time: 103 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Assamese with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Head strong teen Ritika hates her life under the strict control of her mother Indira, who also happens to be a senior cop. Ritika wants to escape. Ritika’s aged but free spirited grandmother has long dreamed of eating her favourite rural fish curry and then disappearing from the world. The pair come to a pact of convenience to help each other out and one night run away from home. What ensues is a frantic road adventure that takes this unlikely duo to unexpected places, coming across all manner of madcap characters, while Ritika’s police woman mum is hot on their trail.

Enemy

Enemy? | International Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Dinesh P. Bhonsle
Starring: Meenacshi Martins, Salil Naik, Antonio Crasto
Run time: 94 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Konkani with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

In the midst of the festive season, a Goan Catholic family discovers that they have lost their property to the Government and their family honour is at stake. An Indian army captain and his mother are dismayed when corrupt civil servants and politicians gang up against them using the Enemy Property Act of 1968, enacted after the Indo-Pak war in 1965, to usurp their prime land. During their fight against the establishment they find that they are not alone in their struggle and there are several other Goan families who are going through the same crisis. As the tension and drama builds up, the captain finds himself pushed to the edge. The tense narrative also finds time to incorporate the vibrant colours and music of Goa while telling a chilling and compelling tale.

Experimenta India - Liff @ The Tate Modern

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012



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EXPERIMENTA INDIA – LIFF @ THE TATE MODERN

Alongside the commercial cinema of narrative and spectacle in India, there has always been another practice call it avant-garde, experimental, or artists’ film and video. Since its inception in 2003, Experimenta, the independent international festival for experimental cinema in India, has become a significant forum in South Asia for the exhibition, discussion, and dissemination of ideas about new genres of film. Shai Heredia, Experimenta’s Festival Director, has curated this programme featuring two screenings of recent innovations in moving image art from India.

 

EXPERIMENTA INDIA 1

Duration | 57 mins
Tate Modern | Starr Auditorium
PRESENCE | Ekta Mittal and Yashaswini Raghunandan | India 2012 | Colour | Sound | HD | 18 mins

Presence is the second film from the Behind the Tin Sheets Archive. Landscapes shift, people move from place to place – time passes and spaces evolve. Through this metamorphosis, new things try to replace the old. Some remain and linger and some go missing and disappear. We remember and we also forget. Between this, we encounter the invisible. This film reflects the subconscious of migrant workers against an urban landscape in metamorphosis. As they carry their stories in and out of many cities, the cities bear witness to these fragments. A point of impermanence and permanence collide, in close proximity with the filmmakers’ haunt within the city. Suspended from time and space, the familiar begins to render the unfamiliar.

RESIDUE | Sonal Jain and Mriganka Madhukaillya | India 2011 | Colour | Sound | 35mm | 39 mins

This film was shot in a redundant Thermal power plant in the outskirts of the city of Guwahati. It forms a response to the artists’ interest in constructed signs that can never be replicated or remembered and in the relationship between matter and memory. There is an endless circularity and an unbearable silence — the pause A point of impermanence and permanence collide, in close proximity with the filmmakers’ haunt within the city. Suspended from time and space, the familiar begins to render the unfamiliar.

 

EXPERIMENTA INDIA 2

Duration | 59 mins
Tate Modern | Starr Auditorium

JAN VILLA | Natasha Mendonca | India 2012 | Colour + B&W | Sound | 16mm transferred to HD | 20 mins

After the monsoon floods in 2005 that submerged Bombay, the filmmaker returns to her native city to examine the personal impact of this devastating event. The result is Jan Villa, a tapestry of images that studies the space of a post-colonial metropolis but in a way that deeply implicates the personal. The destruction wreaked by the floods becomes a telling and a dismantling of other devastations and the sanctuaries of family and home. In its structure, Jan Villa is a vortex, drawing to its center all that surrounds it.

CITY BEYOND | Shreyasi Kar | India 2011 | Colour | Sound | 35mm | 10 mins

City Beyond is a film that speculates about the lives led by inhabitants of a submerged civilisation. The superstructure has been recently discovered in the crevices of the ocean floor. The film moves through the submerged landscape, gathering glimpses of life, times and the end of a lost society.

THERE IS SOMETHING IN THE AIR | Iram Ghufran | India 2011 | Colour | Sound | 35mm | 29 mins

There is Something in the Air is a call from the periphery of sanity. A series of dream narratives and accounts of spiritual possession as experienced by women ‘petitioners’ at the shrine of a Sufi saint in northern India. Drama unfolds via dreams, appearances of djinns and disappearances of women. The shrine becomes a space for expressions of longing and transgression. The film invites the viewer to a fantastical world, where fear and desire is experienced through dreams and ‘afflictions of air’. The shrine is a space where performance becomes the only rule of engagement, and one can begin to think about the possibilities that ‘insanity’ produces.

Farhan Akhtar Masterclass

Farhan Akhtar | Screen Talk

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014



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BFI player link

Farhan Akhtar is the renaissance man of Indian entertainment, being a director, producer, actor, singer, screenwriter, lyricist and television host. The son of legendary writer and lyricist Javed Akhtar and screenwriter, actor and director Honey Irani, Farhan made his directorial debut with Dil Chahta Hai, a film that changed filmmaking mores in Bollywood. He made his lyric writing debut with Bride and Prejudice and his acting and singing debut with Rock On!! His turn as the Olympian athlete Milkha Singh in the biopic Bhaag Milkha Bhaag has seen him win every major Indian acting award this year!

This engrossing Screen Talk interview was filmed at the BFI – actor, director and producer Farhan Akhtar talks about making his directorial debut with Dil Chatha Hai (2001), his acting debut in Rock On!! (2008) and working with Shah Rukh Khan in Don (2006). Akhtar also explains how his parents have affected his work.

BFI SOUTHBANK

Fire + Introduction by Bidisha Mamata

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Deepa Mehta
Starring: Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das, Kulbhushan Kharbanda
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1996
Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India, Canada

Nandita Das and Shabana Azmi give superb performances as two unhappily married women living in Delhi who fall in love in Deepa Mehta’s powerful melodrama.

Radha (Shabana Azmi) is unwavering in her devotion to her husband, Ashok (Kulbushan Kharbanda), despite their passionless arranged marriage. Meanwhile, Ashok’s brother Jatin (Jaaved Jaaferi) has brought home his new wife, Sita (Nandita Das), but is unwilling to give up his relationship with his Chinese girlfriend. Gradually, a slow-burning love blossoms between the two women.

Loosely based on Ismat Chughtai’s short story “Lihaaf” (“The Quilt”), which became the subject of an obscenity trial in India in 1942, Fire, the first of Deepa Mehta’s ‘Elements’ trilogy, was the subject of violent protests in India, with extremists hurling Molotov cocktails at the screens. It remains an intensely powerful and beautifully acted romance, which kick-started a national conversation about queer rights in India.

Introduction by Bidisha Mamata

Bidisha is a journalist, broadcaster and film- and stills-maker. She works for the BBC, Sky News, Channel 5, CNN and The Guardian and The Observer. Her latest publication is The Future of Serious Art (2020) and her short films include An Impossible Poison (2017) and the Aurora series (2020-2023).

Fireflies In The Abyss

Fireflies in The Abyss

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Chandrasekhar Reddy
Starring: Nishant Rai, Raj Rai, Suraj Subba.
Run time: 88 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Nepali / Hindi / English with English subtitles | Country: India / UK

BFI player link

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

This absorbing documentary follows Suraj a 11-year-old boy who works in the ‘rat-hole’ mines in the Jaintia Hills of North East India. There are narrow strips of coal requiring children to descend steep, sheer chutes and burrow into narrow horizontal tunnels to scratch coal out of hard rock, armed with nothing more than a pickaxe and a head torch. In these hostile pits, every day is a game of death. With Suraj’s story as the primary narrative, the life in the mining camp and the intertwining fates of the miners are explored. Most of the events characterise the choices made under the difficult circumstances that they experience, see around them and have to continually resolve – both internally and externally. Contrasting the various responses elicits drama, irony and humour, while gradually building up a composite picture of lives under unusual and extraordinary circumstances.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

Flight

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Alex Pillai
Starring: Mina Anwar, Kulvinder Ghir, Roshan Seth, Meera Syal
Run time: 75 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1997
Language: English | Country: UK

CLOSING NIGHT GALA

A talented British Asian star cast comes together in this Northern family drama, sensitively written by Tanika Gupta and directed by Alex Pillai. Shikha (Mina Anwar), a young Hindu school girl from Lancashire town Accrington, secretly falls in love with a Muslim boy. As word gets out about their tryst, she is threatened and is forced to flee to London to escape the wrath of her patriarch father (Roshan Seth), who sends out community bounty hunters after her. In the big city she finds refuge in a secret women’s shelter, where she discovers a new found sense of freedom, but her past soon catches up with her.
 

Q&A with Alex Pillai, cast and crew

 

For The Love of a Man

For The Love of a Man

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Rinku Kalsy
Starring: K. Hariharan, Uma Vangal, G. Mani.
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2015
Language: Tamil / English with English subtitles | Country: India / Netherlands

PLAY TRAILER >

Actor, Leader, Hero, God. For his fans, the superstar Rajinikanth is all of these. Men from various generations alter their lives, sell their belongings, and place fandom above their families in devotion to the iconic actor, a man who has inspired a fanatic cult following across the world ranging from India to Japan. This riveting documentary explores how fandom is expressed through enormous posters, elaborate public rituals, and the frenzied atmosphere inside theatres has deep social, political, and devotional foundations in South India. Fandom is about more than cinema – it is about brotherhood, identity, or even social aspiration. The film follows various stories – performers seeking a shot at fame by mimicking the star, families managing the consequences of the fans’ spending on movies, theatre owners worrying about fans running wild.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

Four Lions

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Christopher Morris
Starring: Riz Ahmed, Adeel Akhtar, Kayvan Novak and Nigel Lindsay
Run time: 97 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2010
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

From the minds behind Brass Eye and Peep show comes this rip-roaring comedy about four British Muslims who set out to commit an act of terror. What follows is a hilarious, sharply written satire looking into the ideology of idiots. Covering a difficult topic with extremely sharp writing, it’s a film that manages to avoid being insensitive and even becomes emotional.

Gali Guliyan (In the Shadows)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Dipesh Jain
Starring: Manoj Bajpayee, Neeraj Kabi, Shahana Goswami, Ranvir Shorey, Om Singh
Run time: 117 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2017
Language: Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: India/ UK

In the walled city of Old Delhi, a reclusive shopkeeper spends his days obsessively watching people through hidden closed circuit cameras. When he overhears a boy being beaten by a man, he begins to frantically search for the child. As he becomes lost in the labyrinthine alleys of the city, his grasp on reality falters, until he eventually stumbles across a shocking truth about a father and an abused son. Dipesh Jain’s feature film debut is a superbly dark and atmospheric psychological thriller that expertly explores the roots of paranoia.

Q&A with director Dipesh Jain and Manoj Bajpayee

Gamak Ghar (The Village House)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Achal MIshra
Starring: Abhinav Jha, Mira Jha, Satyam Jha
Run time: 91 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Maithili with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

In a north Indian village, a large extended family reunites at their ancestral home to celebrate a new birth in the family. It’s a joyous and carefree occasion. Over the next two decades, through festivals and feasts, births and deaths and with children moving away to the city, the film observes the house age and fall into neglect with the passing of time. Achal Mishra’s astonishing debut feature film is the most intimate of epics, beautifully exploring the ebb and flow of family life in an ever changing world.

Online Q&A with Achal Mishra

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Gandhi

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Richard Attenborough
Starring: Ben Kingsley, John Gielgud, Rohini Hattangadi
Run time: 191 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 1982
Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: UK, USA, India, South Africa

Strand: GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA

On the epic film’s 40th anniversary, LIFF presents and re-examines the movie that brought the Gujarati independence leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi back to world attention in the 1980s, with screenings of the film even allegedly helping to spark the non-violent Czech Velvet Revolution, much as the real Gandhi’s Ahimsa campaigns had inspired earlier revolutionary movements around the world. Winning 8 Oscars with an all-star Indian and UK cast, this is a rare chance to see the full visual spectacle and unforgettable soundscape of Gandhi on the big screen at BFI’s NFT1.

Introduction by Professor Talat Ahmed and other special guests

Gandu

Gandu & Gandu Circus

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Q.
Starring: Anurbata Basu, Joyraj Bhattacharya, Rituparna Sen
Run time: 89 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

India’s most radical director Q delivers a tour de force, which has excited festivals around the world. Twenty-year-old Gandu lives with his single mum in a dingy Kolkata flat. She has turned to sex work to make ends meet. His life revolves around the local internet café where he overdoses on videogames and porn until one day he bumps into Rickshaw, who introduces him to hard drugs and together they slide into a dark fantasy world where angry rap lyrics melt into visitations by the goddess Kali and an alien sex-kitten. Listen out for a stunning music track inspired by the UK’s Asian Dub Foundation. The film contains some sexually explicit imagery so don’t bring your mum!

GANDU CIRCUS with SUSHEELA RAMAN AT BFI

The London Indian Film Festival is delighted to announce that Mercury nominated musician Susheela Raman will perform alongside acclaimed filmmaker and rapper Q, in a unique first of its kind event that marries the heady vibe of the controversial film Gandu with a pulsating interactive concert. June 21 will see BFI Southbank reverberate to the strains of Raman and Q’s band Gandu Circus along with special guest Steve Chandra Savale from the Asian Dub Foundation, following a screening of Gandu. The Arts Council of England supports the event.

QSusheela

Gangs of Wasseypur

Gangs of Wasseypur | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Manoj Bajpai, Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Reema Sen
Run time: 160 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2012
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Anurag Kashyap, the Godfather of contemporary Indian independent cinema, takes on the epic gangster genre, and produces a masterpiece that can rightfully rub shoulders with the classics of Coppola and Scorsese. Kashyap deftly delivers a firecracker of a movie set around warring mafia clans clashing for power and passion in the coal mining towns of Northern India. A weapon-loaded cast is led by Manoj Bajpai and delivers high energy performances in this sprawling tale of generations locked in violence and its ultimate impact on family and loved ones. The film is shot through with an earthy Indian sensibility where you can almost smell the fragrance of the soil, yet the filmmaking is on par with the best of the West. Bajpai, whose breakthrough performance was in Satya, written by Kashyap, dominates proceedings as an ambitious gangster with a rampant libido and a permanently cocked gun. Expect spectacular gunfights!

Gattu

Gattu

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Rajan Khosa
Starring: Mohd Samad, Naresh Kumar, Jayanta Das
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2011
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Set in the picturesque town of Roorkee in the Himalayan foothills, Gattu is a story of childhood passion. Gattu (Samad) lives and works at a scrap yard belonging to a man that bought him from his sick father. Gattu is however adept at slipping out of hard chores so he can indulge his passion for kite flying. He secretly enters the town’s next kite flying competition. Though illiterate, Gattu realises that his best hope of winning the competition is to fly his kite from Roorkee’s tallest building, the school. Gattu steals a uniform and brazens his way into school. A dramatic battle of the skies ensues as young Gattu uses every trick in the book to claim the lead. The film marks a triumphant return for director Rajan Khosa whose debut Dance of the Wind was much acclaimed. The film is the toast of the festival circuit worldwide and won a special mention at the Berlin International Film Festival.

Ghar Ka Pata (Home Address)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Madhulika Jalali

Run time: 67 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2020
Language: Hindi, Kashmiri, English with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

A heartfelt documentary following director Madhulika Jalali as she searches for her identity as a Kashmiri Pandit woman. In the early 90s, six-year-old Madhulika and her family fled Rainawari – a quaint suburb of Srinagar – in response to Kashmir’s separatist insurgency. Twenty four years later with no memory of her birthplace, she returns to visit her lost home with her family. Weaving together impromptu conversations, family anecdotes and stunning footage from the streets of Rainawari where she is welcomed back by her childhood neighbours, Ghar Ka Pata reveals deep and personal connections that go beyond religion and politics.

Also streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Ghore Pherar Gaan (Homecoming Song)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Aritra Sen
Starring: Ishaa Saha, Parambrata Chattopadhyay, Gourab Chatterjee, Reshmi Sen
Run time: 140 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Bengali, English | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

This uplifting musical follows the journey of Tora (Ishaa Saha), a girl from the suburbs of Kolkata, to her marital home in London. Tora is in dissonance with the high-flying lives of her NRI doctor husband Ribhu and her council-woman mother-in-law Shanta, and thus starts searching for solace outside the bounds of her home. This is when Imran (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), a consummate musician from India, enters her life, making the caged bird inside her sing again and embrace life on her own terms. The film closely portrays the lives of Bengalis in London and the alienation that is felt by a new immigrant from abroad. Yet the city of London, somehow, subsumes one with time and becomes home to the lost souls.

Q&A with talent expected

Girls for Future

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Irja Von Bernstoff

Run time: 88 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: English, Hindi, Indonesian with English subtitles | Country: Australia, Germany, India, Indonesia, Senega

Strand: Young Rebel

Girls For Future is an inspiring doc about four young front line activists, aged between 11 and 14 years old from Indonesia, Senegal, India and Australia. They represent the voice of a new generation directly affected by the climate crisis and environmental degradation at their doorstep. These four young women show tremendous endeavour, courage and power as they take on the government officials and established norms and try to bring about real world solutions to restore and protect their family and homelands, and our global climate.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 48 hours]

Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya

Goopi Gawaiya Bagha Bajaiya | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Shilpa Ranade
Starring: Voices of Manish Bhawan, Shailendra Pande, Rajeev Raj.
Run time: 79 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2013
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Premiered at Toronto Film Festival, The World of Goopi and Bagha is a delightful and hilarious animated feature, based on a story for children of all ages immortalised by Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. Goopy and Bagha are such terrible singers and musicians that they are thrown out of their own respective towns. They bump into each other in the forest and immediately become best buddies. They also then bump something more terrifying – the King of Ghosts, but he likes their terrible music so much he gives them a pair of magical slippers each and three wishes. Armed with this new magical confidence they set out on the road to adventure.

Gour Hari Dastaan

Gour Hari Dastaan: The Freedom File | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Ananth Narayan Mahadevan
Starring: Vinay Pathak, Konkona Sen Sharma, Tannishtha Chatterjee.
Run time: 111 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Director Ananth Mahadevan whose previous film Mee Sindhutai Sapkal was a big hit with London audiences returns with a moving, true-life drama about one of the last remaining Gandhian ‘freedom fighters’ Hari Gaur Das. This elderly man is of modest means and fighting to win recognition from the bureaucratic Indian government. They want him to prove he was an Independence hero to win his right to a state pension, while locals call him a liar, and even his wife doubts his chances, Hari recalls the independence struggles of his youth and with great mental strength sets out to prove his case. There are some sparkling performances by an ensemble cast including Vinay Pathak, Konkona Sen Sharma, Ranveer Shorey and Tannishtha
Chatterjee.

Guru Lounge at LIFF

Guru Lounge: British Asian Filmmakers & Artists on the Edge of Brexit

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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The festival encourages ground-breaking debate and will be organising talks aimed at industry professionals during the festival. GURU LOUNGE presents an invaluable guide to the ever-burgeoning Indian and South Asian film industries. A must for film industry professionals interested in co-production, acting in or shooting their next project in India.

Faced with an uncertain post-Brexit future, many British Asian creative professionals are thinking about where we fit. Will intolerance increase? What are our opportunities in terms of the arts and diversity? Will funding grow, or be cut? In this panel debate, we gather leading filmmakers, artists and agencies, including the BFI’s CEO Amanda Nevill, to explore the challenges and opportunities in this new world.

Speakers include (others tbc):

Amana Nevill (CEO, BFI)
Pratibha Parmar (Filmmaker)
Harriet Finney (Deputy CEO, Creative Industries Federation)
Deborah Sathe (Cinestaan Film Company)
Gaylene Gould (BFI)
Vinay Patel (Screenwriter)

Blue Room, BFI Southbank, Monday 26th June, 6.45-8.15 pm

Chai and Chat LIFF

Guru Lounge: Chai and Chat

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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GURU LOUNGE

Enjoy a cup or two of chai thanks to our friends at Benugo during this informative extended panel and Q&A session with luminaries from the British film industry, including funders, distributors and producers.

A unique opportunity to hear from UK Asian and BAME and Indian filmmakers, especially women, talk about their work and the challenges and opportunities they have faced in making their films. We will also explore scripting, finance, and the production process in both countries and opportunities for international co-production.  One not to miss!

 

PANEL MEMBERS

Meneka Das, Filmmaker and actor
Dr Chila Kumari Burman, Artist and experimental filmmaker
Naman Ramachandran, Script Writer Brahim Naman and Critic for Variety magazine
Paul Brett, Producer of Flying Tiger Productions
Tariq Wahr, ScreenSkills Film Production Liaison Manager

 

Supported by ScreenSkills

Guru Lounges are open to all emerging talent working in film. Tickets are £5 each.

Limited capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Meet the Film makers LIFF

Guru Lounge: Meet The Filmmakers

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



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GURU LOUNGE

LIFF is proud to welcome to the UK many South Asian filmmakers – whether early, mid or established career professionals – to present the premieres of their films. This is an ideal opportunity to get up close and personal with these important and inspiring artists. Networking is encouraged!

 

THE FILMMAKERS

Chris Hainsworth, Film Producer
Praveen Morchhale, Film Director
Anjali Bhushan, Film Director
Iesh Thapar, Film Director
Gaurav Bakshi, Film Director

 

Guru Lounges are open to all emerging talent working in film. Tickets are £5 each.

Limited capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

 

Guru Lounge: Sunday Sessions -Chai and Chat

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018



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LIFF is pleased to present an afternoon of chai and chat. In the first of these sessions, we welcome the following people to talk briefly about their experience working in film and media from a range of disciplines including directing, producing, acting to more behind the scenes activities that help get films out into the world.

Director – Hammad Khan – ANIMA STATE, SLACKISTAN 
Director – Amit Biswas – THE BRIDGE
Director – Sarmad Masud – MY PURE LAND
Producer – Paromita Banerjee – THE BRIDGE
Producer – Uzma Hasan –  THE INFIDEL, FIRST BORN, LONDONSTANI
Actor – Waleed Akhtar – NIGHT BUS, THREE GIRLS
Agent – Nish Panchal – Curtis Brown

Following their introductions, there’ll be a short, sharp Q&A session for participants to gain further insights as we flow into an informal chat over chai and build what we hope will be a new network of people from South Asian backgrounds working in film today.

Guru Lounges are free events open to all for emerging talent working in film. To reserve your place please click HERE.

Limited capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

 

Supported by:

Guru Lounge: Sunday Sessions - Getting Your Film Into Festivals

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018



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The whole world is a festival. For first and second-time filmmakers finding the right place to launch your film can be very difficult. There are so many festivals for so many different types of films that it’s difficult to know where to start. LIFF is pleased to welcome a panel of festival directors who all actively support new talent.

Tricia Tuttle – The BFI London Film Festival
Sangeeta Datta – Director – Bird of Dusk  

Cary Sawhney – Director – London Indian Film Festival
Wendy Mitchell – International Programme Manager – British Council
Philip Ilson – Artistic Director – London Short Film Festival

The panel will discuss the finer points of how they find new films and work to support talent to get their films out to the audiences they deserve. Whether you’re a short film maker or working on your latest feature…if you want to gain valuable insights into how to to get your film out there.. this is an event not to be missed.

Guru Lounges are free events open to all for emerging talent working in film. To reserve your place please click HERE.

Limited capacity. Please book early to avoid disappointment.

Guru Lounge: THE HUNGRY - UK/INDIA Co-Production Case Study

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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The festival encourages ground-breaking debate and will be organising talks aimed at industry professionals during the festival. GURU LOUNGE presents an invaluable guide to the ever-burgeoning Indian and South Asian film industries. A must for film industry professionals interested in co-production, acting in or shooting their next project in India.

A fascinating spotlight on Bornila Chatterjee’s THE HUNGRY, a contemporary reworking of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus, here morphed into a New Delhi revenge thriller.  Cast includes Naseerudin Shah (Monsoon Wedding, League of Extraordinary Gentlemen) Tisca Chopra (Qissa: Tale of a Lonely Ghost), Arjun Gupta (Nurse Jackie) Antonio Aakeel (City Of Tiny Lights).  Key players from the film, Film London and Cinestaan Film Company come together to talk about this unique collaboration.

Speakers:

  • Adrian Wootton (CEO Film London)
  • Deborah Sathe (Cinestaan Film Company)
  • Kurban Kassam (Producer and co-writer The Hungry).
  • Antonio Aakeel (Actor, The Hungry)

Chair: Lee Stone (Lee and Thompson)

FREE EVENT but prior booking for these sessions is essential – please contact Satwant Gill: info@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk

Blue Room, BFI Southbank, Wednesday 28th June, 10.00-11.00 am

Guru Lounge: Virtual Reality from Mumbai to London

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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The festival encourages ground-breaking debate and will be organising talks aimed at industry professionals during the festival. GURU LOUNGE presents an invaluable guide to the ever-burgeoning Indian and South Asian film industries. A must for film industry professionals interested in co-production, acting in or shooting their next project in India.

Dive into the world of VR filmmaking, with experts from Mumbai and London, convening at the BFI South Bank to discuss their experience shooting, editing and financing Virtual Reality content. Moving beyond its initial “fad” phase, VR is heading towards mass adoption. Filmmakers are experimenting with new techniques, telling stories and creating experiences in new ways. We are living in a period of cinematic innovation perhaps not seen since the early experiments which led through the films of Georges Méliès and Raja Harishchandra through to the grammatical innovations of Serge Eisenstein and Orson Welles.

To accompany its first showcase of Indian and British Asian VR films, LIFF hosts a panel of leading filmmaker from India and the UK. The panel will discuss their work using immersive 360 degree storytelling to drive awareness and change perceptions around themes such as global warming, human trafficking, women’s rights and caste protests. The panel will also discuss the potential of full interactive VR to create new ways of telling stories.

Speakers:

  • Mark Atkins (Director, Crossover Labs, London) (Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel VR)
  • Anand Gandhi (Founder, Memesys Studios, Mumbai) (Ship of Theseus, Proposition for a Revolution)
  • Jayisha Patel (Writer-Director, London) (Notes to My Father VR)
  • Sairam Sagiraju (Meraki Studios, Mumbai) (Winds of Samsara)
  • Resh Sidhu (Framestore, London-New York) (Fantastic Beasts VR)

Chair: Chris Hainsworth

FREE EVENT but prior booking for these sessions is essential – please contact Satwant Gill: info@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk

Blue Room, BFI Southbank, Monday 26th June, 10.00-11.00 am

Half Ticket film still

Half Ticket

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Samit Kakkad
Starring: Priyanka Bose, Bhalchandra Kadam, Shubham More, Vinayak Potdar
Run time: 112 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2016
Language: Marathi with English Subtitles | Country: India

Two slum kids want nothing more than a slice of pizza, and when a pizza parlour opens near their playground, the boys are consumed by the desire to taste this new foreign dish. Realising that one pizza costs more than their family’s monthly income, they begin to plot ways to earn money – inadvertently beginning an adventure that will involve the entire city.

Free to student groups Suitable for 11 to 14-year-olds

To book please call BFI Education on 020 7815 1329

Halkaa (Relief)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Nila Madhab Panda

Starring: Tathastu, Ranvir Shorey, Paoli Dam
Run time: 114 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi with English subtitles
 | Country: India

This lovely family film that addresses social issues in a light-hearted manner follows Pichku, a boy growing up in one of Delhi’s oldest slums, who fights against having to defecate in the open. After failing to convince his family and others to build a toilet, Pichku and his friend Gopi make it their mission to try and get one built. This is the ultimate feel good film that is both charming and heart warming. Winner of the Grand Prix at the Montreal Film Festival, the film also boasts of a terrific soundtrack by virtuoso Bollywood composers Shankar-Ehsaan-Loy.

Hank and Asha

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: James E. Duff
Starring: Andrew Pastides, Mahira Kakkar
Run time: 73 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2013
Language: English | Country: USA

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

Winner of the Slamdance Audience Award, this tender delight of a movie tells of the courtship of two loveable young strangers searching for connection in an online world. Adorable Indian, Asha, is studying in Prague, where she watches a film by an American, called Hank, which she adores, but misses him at the post screening Q&A, so she takes a risk and sends him a video blog. To her surprise handsome Hank responds with a video blog from his home in New York. Very quickly the two bond and are soon communicating regularly and before they know it, they plan their first actual date in Paris, but one of them has held back a secret.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Hank and Asha

Hank and Asha | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: James E. Duff
Starring: Andrew Pastides, Mahira Kakkar.
Run time: 73 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2013
Language: English | Country: USA

Winner of the Slamdance Audience Award, this tender delight of a movie tells of the courtship of two loveable young strangers searching for connection in an online world. Adorable Indian, Asha, is studying in Prague, where she watches a film by an American, called Hank, which she adores, but misses him at the post screening Q&A, so she takes a risk and sends him a video blog. To her surprise handsome Hank responds with a video blog from his home in New York. Very quickly the two bond and are soon communicating regularly and before they know it, they plan their first actual date in Paris, but one of them has held back a secret.

Haraamkhor

Haraamkhor (The Wretched) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Shlok Sharma
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Shweta Tripathi, Trimala Adhikari.
Run time: 92 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

From the people who brought you worldwide critical and commercial success The Lunchbox, comes this riveting tale of forbidden love. In a dusty town in Gujarat, while a nation rumbling towards economic progress churns away in the background, a school and its inmates are thrown into sharp relief. A married schoolteacher develops more than an academic interest in one of his comely students and the feeling is mutual. It doesn’t help that the girl’s father is a high-ranking police officer. Debutant director Shlok Sharma who has assisted Indian indie Godfather Anurag Kashyap on Dev D and Gangs of Wasseypur in the past, ratchets up the tension, resulting in a mesmerising journey that ends in a searing, soaring, emotional finale. As usual, indie king Nawazuddin Siddiqui delivers a command performance, matched turn for turn by the fresh faced Shweta Tripathi.

Hati Bondhu: Friends of Elephants

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Kripal Kalita

Run time: 51 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2022
Language: English partly Assamese with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

With destruction of Elephant’s forests in Assam and the expansion of the human population, human-elephant conflict has increased massively resulting in mortalities on both sides. This inspiring and informative documentary showcases the efforts of the non-profit organisation ‘Hati Bondhu’ to save the lives of these majestic, intelligent animals, and help the farmers’ rice harvest prosper, stopping the conflict between the two.

Contains some scenes of animal cruelty which may upset some viewers

Hemalkasa

Hemalkasa | World Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Samruddhi Porey
Starring: Nana Patekar, Sonali Kulkarni, Mohan Agashe.
Run time: 117 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

This inspirational biopic follows the selfless journey of Dr. Prakash Baba Amte and his wife Dr. Mandakini Amte, a couple who dedicated their lives to a project for the development of tribal people of Maharashtra, India, in the toughest of conditions with little or no support from the establishment. The project, located at Hemalkasa, eventually led to the formation of a free hospital, a free residential school and an orphanage for injured wild animals. For their pioneering efforts, the Amtes were accorded the prestigious Magsasay Award for Community Leadership. Nana Patekar and Sonali Kulkarni deliver the performance of their lives in this outstanding example of the best Indian independent cinema. Incredibly moving, the film will leave you with a tear in your eye, a fond smile on your lips and an immediate desire to improve the world that we live in.

If you would like to support the work at Hemalkasa please click here to find out more.

Hide & Seek (Lapachhapi)

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Vishal Furia
Starring: Pooja Sawant, Usha Naik, Vikram Gaikwad
Run time: 110 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2016
Language: Marathi with EST | Country: India

Neha an eight months pregnant woman and her husband escape goons in the big city seeking shelter in their driver’s house deep in rural India. But the house and the surrounding eerie, impenetrable maze of sugarcane fields are rustling with secrets of a disturbing past that starts appearing rapidly. Neha soon realises she is in a deadly trap, and there is only one way-out. This truly scary genre film blends in social concern as it highlights chilling practices still prevalent in India today.

Hotel Salvation film still

Hotel Salvation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Shubhashish Bhutiani
Starring: Adil Hussain, Lalit Behl, Geetanjali Kulkarni
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: India

In this gentle charmer, a 77-year-old father decides to end his days in the holy city of Varanasi and attain salvation, with his son accompanying him. Their journey is a shining example of how humour, warmth and humanity triump(h over pathos. The film won the UNESCO award at Venice  and the Critics Award at Vesoul, and showcases bravura performances from renowned actors Adil Hussain (Life of Pi), Lalit Behl (Titli) and Geetanjali Kulkarni (Court).

Hva vil folk si (What Will People Say)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Iram Haq

Starring: Maria Mozhdah, Adil Hussain, Rohit Saraf, Ali Arfan, Sheeba Chaddha
Run time: 106 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2017
Language: Norwegian, Urdu with English Subtitles | Country: Norway/Germany/Sweden

Director Iram Haq’s compelling tale has been collecting awards worldwide since its debut at the Toronto International Film Festival. It tells of a young Pakistani teenager, Nisha whose happy-double-life in Norway is torn apart when her father discovers her with her white Norwegian boyfriend. Outraged and under pressure from the community, he sends her off to Pakistan to ‘learn how to behave properly.’ Trapped in a land she doesn’t know, with a hostile extended family who see her as a shameful westerner, Nisha is forced to make hard choices. Maria Mozhdah makes a powerful debut as Nisha with Adil Hussain as her troubled father.

The screening will be introduced by Shaista Gohir (Wednesday 27th June at Picturehouse Central)

Shaista Gohir is a leading women’s rights campaigner and Chair of the Muslim Women’s Network UK, a national charity, which also operates a national helpline which she set up.

I’ll Meet You There

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Iram Parveen Bilal
Starring: Faran Tahir, Nikita Tewani, Sheetal Sheth
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: English, Urdu with English subtitles | Country: USA

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

An insightful and moving portrait of three generations of a Muslim-American family, I’ll Meet You There follows Majeed, a Chicago policeman, and his teenage daughter Dua, a gifted ballet dancer. Their blissful life begins to take a turn after an unexpected visit from Baba, Majeed’s long-estranged, religious father from Pakistan, which coincides with his new undercover assignment with the FBI. As Baba and Dua’s relationship begins to blossom she is soon forced to pirouette between her passion for dance and her roots.

Online Q&A: Iram Parveen Bilal, cast and crew with BBC’s Haroon Rashid

Also streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Ilai (leaf)

Ilai (Leaf) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Rajiv Reddy Pochareddy
Starring: Manjula Odanadi, Pritham Charavarthy, Mighty Gibson.
Run time: 67 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2013
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

With great pathos, and a riveting narrative, Ilai (Leaf) encapsulates the stories of many thousands of Indians arriving in the big cities each year, in the hope of a better future, or sometimes just by chance. Often their only baggage is a troubled past. We are introduced to one such story, a lonely little girl from the countryside who accidentally finds herself in a bustling metropolis. The girl can’t speak the city’s language, or understand its high-speed ways. She wanders the mean streets to find shelter, but soon realises she must enlist the help of others, including a homeless old woman to ensure her survival.

Ilai (Leaf) is screening with a short film – FOREST MAN | Dir. William Douglas McMaster. A doc. based on the true story of a man who planted an Indian forest from scratch.

In Conversation With Asif Kapadia

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Oscar, Grammy Award, BAFTA winning British filmmaker Asif Kapadia is one of the first British Asians to make huge waves in the world of cinema. His first feature film The Warrior was nominated for three BAFTA awards, winning two, including Outstanding British Film of the Year. The Warrior was the first international role for the late, great Irrfan Khan. Kapadia won accolades for his trilogy of documentaries Senna, Amy & Diego Maradona, showing an uncanny ability to take archive footage and tell compelling cinematic stories about key figures and the price of fame. Kapadia directed episodes of the series Mindhunter for David Fincher & Netflix, he executive produced the music series 1971: ‘The year that music changed everything’ and he co directed & executive produced the series The Me You Can’t See with Oprah Winfrey and Prince Harry focusing on mental health and well being, both for AppleTV+. Watch him take a deep dive into his career on stage at The BFI Southbank, with acclaimed film critic Hanna Ines Flint.

In Conversation With Avtar Panesar

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Behind the surface glamour of the film industry are the key industry professionals who dynamically make it all happen. We are delighted to celebrate and talk to one such British hero Avtar Panesar , who over the last thirty years has been a pioneer of the UK Asian Bollywood film & music scene and has gone on to be a leading light in one of India’s biggest hit movie studios – Yash Raj Films.

Avtar talks about his childhood, arrival from Punjab to London’s Southall in the 1970s and how his father’s strong immigrant work ethic inspired him. Starting as a stockroom assistant with EMI India he climbed to management within the company promoting Indian music. This soon took him into Hindi commercial cinema, where as a young man, his hard work and diligence caught the attention of movie moguls Yash and Aditya Chopra , who handpicked him to execute their vision to set up the company’s international operations.

As success followed, Avtar then ascended to greater heights moving back to India at Yash Raj Studios, Mumbai to be dynamically involved with this legendary company’s global expansion which now celebrates 50 years of movie-making.

Online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

In Conversation With Gurinder Chadha

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Celebrating the iconic British BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated film Bend It Like Beckham at the 20th anniversary of it being in production, British Punjabi director Gurinder Chadha OBE, returns to the Festival to introduce this film at a unique open air screening at Rooftop East. Best known for her films like the BAFTA nominated Bhaji on the Beach, Bride and Prejudice, Viceroy’s House, and Blinded by the Light, Kenya born Chadha started her media career in radio, and then TV as a BBC news reporter, going on to direct award-winning documentaries for the British Film Institute, BBC and Channel Four. Empowered by vibrant British Bhangra music, she created a seminal documentary on British Asian identity, entitled I’m British, But… Gurinder is a patron of Women in Film and TV UK and has been part of many firsts for a British Asian woman in cinema. She has collaborated numerous times with the double Oscar and double Grammy winner, AR Rahman, for the music that has adorned her films.

In conversation with BBC presenters Sunny & Shay.

In Conversation With Hanif Kureishi

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

One of Britain’s best known screenwriters, Hanif Kureshi CBE is of mixed Pakistani and English origin. He earned his degree in Philosophy at King’s College London. He went on to write plays for the Hampstead Theatre, and by the age of 18, was with the Royal Court. He wrote My Beautiful Laundrette in 1985, a screenplay about a gay Pakistani-British boy growing up in 1980s London for a cult film directed by Stephen Frears, which won him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Screenplay. Kureishi’s drama The Mother was adapted into a movie by Roger Michell, which won a joint First Prize in the Director’s Fortnight section at Cannes Film Festival. The television miniseries, based on the novel The Buddha of Suburbia, and film My Son the Fanatic based on his own short story of the same title garnered him recognition as an astute story teller. See him in a live Q&A on stage at the BFI Southbank, with the screening of My Beautiful Laundrette.

Image credit: Kier Kureishi

In Conversation With Janhvi Kapoor

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Born to the late legendary  pan Indian actress Sridevi and Bollywood producer Boney Kapoor, Janhvi Kapoor has made her mark on Hindi cinema since her first foray onto the cinematic screen in 2018 with Dhadak. She took her early training at the popular Lee Strasberg Theatre and Film Institute in California. She went on to win accolades for her role in the Zoya Akhtar directed Story 1 segment as part of the Netflix anthology, Ghost Stories. Her titular role in Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl went on to win plaudits for her understated performance and physical transformation, playing one of India’s first female air force officers.  An actress for the modern age, with many films in the streaming sphere, Kapoor discusses her short but steady journey in cinema, with film critic Mike McCahill of The Guardian, Reader’s Digest and The Telegraph on www.loveliffathome.com

Online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Image credit: House of Pixels

In Conversation With Karan Johar

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

The son of Bollywood producer Yash Johar of Dharma Productions, Karan Johar followed in his father’s illustrious footsteps without missing a beat, ably aided by his mother, Hiroo Johar. Starting his career as an actor, he went on to create what is seen as the epitome of Bollywood cinema, working with lavish opulent sets, and working with the biggest names in the business. His foray into cinema came via his role as an assistant director on cousin Aditya Chopra’s super hit film Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge, where he formed his close working relationship with Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, creating his directorial debut, the multiple award winning Kuch Kuch Hota Hai. His work with Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham… starring Amitabh Bachchan and Jaya Bachchan followed to great success. He has since produced, worked with, and launched many newcomers in cinema. He speaks to Girls On Film & BBC’s Anna Smith about his incredible career.

Online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

In Conversation With Pam Cullen

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Pam Cullen at 97 years young, is a true legend, with an incredible career spanning over fifty years in the Indian film industry. In this very rare, frank and at times witty Interview Pam talks to author and producer Nasreen Munni Kabir about her unique life and work. It starts in the 1940s, rebelling against her conservative English parents to join the ‘Free India’ movement and becoming involved with the nascent Indian High Commission and then the early National Film Development Corporation of India. Pam recounts her career experiences with the Indian independence leader V.K.Krishna Menon, setting up the UK’s first Indian film screening after WW2. She later worked with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and befriended the shy young Satyajit Ray on his early visits to London, rubbing shoulders with such luminaries as Charlie Chaplin and managing Raj Kapoor’s press schedule in the golden age of cinema.

Online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

In Conversation With Shruti Haasan

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



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IN CONVERSATION

Pan Indian actress and musician Shruti Haasan, was born to actors Kamal Haasan and Sarika Thakur, living her life around set visits, cameos, and ultimately a career in cinema. From acting in the acclaimed film exploring Gandhian principles, Hey Ram, as a child, to composing the score for Unnaipol Oruvan (Tamil remake of the Hindi film A Wednesday) to making her mark in films like 3 and D-Day, she has won Filmfare, IIFA and SIIMA awards for her silverscreen appearances. Her foray into Hollywood came by way of the series of the action drama series Treadstone. Her work as a playback singer in Indian cinema began with her first song aged six in Thevar Magan alongside thespian Sivaji Ganesan, by the legend Ilaiyaraaja. She discusses her career trajectory with BBC broadcaster and film critic Ashanti Omkar, in a candid In Conversation event on www.loveliffathome.com

Online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

In Praise of that Angel Face (Zikr us Parivash ka) & Overtone

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Nirmal Chander Dandriyal
Starring: Yatindra Mishra, Saleem Kidwai, Shruti Sadolikar Katkar
Run time: 64 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi & Urdu with English Subtitles | Country: India

As one of the last great courtesans of India Begum Akhtar was called Malika-e Ghazal (Queen of the Ghazal) for her legendary voice. She sang the ghazal, dadra and thumri genres of north Indian Hindustani classical music. This gem of a documentary weaves together rare footage and stories of those who remember her with fondness.

Plus – OVERTONE. India 2016. Dir Rajiv Menon. With Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman. 32 min. Tamil with English subtitles. Tracing the origin of south Indian Carnatic classical music, painting a vivid picture of legendary percussionist Umayalpuram K. Sivaraman.

International Conference 2011

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011


Starring: International keynote speakers and masterclasses with Rituparno Ghosh and Anurag Kashyap.
| Year: 2011

What’s New? The Changing Face of Indian Cinema: Contemporary and Historical Contexts

The University of Westminster’s India Media Centre, in association with LIFF, will be hosting a special conference on the challenges that the burgeoning new Indian cinema poses to mainstream filmmaking. Filmmakers that toy with, or eschew, the conventions of the familiar multi-genre, song and dance extravaganzas are appearing across Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai and beyond. What do their films mean for the future of Indian cinema and the global aspirations of India’s urban ‘multiplex’ generation? Conference includes international keynote speakers, over forty papers from scholars around the world, and masterclasses with Rituparno Ghosh and Anurag Kashyap.

Irrfan Khan In Conversation

Irrfan Khan in Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013



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BFI player link

A graduate of India’s National School of Drama, Irrfan Khan had a quiet beginning in Indian television and arthouse features, arriving on the international scene in Asif Kapadia’s 2001 BAFTA-winning The Warrior. Notable performances include The Darjeeling Limited, Slumdog Millionaire, A Mighty Heart, Vishal Bharadwaj’s Macbeth adaptation Maqbool, Life of Pi and The Amazing Spiderman, and the HBO series In Treatment; he also won India’s National Award for Best Actor for playing an athlete turned bandit in Tigmanshu Dhulia’s 2010 Paan Singh Tomar.

Khan will share his experiences in the British, Hollywood and Indian film industries with director Asif Kapadia.

BFI SOUTHBANK

Island City

Island City

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Ruchika Oberoi
Starring: Vinay Pathak, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Chandan Roy Sanyal.
Run time: 111 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2015
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Winner of the best directing debut at the Venice Film Festival, the film tells three stories. In the first one, a drone employee at a soulless corporation wins an office competition entitling him to a whole day of fun at the mall. However, he doesn’t have much fun at all. The second story follows a domineering head of a family who suffers a stroke and is on life support. His newly-liberated family buy a TV and are hooked on to a popular soap when they learn to their dismay that the family head is on the road to recovery. And in the last story, a woman who is leading a mechanical existence blossoms when she gets a series of anonymous love letters. These stories explore the different facets of life and society in the maddening city of Mumbai.

Iti, Tomari Dhaka (Sincerely Yours, Dhaka) LIFF

Iti, Tomari Dhaka (Sincerely Yours, Dhaka)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Various

Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

Seven Bangladeshi filmmakers come together to present a series of short stories as a love-letter to their beloved city of Dhaka. A background actor who’ll do anything to be a star; two young girls who are dying for a drink in a city where alcohol is illegal; a bank scam sparks an attempted murder and a plumber adds fuel to a refugee crisis. Ranging from the bizarre, comical and heart-warming to the heartbreaking, the first ever anthology film made in Bangladesh takes us on a bittersweet yet wild journey through the city of Dhaka.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

Jalaler Golop (jalals story)

Jalaler Golpo (Jalal’s Story)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Abu Shahed Emon
Starring: Mohammod Emon, Arafat Rahman, Mosharraf Karim.
Run time: 121 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2014
Language: Bangla with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

BFI player link
PLAY TRAILER >

This entrancing film follows three chapters in the life of an infant, a child and teen named Jalal. Abandoned as a baby in the river, he is rescued and raised by Miraj. After a series of misfortunes, the villagers consider the baby to be a curse on their village and Miraj has to abandon the baby back in the river. Karim, a landowner, is bringing up Jalal, now nine. Bizarrely, Jalal is considered the cause of Karim’s wife’s infertility and he is cast back into the river. The 19-year-old Jalal now works for a gang leader and aspiring politician Sajib. This time, a different baby is to be thrown into the river, ahead of the upcoming elections, thanks to Sajib’s nefarious antics. Abu Shahed Emon tackles several social issues in Bangladesh including superstition, politically motivated corruption and women’s rights.

Jalsaghar (The Music Room)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Satyajit Ray
Starring: Chhabi Biswas, Sardar Akhtar, Gangapadu basu
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 1958
Language: Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: India

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

Satyajit Ray brilliantly evokes the crumbling opulence of the world of a fallen aristocrat, Roy (the beloved stage and screen actor Chhabi Biswas) desperately clinging to a fading way of life in his zamindar’s palace. His greatest joy, and his obsession, is the music room in which he has hosted lavish concerts over the years—now a shadow of its former vivid self. The music itself, and its performance, to which Roy is so passionately if insensately devoted, becomes a key character in the film. The Music Room is a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians of the day. The Music Room was a showcase for some of India’s most popular musicians, and was voted one of the greatest films of all time by Sight and Sound.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

New digitally restored version

 

Jeewan Hathi

Jeewan Hathi (Elephant in The Room) | World Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Meenu Gaur, Farjad Nabi
Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Hina Dilpazeer, Samiya Mumtaz.
Run time: 60 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Urdu with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan/India

PLAY TRAILER >

ZEAL FOR UNITY PRESENTS PAKISTAN DOUBLE BILL :

Made under the Zeal for Unity India-Pakistan filmmaking initiative, these films explore different facets of life in Pakistan. In Khaemae Mein Matt Jhankain, life in a remote village becomes exciting when a travelling circus pitches up in town. The men and boys of the village cannot get enough of the ravishingly beautiful trapeze artist and visit every night to catch a glimpse of her. But, there is a secret. Acclaimed Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah headlines Jeewan Hathi as a channel owner who will do anything for higher ratings. This riotously funny satire on Pakistan’s media industry explores the dark underbelly of a reality show that has the nation enthralled.

 

Jodhaa Akbar

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Ashutosh Gowariker
Starring: Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai
Run time: 213 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2008
Language: Hindi and Urdu with English Subtitles | Country: India

A rare chance to see this 16th Century epic love story as it was intended: on the big screen. Co-written and directed by Gowariker, it tells of a marriage of alliance that gave birth to true love between a great Mughal emperor, Akbar, and a Hindu Rajput princess, Jodhaa, who in this film at least is handy with a sword. The film is visually magnificent, a bejewelled extravaganza that features smouldering performances from Aishwaraya Rai and Hrithik Roshan and breathtaking horizon filling battle sequences.

Josh

Josh (Against the Grain)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Iram Parveen Bilal
Starring: Aamina Sheikh, Mohib Mirza, Khalid Malik, Naveen Waqar, Ali Rizvi.
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Urdu / English with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan, USA

The life of a high society school teacher is shattered when her beloved nanny inexplicably disappears. Josh is the story of the schoolteacher’s search for a dangerous truth in the nanny’s feudal village. This empowering film is LIFF’s first ever selection from Pakistan and stars Urdu cinema superstars Aamina Sheikh and Mohib Mirza. Josh tackles the themes of class separation, feudalism, poverty, individual empowerment and women’s rights head on and takes no prisoners en route. And in Iram Parveen Bilal, Pakistan and world cinema welcomes a bold new voice and a powerful storyteller. Not to be missed!

Jugni

Jugni (Firefly) | International Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Shefali Bhushan
Starring: Sugandha Garg, Siddhant Behl, Sadhana Singh
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi / Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: India

BFI player link

PLAY TRAILER >

Travelling through the verdant fields of Punjab, Vibhavari (Vibs) is a gorgeous, young composer from Mumbai. She is in search of Bibi Saroop, the voice that she believes will be the saviour of her new score. She bumps into Bibi’s dashing son Mastana who has a stunning voice. Vibs records Mastana’s renditions of Punjabi folk songs and the duo soon fall for each other. Vibs returns to a soured relationship with her boyfriend in Mumbai. Mastana is left brokenhearted, but his voice is indeed the magical ingredient of the score, which becomes an instant hit. When Vibs calls Mastana to the big city he is full of hope, but they are forced to make tough choices between their careers and their hearts.

Kalira Atita (Yesterday's Past)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Nila Madhab Panda
Starring: Pitabash Tripathy
Run time: 83 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2020
Language: Odia with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

Acclaimed Director Nila Madhab Panda’s powerful new tale is set against a tableaux of rapidly evolving climate change. Gunu, a young man, is frantically trying to reunite with his missing family days before a predicted super cyclone. As coastal villages are being evacuated Gunu heads in the wrong direction towards his isolated home by the ocean, to find what he has lost. Gunu’s challenging survival on the abandoned coast, his very existence and struggle to survive the fury of nature makes his journey a poetic portrayal of emotional trauma and human triumph.

Online Q&A with Nila Madhab Panda

Kalo Pothi (the_black_hen)

Kalo Pothi (The Black Hen)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Min Bahadur Bham
Starring: Khadka Raj Nepali, Sukra Raj Rokaya, Jit Bahadur Malla.
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Nepali with English subtitles | Country: Nepal

PLAY TRAILER >

LIFF’s first Nepali screening is directed by new hot-property director Min Bahadur Bham and has been delighting audiences around Europe. In 2001, in a remote Nepalese village, we find Prakash and Kiran, two 12-year-olds, who despite belonging to different castes, are inseparable best mates. They decide on a plan to raise a hen to earn some money by selling its eggs. Their new business venture seems to be working, but as times get hard, Prakash’s father sells off all his chickens including the boy’s hen. Prakash and Kiran find out that their hen has been sold to an old man many villages away and set out on an adventure to liberate their prized fowl. However, in their single-minded obsession, the youngsters are oblivious to the growing civil war brewing in the region and they soon find themselves travelling through some very dangerous territory, where their friendship will be put to the test.

Kanasemba Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of A Dream)

Kanasemba Kudureyaneri (Riding the Stallion of a Dream)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Girish Kasaravalli
Starring: Vyjanath Biradar, Umashri, Sadashiv Brahmavar
Run time: 109 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Kannada | Country: India

The latest feature from Girish Kasaravalli, one of the founding fathers of India’s parallel cinema movement, is also his most unconventional, employing for the first time in his long and distinguished career a non-linear, fragmented narrative.

This delightful evocation of pastoral life in the southern Indian state of Karnataka follows a couple, Irya and Rudri, who are desperately poor but extremely happy. Irya is the butt of village jokes, as he is a professional gravedigger, and sits around waiting for people to die while the hardworking Rudri barely makes ends meet by working on a farm.

Their lives are thrown into turmoil when Irya dreams of the village headman’s death and the appearance of nomad Siddha, who will ensure the passage of souls direct to heaven if his arrival coincides with the time of death. Kasaravalli masterfully weaves together a jigsaw of a narrative that is deeply satisfying.

The film won India’s National Film Awards for Best Screenplay and Best Film Feature Film in Kannada.

Kanyaka Talkies

Kanyaka Talkies (Virgin Talkies) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: K.R. Manoj
Starring: Murali Gopy, Lena Kumar, Indrans, Manianpilla Raju.
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Malayalam with English subtitles | Country: India

A gripping tale is woven around Kanyaka Talkies, a twenty-year-old movie theatre in a sleepy Kerala village, where the mainstay was the screening of softporn. The theatre owner moves away and leaves the theatre to the parish, which decides to convert it into a church. The priest who comes to the village to spread the word of the Lord is haunted by a woman’s voice. Whose voice is it? Is it the voice of the countless heroines from C grade movies, which were previously screened in the cinema? The priest is slowly driven crazy and suffers a crisis of faith. Adding to the mix is a woman who leads the double life of a home nurse and a porn star. The film deftly weaves themes of body, desire, guilt and forbidden pleasures into its racy and spellbinding narrative. Unmissable!

Karkhanisanchi Waari (Ashes on a Road Trip)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Mangesh Joshi
Starring: Amey Wagh, Mohan Agashe, Geetanjali Kulkarni
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2020
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

This black comedy road-movie starts as the dominant patriarch of the Karkhanis family passes away. His dysfunctional, aging siblings and his son cram into a Maruti van, leaving the city and heading to their distant homeland village, to scatter his ashes as per his final wish. The trip becomes unexpectedly adventurous as on the way scandalous secrets are revealed, forcing them all to face smoldering interpersonal conflicts that hilariously threaten to throw the journey off course.

Online Q&A with cast and crew

Kastoori (The Musk)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Vinod Kamble
Starring: Samarth Sonawane, Shravan upalakar, Vaishali kendale
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Hindi, Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

Vinod Kamble’s movie tells of Gopi, an intelligent Dalit teenager, who has no choice but to engage in manual scavenging in order to pay for his education. He is teased at school for the smell of his body and clothes, with his classmates covering their noses when he walks past, never shy of reminding him that he “smells like a gutter”. Gopi comes across the scent of a perfume called kastoori (the musk), and sees this as the way to get rid of his smell. Together with his friend Adim, they set off on a mission to get their hands on the precious scent.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Online Q&A with Vinod Kamble

Kattumaram (Catamaran) LIFF

Kattumaram (Catamaran)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Swarnavel Eswaran
Starring: Mysskin, Preeti Karan, Anusha Prabhu
Run time: 73 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Part of an emerging queer cinema from South India Kattumaram tells of patriarch Singaram and his orphaned niece Anandhi, fisher-folk survivors of the Tsunami. Beautiful Anandhi teaches in the local school and has many fishermen interested in her, but Anandhi instead secretly falls for a new female supply teacher. As Singaram finds out and tries to come to terms with this revelation, gossip about the young women’s relationship quickly spreads. Singaram is left facing the choice of either defending his beloved niece and her partner, or giving sway to the demands of an angry community.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with director Swarnavel Eswaran, actor Mysskin & other cast

 

Kayattam (A’hr)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan
Starring: Manju Warrier, Gaurav Ravindran, Bhupendra Khurana
Run time: 105 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: Malayalam with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Kerala’s Enfant terrible director Sanal Kumar Sasidharan (Sexy Durga), returns to the festival with this new twisted Himalayan tale. Maya from Kerala connects with younger Akash on social media and they meet in person on a mountain trek. Their chemistry is instant and romance blossoms, however this budding union attracts the unwanted attention of several older male fellow travellers and threatens to derail their relationship.

Online Q&A: Sanal Kumar Sasidharan and Manju Warrier with BBC’s Ashanti Omkar

Khaemae Mein Matt Jhankain

Khaemae Mein Matt Jhankain (Don't Peek into the Tent) | World Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Shahbaz Sumar
Starring: Sara Haider, Zia Khan, Mahtab Murad.
Run time: 45 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Punjabi / Urdu with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan/India

PLAY TRAILER >

ZEAL FOR UNITY PRESENTS PAKISTAN DOUBLE BILL :

Made under the Zeal for Unity India-Pakistan filmmaking initiative, these films explore different facets of life in Pakistan. In Khaemae Mein Matt Jhankain, life in a remote village becomes exciting when a travelling circus pitches up in town. The men and boys of the village cannot get enough of the ravishingly beautiful trapeze artist and visit every night to catch a glimpse of her. But, there is a secret. Acclaimed Indian actor Naseeruddin Shah headlines Jeewan Hathi as a channel owner who will do anything for higher ratings. This riotously funny satire on Pakistan’s media industry explores the dark underbelly of a reality show that has the nation enthralled.

 

Khandhar (The Ruins) LIFF

Khandhar (Ruins)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Mrinal Sen
Starring: Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Annu Kapoor, Pankaj Kapur
Run time: 106 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 1984
Language: Hindi, English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Legendary director Mrinal Sen passed in December 2018. We mark his legacy with a special screening of the restored film Khandhar. The film won India’s National film award for Best Direction, Best Actress and Best Editing and won awards worldwide. In this magnificent character ensemble a once wealthy landowner Dipu (Pankaj Kapur) invites his friends Subhash (Naseeruddin Shah) and Anil (Annu Kapoor) to his broken-down ancestral home in the country, where they meet the impoverished caretaker and his family including the intelligent dutiful daughter Jamini (Shabana Azmi) who was jilted by her ex-lover. Young Jamini and Subhash form an understated but intense attraction, where the silences say more than words.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Special Guest Introduction

 

Kho Ki Pa Lu (Up Down & Sideways)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Anushka Meenakshi, Iswar Srikumar

Run time: 83 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2017
Language: Chokri with English Subtitles | Country: India

Close to the India-Myanmar border is the village of Phek in Nagaland.  Nearly all of its 5,000 inhabitants grow rice for their own consumption. As they work in the fields the men and women sing together and as the seasons change so does the music, becoming increasingly hypnotic. The songs have been passed down for generations and tell stories of the land, love and the concerns of everyday life in an area that for many years has been troubled by political unrest. Up Down & Sideways is a stunningly beautiful ethnographic portrait of a community of rice cultivators and their memories of love and loss created from working together on the fields. 

Khwada

Khwada (Obstacle) | International Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Bhaurao Karhade
Starring: Shashank Shende, Anil Nagarkar, Bhau Shinde.
Run time: 116 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

A hot new title from the burgeoning Marathi independent film scene, Khwada is a gritty drama about a dispossessed shepherd family moving from village to village trying to find fodder for their herd in the famine hit state of Maharashtra. The younger shepherds, looking for love and brighter prospects, come into contact and clash with corrupt local landlords and trouble soon escalates into sheep rustling and bloodshed. This fascinating film lays bare the stark experiences faced by the rural poor in India while, with a twinkle in its eye, it celebrates the sweeping beauty of the Marathi rural landscape. India has been quick to recognise its merit, awarding it with a special jury prize at the country’s annual National Awards.

Konkona Sen Sharma In Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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Strand: IN CONVERSATION

One of Bengal’s favourite and multi-award winning actors Konkona made her debut acting role as a child artist in Indira (1983). She won a National Award for Best Actress for her role in Aparna Sen’s critically successful Mr & Mrs Iyer in 2002. Her role in the nationally acclaimed Page 3 took her to wider audiences, with an award winning role in the hit Shakespearean adaptation by Vishal Bhardwaj; Omkara to follow. Her next films won numerous Filmfare and national awards. Konkona’s directorial debut Death In The Gunj (2016), a 1970s period drama was screened at festivals globally and utilised Konkona’s strength of telling enemseble character driven stories. Konkona is an eloquent speaker on mental health and wellbeing and gender politics, based on her own lived experiences.

KINDLY SUPPORTED BY THE BAGRI FOUNDATION

Koozhangal (Pebbles)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: P.S Vinothraj
Starring: Chellapandi, Karuththadaiyaan
Run time: 75 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2021
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Winner of the prestigious Tiger Award at this year’s International Film Festival of Rotterdam, Koozhangal tells of Ganapathy, a wiry, chain smoking drunk, who discovers his wife has fled their poor village home. Ganapathy drags his young son out of school and they set off on a furious journey together across the arid and desolate landscape of Tamil Nadu to find his wife. P.S Vinothraj’s majestic debut feature beautifully tells the tale of a troubled father-son relationship and explores the deeper mores of male powerplay.

Online Q&A with P.S.Vinothraj and Vignesh Shivan

Kutrame Thandanai

Kutrame Thandanai (Crime is Punishment)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: M. Manikandan
Starring: Vidharth, Nasser, Rahman, Pooja Devariya, Aishwarya Rajesh
Run time: 98 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Tamil Naidu’s hottest young filmmaker M.Manikandan returns to the festival after last year’s hit Kaakkaa Muttai (Crow’s Egg), with a stylish, twisted plot thriller. Mild-mannered, hard-working bachelor, Ravi has tunnel vision and is on the brink of blindness. With little in the bank, he can’t raise money for an eye transplant. He lives in a cheek-by-jowl tenement block and every day watches a young female neighbour below as she greets her male visitors. One day the police call on Ravi. The woman has been mysteriously murdered. Ravi says he saw the last two culprits, but as he is called in to testify in court, the wealthy murder culprits’ go-betweens try to bribe Ravi to refute his claim. Ravi sees a last ditched opportunity to make some money and save his sight. He embarks on the dangerous journey into corruption, where he is soon also in danger of becoming the murder suspect.

Ladies Only

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Rebana Liz John

Run time: 79 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: Germany, India

Strand: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

‘What makes you angry?’ a filmmaker asks a woman traveller in the ‘Ladies Only’ compartments of Mumbai local trains running in and out of the main stations. The answers to this and many other questions are both insightful and surprising, highlighting the issues, hopes and struggles of womanhood in India today, especially in the face of the frenetic non-stop Mumbai lifestyle. The changing light, faces and languages creates a poetic rhythm flowing through this engrossing and must-see documentary.

Supported by Integrity International

Q&A with Rebana Liz John

Ladli Laila (Virgin Goat)

Ladli Laila (Virgin Goat)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Murali Nair
Starring: Raghubir Yadav, Shiela Naidu, Saurab Gharipurikar, Purnima Maudgil
Run time: 87 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi | Country: India

Murali Nair is one of India’s most celebrated young directors, having won the prestigious Camera D’Or at Cannes for his first feature Marana Simhasanam (Throne of Death ), a surreal and hysterically funny commentary on local Indian politics.

His latest feature continues in the same vein. Raghubir Yadav, the doyen of Indian indie actors, plays Kalyan Singh, a farmer who is trying to eke out a living. Singh loves his pet she-goat Laila even more than he does his own family. Singh’s ambition is that his pet will have a kid.

The search is on for a Billy Goat that needs to be found whilst Laila is still in heat. The announcement that a local bigwig is to visit town throws a spoke into Singh’s mating plans for his beloved goat. Nair’s satire takes numerous snipes at corruption in its myriad forms but in a hilarious and warm-hearted manner.

Lady of The Lake

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Haobam Paban Kumar
Starring: Ningthoujam Sanatomba, Sagolsam Thambalsang
Run time: 71 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Manipuri with English Subtitles | Country: India

A fishing community in the northeastern state of Manipur ekes out a humble livelihood on a floating village in the middle of a lake. When the local government attempts to demolish the unique settlement, one villager buys a gun to defend his home. Award-winning director Kumar conjures up an eerie sense of calm about to be disrupted forever.

Last Chance Mumbai (Ek Tho Chance)

Last Chance Mumbai (Ek Tho Chance)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Saeed Akhtar Mirza
Starring: Vijay Raaz , Purab Kohli, Rajat Kapoor
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi | Country: India

Monsoon Wedding’ actor Vijay Raaz leads an impressive cast of characters in this multi-strand ensemble, set in the megalopolis of modern Mumbai. Acclaimed Director Saeed Akhtar Mirza explores the connected lives of the city’s varied inhabitants over the same 24 hour period: from street kids struggling to live; a self indulgent millionaire playboy, who gets whatever girl he wants; to a sleek night thief (Raaz), who inadvertently steals from the wrong car, crossing a corrupt politician. He begins a police hunt that will bring all our characters head on, towards a spectacular road-crash finale.

legal and tax surgeries

Legal and Tax Surgeries

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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Lee Stone (Lee & Thompson LLP) will hold a series of individual, 20 minute, Legal and Tax surgeries to discuss your film project. Sign up and come prepared!

Lee Stone is a partner in the Film Group of the leading UK entertainment law firm, Lee & Thompson LLP. He has been instrumental in developing the firm’s expertise in advising the Indian film industry and is widely recognised as the go-to-lawyer for Indian film producers, financiers and distributors wanting to do business in the UK, as a result of which Lee is also regularly instructed by British companies wanting to collaborate with entities from within the Indian film industry.

FREE EVENT but prior booking for these sessions is essential – please contact Satwant Gill: info@londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk

Lee & Thompson Offices, Tuesday 27th June, 9.30-11.00 am

Life In Pictures Adoor Gopalakrishnan Masterclass

Life in Pictures: Adoor Gopalakrishnan Masterclass

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013



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BFI player link

Only two filmmakers from India have won the BFI’s Sutherland Trophy – Satyajit Ray and Adoor Gopalakrishnan for his film Elippathayam in 1982. With this rare visit to London, legendary South Indian filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan will speak about his internationally successful career. Leaving his government job to study at the National Film Institute of India, Pune in 1962, he pioneered the first film society in Kerala and set up a co-operative aimed at the production, distribution and exhibition of films. Kerala has remained his base and cultural inspiration. With 11 feature films and over 30 documentaries and shorts, Gopalakrishnan’s accolades include India’s highest civilian award the Padma Vibhushan in 2006, for his contribution to the arts.

Hosted by Derek Malcolm.

BFI SOUTHBANK

Life is Good

Life is Good

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Ananth Mahadevan
Starring: Jackie Shroff, Rajit Kapoor, Sunita Sen Gupta, Ankita Shrivastava, Ananya Vij, Sania Anklesaria.
Run time: 98 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2012
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

A warm-hearted tale of a the unlikely friendship between lonely Rameshwar, a middle aged post office worker (Jackie Shroff), who is plunged into depression after the death of his mother and a 6 year old school girl Mishti, who moves in next door with her single mum. Unstoppable Mishti from day one decides that reserved Rameshwar will be her new buddy. She slowly lifts his spirits and soon changes his outlook on everything. Rameshwar witnesses the girl grow up, but struggles with the realisation that his best friend and almost daughter will one day also leave him. A great cast led by Bollywood star Jackie Shroff offer emotionally charged performances.

Little English

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Pravesh Kumar
Starring: Rameet Rauli, Viraj Juneja, Seema Bowri, Goldy Notay, Ameet Chana, Nikki Patel, Simon Rivers, Shereener Browne and Madhav Sharma. Featuring Sanjeev Kohli, Andy Kumar, Yasmeen Khan and Shin Parwana.
Run time: 98 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2022
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

Pravesh Kumar’s debut feature is a laugh-out-loud story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family in the pressure cooker life of a terraced suburban home in West London. Newly arrived from India, naive Simmy has come to marry the family’s eldest son Raj, who shockingly does a runner, leaving Simmy locked in the house by her domineering mother-in-law. However, Simmy is smarter than she appears, and soon enlists the support of the family’s disgruntled in-laws, including a sugar crazed, diabetic grandpa and dangerous, but hot, brother in law, fresh out of jail. Together they plan Simmy’s big escape.

Q&A with Pravesh Kumar cast and crew

Lorni - The Flaneur

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Wanphrang K Diengdoh
Starring: Adil Hussain, Elizer Bareh, Dawait Syiem
Run time: 106 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Khasi, English, Hindi wth English subtitles | Country: Singapore, India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Acclaimed actor Adil Hussain (Life of Pi, Star Trek), plays Shem, an out of work, self-styled detective with a sharp sense of the streets. Shem is offered an escape from his humdrum investigation work when he is suddenly asked to investigate the disappearance of an object of great cultural value. Navigating the narrow streets and dark alleys, Shem’s journey takes him into the heart and soul of Shillong, where the city’s unique political, racial and cultural identity soon complicate his investigation and even threaten his life.

Online Q&A with Wanphrang K Diengdoh and special guests

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Love Sex Aur Dhokha

Love Sex Aur Dhokha

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Dibakar Banerjee
Starring: Anshuman Jha, Neha Chauhan, Raj Kumar, Arya Banerjee
Run time: 155 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi, Punjabi, English | Country: India

Shocking and gripping, this international (un-censored) version of LSD pulls no punches as it introduces us to the surveillance stuffed world of modern mega-city India. Deftly told through 3 inter-twinned stories, Banerjee takes us on a roller coaster ride of twisted tales of young love, soaked in betrayal. These are voyeuristically served up for the viewer through a spicy and intrusive mix of modern technology, online chat-date sites, amateur cameras, and supermarket surveillance equipment. Not shying away from hard social issues, the film also vividly portrays social concerns of inter-caste romance, honour killings, and blackmail, where modernity crashes headlong with age-old custom. Our lives are not our own, so be careful what you do! Don’t miss it!

Lucia

Lucia

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Pawan Kumar
Starring: Sathish, Shruthi Hariharan, Hardhika Shetty, Achyuth Kumar.
Run time: 135 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2013
Language: Kannada / English with English subtitles | Country: India

From the director of smash hit Lifeu Ishtene comes Lucia, heralding a new direction for Kannada cinema, being the industry’s first crowd funded film. An usher at a decrepit cinema suffers from insomnia. His life changes when he starts getting weird and wonderful dreams but with a caveat. Set in the teeming young metropolis that is Bangalore, the film is a turbulent ride where the lines between dreams and reality are blurred to delirious effect. Please don’t reveal the ending after you’ve watched the film. Prepare to be surprised, very surprised.

M Cream

M Cream | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Agneya Singh
Starring: Imaad Shah, Ira Dubey, Tom Alter, Auritra Ghosh, Beatrice Ordeix.
Run time: 112 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: Hindi/English with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

A group of young people from Delhi set off on a road trip to the far reaches of the Himalayas to obtain M Cream, a mythical form of hash. As they journey across the vast expanses of the mountains on their quest, tempers flare, love blooms, truths are revealed and difficult choices have to be made. An encounter with an environmental movement brings meaning to their young lives. This magically trippy film explores urban anomie as set against the lap of Mother Nature and brings to the fore the truth that the journey is more important than the destination. With their incandescent performances Imaad Shah and Ira Dubey, offspring of acclaimed actors Naseeruddin Shah and Lillette Dubey respectively, display that they have inherited their illustrious parents’ acting genes and are the bold new generation of Indian cinema.

Mani Ratnam Screen Talk

Mani Ratnam | Screen Talk

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015



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BFI player link

A rare on-stage interview with one of India’s most acclaimed and best loved commercial directors, widely attributed for revolutionising Tamil cinema, and inspiring Bollywood. Mani Ratnam talks about his life and career producing some of India’s most successful films of all time, which rare for commercial cinema have gained both critical awards and box office success. Ratnam’s films like Bombay, Roja, Dil Se, Nayakan and this year O Kadhal Kanmani are known for powerful socio-political scripts, sharp direction, flamboyant cinematography, crisp editing and of course unforgettable music, collaborating with composers like AR Rahman. We will also hear about his screenwriting and producer work and working with some of India’s greatest actors. Mani Ratnam was awarded the Padma Shree in 2002, one of India’s highest civilian honours.

Hosted by Peter Webber

BFI SOUTHBANK

Mapa

Mapa (Map)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Elías León Siminiani
Starring: Elías León Siminiani.
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2012
Language: Spanish / English with English subtitles | Country: India

A young Spanish director is fired from his job in television. Taking up his dream of making films, he travels to India hoping to make his first feature film and in the process retraces the journey made by his ex-girlfriend only to discover that his real investigation is not in India but in Madrid. However, when he gets home, things do not turn out exactly as he had expected…Halfway between documentary and fiction, Mapa is a road movie in first person, as defined by its director, a ‘movie-song’. Equally moving and wryly funny, Mapa is an evocation on how different lives can be in different halves of the globe. It won Best Documentary at the Seville Film Festival and was nominated in the same category at Spain’s prestigious Goya Awards.

Mara Pappa Superhero

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Dr. Darshan Ashwin Trivedi
Starring: Bhavya Sirohi, Abhinay Banker, Shraddha Dangar
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: Gujarati with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

This sweet and charming family film tells the story of a little Gujarati girl’s quest to prove her street vendor father is secretly a superhero. Kanku is a happy-go-lucky kid who is able to find joy and happiness with the small things in life. One day while playing with her rich friend Kiara, she hears Kiara refer to her father as her superhero. Eager to understand, Kanku asks Kiara questions, the answers which lead her to believe her street vendor dad is also a superhero. She sets out at any cost to convince everyone of this fact.

Also streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Mard ko Dard Nahi Hota (The Man Who Feels No Pain) LIFF

Mard ko Dard Nahin Hota (The Man Who Feels No Pain)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Vasan Bala
Starring: Abhimanyu Dasani, Radhika Madan, Gulshan Devaiah, Mahesh Manjrekar
Run time: 135 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, English, Marathi, Malayalam with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Winner of the prestigious Midnight Madness audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival, Mard Ko Nahin Hota is a breathtakingly original and imaginative film. Surya is born with the rare condition of Congenital Insensitivity to Pain. Often confined to the four walls of his house to avoid physical injuries, under the tutelage of his eccentric grandfather Abaja, Surya finds an escape through 80s martial arts films on VHS. Inspired by what he sees Surya sets out to become a martial arts expert like his hero, the one-legged Karate master, Mani. Combining fast-paced edge of your seat action with delirious cinematic pop culture references, Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota is an exhilarating crowd pleaser.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

Max, Min & Meowzaki

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Padmakumar Narasimhamurthy
Starring: Adil Hussain, Mandira Bedi, Nasser Ali, Nafisa Ali, Siddharth Menon, Medha Shankar, Vidhatri Bandi
Run time: 132 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Hindi, English with English subtitles | Country: India

Max and Min are breaking up, and the future home of their darling cat Meowzaki (named after Japanese animation legend Hayao Miyazaki) hangs in the balance. While navigating their separation and heartbreak, both embark upon vastly different but equally impactful journeys. Catnip for hopeless romantics, this effervescent, crowd-pleasing drama by N Padmakumar (A Billion Colour Story) premiered to great success at Busan International Film Festival.

Meet the Patels

Meet the Patels | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Geeta Patel, Ravi Patel
Starring: The Patel family.
Run time: 88 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: English | Country: USA

PLAY TRAILER >          FILM WEBSITE >

“Sharp” and “riotously funny.” – Variety.

Since its 2014 world premiere, Meet the Patels has won audience awards at festivals including Hot Docs Film Festival, the Los Angeles Film Festival, and Traverse City Film Festival, and it has had a chain of sold-out screenings, making Meet the Patels the sleeper hit of the 2014-15 festival circuit. The Hollywood Reporter recently named it an Oscar contender for Best Documentary.

A wry and witty, spoof comedy doc. about the perils of meeting the girl of your dreams, but don’t worry, your parents are there to set you right and find the perfect wife. American Pie, commitment shy Ravi is making his eccentric Gujarati parents quite jittery. He is nearly 30 and un-married – why? The pressure is applied and after being mentally beaten for months Ravi finally gives up and agrees to traditional matchmaking. Delighted Mom and Pop go into overdrive sending him on a global quest to find the Mrs Patel of his dreams. All seems hopeful, until his secret, ex-girlfriend Audrey reappears.

Mehsampur

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Kabir Singh Chowdhry
Starring: Navjot Randhawa, Devrath Joshi, Lal Chand, Surinder Sonia, Kesar Singh, Tikki, Jagjeet Sandhu
Run time: 96 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2017
Language: Punjabi, Hindi, with English subtitles | Country: India

Oddball filmmaker Devrath arrives in Punjab to make a movie on the popular folk-singing duo Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur who were assassinated in the village of Mehsampur in 1988. He rescues a wannabe actress from lechers and finds a survivor of the assassination and the three of them go on a trip to Mehsampur. Their journey is a breath-taking ride culminating in an explosive finale. This bold, at times psychedelic, film melds together fiction and documentary and explores narrative structures in a way Indian cinema has never seen before. Prepare to be shell-shocked!

Memories in March

Memories in March

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Sanjoy Nag
Starring: Deepti Naval, Rituparno Ghosh, Raima Sen
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Hindi/English/Bengali | Country: India

Intimate and riveting, debutant director Sanjoy Nag presents a delicate tale of unlikely friendship forged through tragedy. Award-winning Actor Deepti Naval plays Arati, a grieving woman who travels to Kolkata on hearing the news of her advertising executive son Siddharth’s fatal car accident.

She is let into his flat by his friend and work colleague Sahana (Raima Sen), who Aarti suspects to be his girlfriend but, sorting through her son’s things and hearing fragments of half spoken conversations, bring Arati to the realisation that she didn’t really know her son at all. The constant presence of her son’s boss Arnob (Rituparno Ghosh) and his reluctance to part with Siddharth’s personal belongings makes Arati wonder.

Soon, she reaches the shocking revelation that Arnob was Siddharth’s lover. Awkwardly the two must, for their own salvation, move forward together. With a wonderfully written script by Ghosh and charged character performances by a great cast this is a must see.

Million Dollar Arm

Million Dollar Arm | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Craig Gillespie
Starring: Jon Hamm, Suraj Sharma, Madhur Mittal, Lake Bell, Alan Arkin, Bill Paxton.
Run time: 124 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2014
Language: English | Country: US

Based on an inspirational true story, Million Dollar Arm is a funny and uplifting journey. US sports agent JB Bernstein (Jon Hamm) travels to India in an effort to save his career by finding a young cricketer to turn into a baseball star. With the help of a retired scout (Alan Arkin) JB sets up a talent contest “The Million Dollar Arm”, discovering Rinku (Life of Pi’s Suraj Sharma) and Dinesh (Slumdog Millionaire’s Madhur Mittal) who have a knack for throwing a fastball. Hoping to make a quick buck he brings them to LA to train, but the boys struggle to adjust. His livelihood on the line and relationship with the boys at stake, with the help of his friend Brenda (Lake Bell) JB realises that family and friendships are more important than sealing the deal. The film features a brilliant score from Oscar, BAFTA and Grammy winning Indian composer A.R. Rahman.

 

Mirror Mirror - The Early Films of Yugesh Walia

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Mississippi Masala

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Mira Nair
Starring: Denzel Washington, Sarita Choudhary, Roshan Seth
Run time: 118 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1991
Language: English | Country: USA, UK

Strand: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

Recognising the 50th anniversary of Asian expulsions from East Africa LIFF presents this glorious restoration of a much loved film. After Mina’s (Sarita Choudhury) Indian family is forced out of Uganda, they relocate to rural Mississippi to start a new life. Mina’s traditional family wants her to marry an Indian, but she falls for Demitrius (Denzel Washington), a handsome young carpet cleaner. However their budding relationship struggles to get off the ground as tensions rise and Mina is forced to choose between her love and her family. Mira Nair’s dazzling and heartfelt romance explores issues of race, class and privilege which are still pertinent today.

BSL Signed Panel Debate

Q&A with Mira Nair on www.LoveLIFFatHome.com

Moh Maya Money

Moh Maya Money (In Greed We Trust) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Munish Bhardwaj
Starring: Ranvir Shorey, Neha Dhupia, Devendra Chauhan.
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2015
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

In this fast-paced slice of Delhi noir, a crooked real estate broker who dreams of riches, embezzles money from the firm he works for and gets involved in a series of scams. But the proceeds of his schemes are not enough for his greed and when he finds out about a huge deal in his company, he passes it on to a small-time real estate broker and a thug, for a bigger piece of the pie. Soon, he gets involved in a major crime along with his wife. Matters spiral out of control, leading to murder, mayhem and an out of left field twist of a climax. Bollywood stars Ranvir Shorey (star of Cannes Golden Camera nominated Titli) and Neha Dhupia (Singh is King) are on terrific form in this cracking thriller that will leave you gasping for breath.

Monsoon

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Sturla Gunnarsson
Starring: Moushumi Chatterjee, the Prasad family
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2015
Language: English/Malayalam/Assamese/Marathi/Hindi with English subtitles | Country: Canada

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

This documentary feature, shot in stunning 4K, is filmed across the subcontinent, charting the giant rain system’s path as it surges toward and gradually engulfs every region of India. It is a breathtaking cinematic journey into a terrain where nature, science, belief and wonder converge. It introduces us to a remarkable array of individuals whose lives are in different ways entwined with the phenomenon. For some, the great rains will be a time of bountiful sustenance, for others it will be a time of great hardship. All are caught in this timeless human drama. The outstanding score, composed by London’s own Andrew T. MacKay, is based on the Malhar ragas and perfectly complements the multiple-award winning director’s epic vision.

Online Q&A with Sturla Gunnarsson

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Monsoon

Monsoon | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Sturla Gunnarson
Starring: Moushumi Chatterjee, the Prasad family.
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: English, Malayalam, Assamese, Marathi, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: Canada

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

This documentary feature, shot in stunning 4K, is filmed across the subcontinent, charting the giant rain system’s path as it surges toward and gradually engulfs every region of India. It is a breathtaking cinematic journey into a terrain where nature, science, belief and wonder converge. It introduces us to a remarkable array of individuals whose lives are in different ways entwined with the phenomenon. For some, the great rains will be time of bountiful sustenance, for others it will be a time of great hardship. All are caught in this timeless human drama. The outstanding score, composed by London’s own Andrew T. MacKay, is based on the Malhar ragas and perfectly complements the multiple-award winning director’s epic vision.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

Monsoon Shootout

Monsoon Shootout | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Amit Kumar
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Vijay Varma, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Neeraj Kabi.
Run time: 88 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2013
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Fresh from critical acclaim in Cannes, director Amit Kumar masterfully blends a dark cop thriller with a Sliding Doors style narrative. It explores the impact that one man’s choices make on the lives of others. As heavy monsoon rains lash the badlands of Mumbai, Adi, a gun toting, rookie cop is out on his first assignment. He faces a life altering decision, whether to shoot, or not to shoot an escaping suspect. His alternative decisions take him on a morality shredding journey, pitting him against a system where the boundaries between the law, crime and self-survival get dangerously blurred. An ensemble cast including Nawazuddin Siddiqui, offer edgy performances in this roller-coaster ride of a movie.

Moving Upstream: Ganga

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Shridhar Sudhir

Run time: 105 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali, Hindi, English with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

Filmed over six months on a 2,500km walk along the River Ganges, this stunning documentary explores the idea of walking in this fast paced modern world and man’s evolving relationship with the natural world and bringing a much needed spotlight on the voices an concerns of the communities that depend on India’s greatest watercourse.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 48 hours]

Mughal-E-Azam

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: K Asif
Starring: Pritvhiraj Kapoor, Madhubala, Dilip Kumar
Run time: 197 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 1960
Language: Urdu with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: GOLDEN AGE OF CINEMA

A spectacular historical drama, Mughal-E-Azam tells the tale of a timeless love affair between a Prince and a dancer.

Think mirrored palaces, sumptuous technicolor and unforgettable songs. Mughal-E-Azam has it all! K Asif’s spectacular epic historical drama tells the tale of a timeless love affair. Heir to the throne, Prince Salim (Dilip Kumar), has matured from a self-indulgent only child into a victorious and distinguished warrior. When he returns to the Mughal court he soon falls for the gorgeous, if lowly born, court dancer Anarkali (Madhubala), it provokes the ire of his father, Mughal emperor Akbar (Prithviraj Kapoor), who forbids them from getting married. As Anarkali takes a stand for her man, risking execution, father-son conflict explodes into a full blown battle.

Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Vivek Bald

Run time: 83 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2003
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

An absorbing and thrilling account of the contribution of Asian musicians to British pop in the 90s. Over the course of seven years Vivek Bald captured the rise and fall of what was always imperfectly described as the “Asian Underground”. Shot with virtually no budget in a style that mirrored the ethos of the featured legendary artists such as Asian Dub Foundation, Talvin Singh and Fun^Da^Mental. Mutiny: Asians Storm British Music is part music documentary, part social history and remains as a unique time-capsule on the music culture of the British Asian second generation.
 

In cinema Q&A with special guests

 

My Beautiful Laundrette

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Stephen Frears
Starring: Daniel Day-Lewis, Gordon Warnecke, Syed Jaffrey
Run time: 97 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1985
Language: English, Urdu with English subtitles | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

The iconic British comedy-drama written by Hanif Kureishi tells a story of culture, capitalism and sexuality in 80s Britain. Naseer (Syed Jaffrey), is a small time entrepreneur and admirer of Thatcher. He gives his shy nephew Omar (Gordon Warnecke), the dubious task of making a rundown laundrette profitable, all starts well until Omar’s erstwhile street punk friend Johnny (Daniel Day-Lewis) turns up and they all get into a lather.
 

With a rare on-stage conversation with Hanif Kureishi

 
Image credit: MY BEAUTIFUL LAUNDRETTE © 1985 Film Four Limited. All Rights Reserved.

MY HOME INDIA

My Home India

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Anjali Bhushan
Starring: Kira Banasinska, Wanda Novicka-Kashikar, Wanda Kuras, Jocelyn de Waller, Zbigniew Buras, Longina Frackiewicz, Krystyna Koziell, Colonel Gaikwad, Madhu Kotak
Run time: 45 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2019
Language: English, Polish with English subtitles | Country: India/Poland

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

This inspirational documentary will have you in tears and every Indian glowing with pride. The film essentially uncovers a little-known story of unimaginable humanity, generosity and kindness. Towards the end of WW2 the Polish ambassadorial team in Bombay, led by the determined heroine, Kira Banasinska and supported by local Indian communities including the principalities of Kolhapur, Jamnagar and several others, dispatched a convoy of food relief and other essentials, thousands of miles to Iran, where Polish refugees from Soviet Siberian labour camps had found their way on foot and were suffering, mal-nourished. An expedition was planned with a novel idea, to bring 5,500 women and children back into India in the supplies trucks. This expedition was not so simple. It took Kira’s resilience and indefatigable energy as a Red Cross leader, to create refuge for them and welcome them to a dedicated settlement in India in three critical places, Vallivade, Panchgani and Jamnagar. Over 70 years later a number of now elderly Polish people return to a town, Vallivade, on the outskirts of Kolhapur, Maharashtra and Panchgani, where they were able to find safety and discover the joys of childhood.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Anjali Bhushan

 

My Home India

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Anjali Bhushan
Starring: Kira Banasinska, Wanda Novicka-Kashikar, Wanda Kuras, Jocelyn de Waller, Zbigniew Buras, Longina Frackiewicz, Krystyna Koziell, Colonel Gaikwad, Madhu Kotak
Run time: 45 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2019
Language: English, Polish with English subtitles | Country: India/Poland

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

This inspirational tear-jerker documentary uncovers a little-known story of unimaginable humanity, generosity and kindness. Towards the end of WW2, the Polish ambassadorial team in Bombay, led by the determined heroine Kira Banasinska and supported by several Indian states, dispatched a convoy of food relief and other essentials, thousands of miles to help the Polish refugees in Soviet Siberian labour camps. The expedition however returned to India with 5,500 women and children in the supplies trucks. Thanks to Kira and the hospitality of Indians, the refugees were welcomed and given dedicated settlements in Maharashtra. Over 70 years later a number of now elderly Polish people return for the first time to India to see where they experienced the joys of childhood.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

My Son is Gay

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Lokesh Kumar
Starring: Anupama Kumar, Ashwinjith, Abhishek Joseph George, Kishore Kumar
Run time: 105 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Tamil with English Subtitles | Country: India

Varun is a happy-go-lucky, handsome young man who is the apple of his mother Lakshmi’s eye. He believes his mother would be by his side no matter what. When Lakshmi discovers Varun is gay, she is shocked and vows it is something she will never accept.  As he decides to move on with his life and find love, Lakshmi decides to seek out her lost son. My Son is Gay is a poignant tale of a multilayered mother son relationship, that sensitively tackles universal themes of tolerance and acceptance. 

In partnership with Queer Asia 

SOAS University – KHALIL LECTURE THEATRE

Naanu Avanalla Avalu (I Am Not He...She) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: B S Lingadevaru
Starring: Sanchari Vijay, Sharada Nani, Kunal Punekar.
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: Kannada with English subtitles | Country: India

BFI player link
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Based on an empowering true story, Madesha is a fearless young boy from rural Karnataka who cherishes his female persona and gorgeous saris. His sister enjoys his natural flamboyance and zest for life, but his father is ashamed of him and throws him out. Madesha picks himself up and sets out on a journey that will change his life forever as he decides to become a woman. In big-city Bangalore he seeks the support of local queens and the Hijra community (Eunuchs and Transgender people), but after a perilous surgery at a backstreet sex change clinic and name change to Vidya, she decides the traditional begging and prostitute life of a Hijra is not for her. Vidya wants something better.

 

Nachom-Ia Kumpasar

Nachom-Ia Kumpasar | International Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Bardroy Barretto
Starring: Vijay Maurya, Palomi Ghosh, Prince Jacob, John D'Silva, Meenacshi Martins.
Run time: 156 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: Romi Konkani with English Subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >          FILM WEBSITE >

A tribute to the unsung musicians of Goa, who perfected the Portuguese influenced jazz sound that became the soundtrack to Hindi cinema in the 60s and 70s, the film revolves around a married bandleader and his tempestuous relationship with his lead singer as they perform all over India, winning acclaim and hearts. Ravishing to look at and painstaking in its recreation of the era (it won India’s national film award for production design), the film is a crowd-funded and crowd-pleasing musical with glorious recreation of more than 20 Konkani-language jazz standards. Based on the real lives of musicians, the film name checks and features music legends like Chic Chocolate and Anthony Gonsalves and the immortal singer Mohammed Rafi shows up for a cameo. The film also boldly states that many classic Hindi songs of the period that are hummed even today are in reality based on the unaccredited compositions of these musicians.

Nandita Das In Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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Strand: IN CONVERSATION

Nandita is one of those actors who seems to be loved everywhere she goes, none less than her roles at Cannes, where she has served twice as a jury member. Highly intelligent, an effortlessly elegant character actor with an ability to speak numerous Indian languages, Nandita has played in over 40 feature films so far directed by some of India’s top indie directors. Her memorable debut being the pioneering love story Fire, directed by Deepa Mehta, which was distributed globally. Nandita was able to utilise her literary background in her two features so far as a director, the subtly political drama Firaaq (2008) and Manto (2018) which premiered at Cannes Un Certain Regard. In 2011, she was made Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government, for her work in Indo-French co-operation in cinema, and was the first Indian to be inducted into the International Hall of Fame International Women’s Forum in Washington. Nandita is a tireless champion of cinema, human rights and health.

KINDLY SUPPORTED BY THE BAGRI FOUNDATION

Nayakan

Nayakan

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Mani Ratnam
Starring: Kamal Haasan, Saranya, Janagaraj, Nasser.
Run time: 145 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1987
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

We are proud to present a brand new print of this milestone of Indian cinema. Velu is a young man who ekes out a living with some petty smuggling in a Bombay Tamil slum. He becomes an instant hero when he stands up to the cruel local policeman. From then on he is the ‘Nayakan’ (Godfather) of the community and becomes one of Bombay’s most respected and feared Mafia dons. Kamal Haasan’s towering central performance, combined with Indian great Mani Ratnam’s direction and PC Sreeram’s ravishing cinematography made this an instant classic. Time magazine included the film in its list of All-Time 100 Best Films.

Don’t miss this rare opportunity to watch a pivotal and epic work of Indian cinema in all its glory on the big screen.

Nazarband (Captive)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Suman Mukhopadhyay
Starring: Tanmay Dhanania, Indira Tiwari
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

After five years in prison, Vasanti is released only to realise that her husband has not come to receive her. Confused and in despair she begrudgingly teams up with Chandu, a male ex-con released on the same day, and together they embark on a quest to find her family. As the pair struggle through the streets of Kolkata their dependency on each other grows as their search becomes increasingly perilous.

Online Q&A

Necklace

Necklace

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Shekhar Das
Starring: Rituparna Sengupta, Locket Chatterjee, Dipankar Dey
Run time: 110 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2011
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

A deftly delivered, charming comedy of errors set in contemporary suburban Kolkata. A corporate executive and his wife Shikha (Sengupta) face a bewildering situation when they confront a hapless burglar who has broken into their house at night. Trying to escape, the burglar leaps from their balcony and injures himself. The burglar makes out he is dying and the hapless exec and spouse now fear being sued and rush him to hospital, but then the burglar’s crazy wife arrives claiming compensation. The couple panic and invite her in to console her, all seems to be put to rights until Shikha discovers the burglar’s wife has now nicked her favourite necklace.

Nepal Charity Event With Manisha Koirala

Nepal Charity Event with Manisha Koirala | Screening Bombay

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015



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Nepalese born Bollywood actress Manisha Koirala jets into London for this Charity Gala to raise much needed funds to re-build homes in earthquake devastated Nepal. This special event organised by the festival, with Grange Hotels as the Sponsor and the Indian Ocean Disaster Relief (IODR), as the beneficiary charity with all funds raised on the night ring-fenced for Nepal, will include an exclusive screening of Bollywood classic Bombay, specially introduced by its heroine Manisha Koirala and its Director Mani Ratnam. This is accompanied by a Champagne Reception and sumptuous three course banquet and fundraiser at the 5* Grange St Pauls Hotel.

New Brit-Asian Shorts

LIFF Festival Screening:



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New Brit-Asian Shorts + Q&A

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Various Directors

Run time: 100 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022

Support your local filmmaker. This curated selection of shorts focuses on the work of diverse filmmakers ranging across the UK. From award-winning dramas to insightful docs, the programme presents compelling, rarely seen perspectives on Asian Britain today.

Short Film Programme

The Pink Pill
Dir: Cassiah Joski Jethi
20 mins | English
Valentine’s Day. Two young people looking for love meet in a Love Hotel for their second date. Girl seems nervous. Boy seems forward. We’ve all seen this a million times before, right? Wrong.

Kiran
Dir: Bhulla Beghal
8 mins | English
Kiran, once a happily married independent business owner is now the full time carer of her elderly mother who is suffering from dementia. In the throws of routine and repeating calls for help, Kiran breaks.

Indi
Dir: Billy Dosanjh
16 mins | English
Set in the mid ’90s, Indi charts the world of emigre mother, Sheeru, and her British born son Indi, who dreams of playing professional football.

Baked Beans
Dir: Matt Ayleigh
10 mins | English
When Nik auditions for a radical retelling of the British Asian classic ‘East is East’, he soon begins to wonder if everyone around him is also stuck in the past.

In Residence
Dir: Nisha Duggal
7 mins | Bengali, English, Hindi with English subtitles
Tracing a love story through an Indian couple’s migration to Britain in the 1970s. Excerpts from a series of letters exchanged between the pair across continents are performed by the letter-writers themselves.

SURPRI-!
Dir: Rory D Bentley
3 mins | English
A young man discovers his Papaji (Grandad) has died watching porn on the eve of his surprise birthday party…

Yellow
Dir: Elham Ehsas
13 mins | Dari
In Taliban controlled Afghanistan, Laili walks into a Chadari store in Kabul to buy her first full body veil from a Talib shopkeeper and face a new future.

Things We Never Said
Dir: Manjinder Virk
16 mins | English
Three British Asian siblings find themselves in remote Bulgaria where their father is suddenly taken ill. Once in this foreign land an unexpected incident forces them to deal with a truth none of them are ready for.

Some of the filmmakers will join us for a discussion after the screening.

Newton

Newton

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Amit Masurkar
Starring: Rajkummar Rao, Pankaj Tripathy, Anjali Patil
Run time: 106 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: India

An award-winner at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2017, this delightful black comedy stars one of India’s top young character actors, Rajkummar Rao, as Newton, an everyday clerk who is selected for election duty in the conflict-ridden Indian state of Chhattisgarh. As local police and Maoists harass the locals and the voting process spirals out of control, the morally driven Newton becomes a reluctant hero in his zest to save the day.

Nirbashito

Nirbashito (Banished) | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Churni Ganguly
Starring: Churni Ganguly,Raima Sen, Saswata Chatterjee.
Run time: 108 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India/Sweden

PLAY TRAILER >          FILM WEBSITE >

Accomplished female Actor/Director Churni Ganguly’s powerful story explores a writer’s forced exile from Bengal. The police arrive at the writer’s home and she is informed that she must leave her homeland immediately. There are numerous death threats after a furore has exploded on her writings on women’s rights and fundamentalism. Forced to abandon her beloved Persian cat and loyal friends she ends up alone in a safe house in Scandinavia, struggling to make new allies in a cold, foreign country that doesn’t understand her culture, or why she has ended up there.

 

No Ground Beneath The Feet

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Mohammad Rabby Mridha
Starring: Priyam Archi, Mostafa Monwar, Deepanwita Martin
Run time: 91 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

This must-see film opens with a mafia don shaving a terrified Saiful in a barber shop chair, with a cut throat razor, reminding him to pay up. This high style film continues in a similar fast based vien, as impoverished Dhaka based ambulance driver Saif is faced to deal with the relentless struggle for survival. Living two lives, his town wife demands duty, while he hears from his real wife and children by the coast, that a flood is coming. Hoping to rescue his family, Saif tries ever riskier jobs, conflicting his morality in order to save the day.

Q&A with Mohammad Rabby Mridha (TBC)

No Land's Man

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Eisha Chopra, Megan Mitchell
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2021
Language: English, Hindi, Urdu, French, Bengali with English subtitles | Country: USA, India, Bangladesh, Australia

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

In 2019, a man named Naveen (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) disappears from a memorial park in Sydney while travelling with his girlfriend Cathy. Flashback to New York two years earlier, Naveen finds a job at a restaurant where he meets Cathy, but he is never able to truly be himself, struggling to forge an identity as a migrant in the city. As their relationship deepens, Naveen’s lies begin to catch up with him and unable to tell the truth about anything including his name and nationality, his relationship with Cathy is put to the test and his own existence questioned. One of leading figures of new Bangladeshi cinema, Farooki’s latest is a stirring tale of a man desperately seeking to manufacture an identity in a new place that will allow him to just exist.

Q&A with Mostafa Sarwar Farooki

Nonajoler Kabbo (The Salt in our Waters)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Rezwan Shahriar Sumit
Starring: Fazlur Rahman Babu, Shatabdi Wadud, Titas Zia
Run time: 106 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2020
Language: Bangla with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh, France

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

Co-produced by Spike Lee’s company, this lavishly photographed film was born to be seen on the big screen! Set in the stunning, unlimited vistas of coastal Bangladesh we meet Rudro, a young artist, who after the death of his father, relocates to a remote beach village to find closure and practice his craftsmanship. At first he is welcomed by the traditional locals, but when the fish shoals they rely on suddenly disappear, Rudro’s modern ideas are blamed. As a cyclone approaches, social and physical storms threaten Rudro’s way of life.

Online Q&A with Rezwan Shahriar Sumit and crew

Once again - film showing at LIFF 2017

Once Again (Pinneyum)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Adoor Gopalakrishnan
Starring: Dileep, Kavya Madhavan, Subodh Bhave, Nedumudi Venu
Run time: 121 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2016
Language: Malayalam with English Subtitles | Country: India

Master Kerala filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan returns to LIFF with a powerful tale of family betrayal and murder. Unemployed Purushothaman (Dileep) marries hardworking schoolteacher Devi (Madhavan) and finally gets a job offer in Dubai. However, when he takes out a hefty life insurance deal, he is overcome by relatives’ demands for money and he plots to fake his own death.

Once Upon a Time in Calcutta

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Aditya Vikram Sengupta
Starring: Sreelekha Mitra, Shayak Roy, Bratya Basu
Run time: 131 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India, France, Norway

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

World premiered at Venice Film Festival, Sengupta’s gorgeously shot film follows the story of Ela, a failed actress; she has recently lost her daughter – who was the only reason for Ela to stay with her husband. Ela faces various setbacks in her personal, professional and love life, but she doesn’t lose hope and sets out to find a new identity, love and independence in the booming streets of Calcutta. Helmed by beautifully nuanced performance from Sreelekha Mitra, the film captures the hustle and bustle of a city constantly in a state of flux.

Q&A with director Aditya Vikram Sengupta

One Crazy Thing

One Crazy Thing

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Amit Gupta
Starring: Ray Panthaki, Daisy Bevan, Dan Skinner.
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: English | Country: UK

PLAY TRAILER >

This delightful charmer follows Jay, a former daytime TV star who is haunted by the sex tape that destroyed his life and turned his unknown actress girlfriend into an A-list Hollywood celebrity. As he cowers in obscurity managing his family’s Indian restaurant, he meets his dream girl Hannah, a beautiful American music student who hates modern life, and above all, dishonesty. Jay must now confront the errors of his past, rather than hiding from his future. Filled with warmth, music and delicious Indian food, the film is also a celebration of modern London in all her glory. It features a winning performance from BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Ray Panthaki and a star-making turn from Daisy Bevan, the latest entrant from the revered Redgrave acting dynasty.

One Crazy Thing

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Amit Gupta
Starring: Ray Panthaki, Daisy Bevan, Dan Renton Skinner
Run time: 94 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2016
Language: English | Country: UK

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

This delightful charmer follows Jay, a former daytime TV star who is haunted by the sex tape that destroyed his life and turned his unknown actress girlfriend into an A-list Hollywood celebrity. As he cowers in obscurity managing his family’s Indian restaurant, he meets his dream girl Hannah, a beautiful American music student who hates modern life, and above all, dishonesty. Jay must now confront the errors of his past, rather than hiding from his future. Filled with warmth, music and delicious Indian food, the film is also a celebration of modern London in all her glory. It features a winning performance from BAFTA Breakthrough Brit Ray Panthaki and a star-making turn from Daisy Bevan, the latest entrant from the revered Redgrave acting dynasty.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Love Sonia

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Tabrez Noorani
Starring: Mrunal Thakur, Freida Pinto, Demi Moore, Mark Duplass, Manoj Bajpayee, Rajkummar Rao, Richa Chadda, Riya Sisodiya, Anupam Kher, Adil Hussain, Sunny Pawar
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2018
Language: English, Hindi, Cantonese with English subtitles | Country: India

Inspired by true events, this is the story of a young Indian village girl, Sonia. Her life changes irrevocably when she is entrapped in the global sex trade while trying to save her beloved sister Preeti. Struggling to free herself from small-time pimps, Sonia does not realise they are merely the foot soldiers of a ruthless, powerful army with its reach around the world. As she becomes aware of the enormity of the odds against her, Sonia is sustained by a fragile dream that is worth surviving for. Battling with a strength she didn’t know she had, her searing journey spans three continents and a lifetime of experiences that no young girl should have. Sonia is determined not to become one of the 800,000 women and children who are victims of the international sex trade industry every year.

WARNING: This film depicts scenes of sexual violence that may be disturbing to some viewers. 

Q&A with director Tabrez Noorani and cast and crew

Opening Night Movie - The Black Prince

OPENING NIGHT: The Black Prince

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Kavi Raz
Starring: Satinder Sartaaj, Jason Flemyng, Shabana Azmi, Aanda Root, Ameet Chana, David Essex
Run time: 118 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2017
Language: English, Punjabi & Hindi with English Subtitles | Country: UK, India

Punjabi music superstar Satinder Sartaaj shines in his film debut as Maharaja Duleep Singh alongside powerful Indian actor Shabana Azmi and Jason Flemyng (Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels). The Black Prince  is an exquisitely photographed and sumptuously designed period drama with a tiger’s bit as it offers an insight into a controversial chapter of shared British Indian colonial history. After the death of Sikh Maharaja Ranjit Singh, ruler of the Punjab, there is a violent war of succession until his youngest son, the five-year-old Duleep Singh is installed as king. The British, however, have other plans and bundle the boy off to England where he is brought up as a Christian in the lap of luxury under the personal care of Queen Victoria (Amanda Root). In early adulthood Duleep (Satinder Sartaaj) is torn between two cultures and secures begrudging permission from Queen Victoria to meet his real mother (Shabana Azmi). She soon awakens him to his original Sikh faith and culture, which sets him on a dangerous quest to challenge the British Raj and free his people.

Ottaal The Trap

Ottaal (The Trap)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Jayaraj Rajasekharan Nair
Starring: Shine Tom Chacko, Kumarakom Vasavan, Ashanth K. Sha
Run time: 81 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2015
Language: Malayalam with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Master Director Jayaraj won the Crystal Bear at this year’s Berlinale with this adaption of Anton Chekhov’s social concern short story Vanka – transposing it into the sumptuous wetlands of the Southern Indian state of Kerala. Kuttappayi has lost both his parents but has been raised by his loving grandfather. Together they tend flocks of ducks in vast flooded fields and tell each other whimsical stories. Kuttappayi’s life seems good and easy and he dreams of going to school, but suddenly the old man falls ill and very soon the boy’s future is put into doubt. The hard realities of poverty, shared by so many millions of children around the world, soon mean that Kuttappayi must face a hard new future to survive.

PAKA: The River of Blood

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Dir. Nithin Lukose
Starring: Basil Paulose, Vinitha Koshy, Jose Kizhakkan
Run time: 101 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2021
Language: Malayalam With English subs | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

With echoes of Romeo and Julliet, a tale of violent inter-family vengeance, set aside a river that runs through a village in North Kerala. Nithin Lukose’s character focused film follows Johnny and Anna, two lovers from opposing sides of the conflict who plan to unite the two families. However the arrival of Johnny’s uncle from gaol reignites the flames of the simmering conflict and throws Johnny and Annas plans into disarray.

Parched

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Leena Yadav
Starring: Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Surveen Chawla, Lehar Khan
Run time: 117 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2015
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Director Leena Yadav tells a wonderfully joyous and inspiring tale of comradery. Four ordinary women live in a desert Gujarati village, weighed down by centuries of tradition. Rani (Tannishtha Chatterjee) lost her husband at 16 and struggles to bring up her teenage son, careful to follow every village rule. Her friend Lajjo (Radhika Apte) is always brimming with positivity, but fears beatings from her drunken husband. Bijli (Surveen Chawla) is secretly Rani’s friend, she’s a local performer and prostitute, but her beauty is coming to an end along with her youth. Janaki (Lehar Khan) is a child bride to Rani’s son, secretly struggling to come to terms with a loveless marriage. As the magical festival of Dussehra approaches these friends’ bonds are put to the test, forcing them to make decisions that will dynamically change their lives forever.

Pather Panchali

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Satyajit Ray
Starring: Kanu Bannerjee, Karuna Bannerjee, Chunibala Devi, Uma Das Gupta, Subir Banerjee
Run time: 125 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 1955
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

We are delighted to present an introductory talk, “Satyajit Ray and his French Connection”, before our screening of Pather Panchali by writer Andrew Robinson, who is considered one of the world’s greatest authorities on Satyajit Ray, and has written extensively on Ray and his Apu Trilogy in books and the international press. Robinson will explore Ray’s lesser-known close connection with French artists including filmmaker Jean Renoir and photographer Henri Cartier-Bresson, as well as provide an insight into Ray’s background, films and the making of Pather Panchali. Andrew Robinson will publish a centenary edition of Satyajit Ray: The Inner Eye with Bloomsbury in September.

Probably Satyajit Ray’s most internationally acclaimed film. The Song of the Little Road as it is known in English, is based on Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay’s 1929 Bengali novel of the same name. It depicts the childhood joys and struggles of the main protagonist Apu (Subir Banerjee), and his sister Durga (Uma Das Gupta), as they encounter both the beauty of the Bengali countryside, and also the cruel hardships of being the poor family of the village, after their father deserts them. This classic boasts magical cinematography by Subrata Mitra and an unforgettable musical score by Ravi Shankar.

Photograph

Photograph

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Ritesh Batra
Starring: Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Sanya Malhotra, Gitanjali Kulkarni, Farrukh Jaffar
Run time: 110 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Hindi, Gujarati, English with English subtitles | Country: India/Germany/US

CLOSING NIGHT GALA

Cannes hit The Lunchbox took the world by storm with box office success in all territories. Its director Ritesh Batra returns to the big screen with this nuanced romance between unlikely lovers. Acting legend Nawazuddin Siddiqui plays Rafi, a humble street photographer outside the Gateway of India, Mumbai. He photographs an attractive young wealthy woman Miloni, who disappears without paying. Keeping her photo, he tries to fob off his marriage-peddling granny by sending her the photo to show his success, but impressed, she is soon heading to Mumbai to meet the marriage prospect. Rafi manages to track down Miloni and convince her to pretend to be his fiancée, and, partly intrigued by rough diamond Rafi’s request and partly because she’s looking for something extraordinary, she agrees.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Ritesh Batra

 

Pop City

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Rohit Mittal
Starring: Arjun Radhakrishnan, Naina Sareen, Preeti Sharma
Run time: 80 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

A young and ruthless gun for hire Gulshan, lives a lonely life in Mumbai, dreaming of becoming the number one hitman in the city. He is presented with the opportunity to achieve his goals after being approached by a mysterious organisation to kill a journalist. As Gulshan stalks his prey, learning his every move and planning when to make the hit, Gulshan’s everyday life begins to get mixed in with his professional life and the best laid plans quickly vortex out of control

Online Q&A with Rohit Mittal

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Pratibha Parmar: Asian Artists in Emergence

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Pratibha Parmar

Run time: 71 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1986, 1989, 1990
Language: English | Country:

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

Our second programme of documentaries by legendary filmmaker Pratibha Parmar charts the rise of a new generation of Asian artists in Britain and globally from the mid 1980s to early 90s, with pioneering artists who broke artistic and cultural boundaries who were shaped by feminist and sexual politics. These films include rare conversations with photographer Sunil Gupta, visual artist Sutapa Biswas and acclaimed writer poet Sunita Namjoshi, who explore their practice and thoughts on contemporary culture. Parmar’s free-flowing montage style brings artists and their works together, which in itself creates a sensory discourse.

Emergence | 1986 | 20 mins
Memory Pictures | 1989 | 24 mins
Flesh & Paper | 1990 | 27 mins

Pratibha Parmar: British Asians - The Underground Generations

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Pratibha Parmar

Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1988, 1994, 1998
Language: English | Country:

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

One of the UK’s most prominent activist filmmakers – Pratibha Parmar has amassed a unique body of docs recording the evolution of British Asian identity from the mid-1980s onwards. British Asians – The Underground Generations starts with her iconic ‘Sari Red’ about racist attacks on Asian youth, to profiling artists such as Anish Kapoor, Shobana Jeyasingh and Tara Arts Theatre company who defined their art at the borderlines of nationhood and cultural hybridity in ‘The Colour of Britain’, to the flowering of the Asian arts scenes of the early 1990s with ‘Brimful of Asia’. Expect a who’s who of British Asian arts and culture!

Sari Red | 1988 | 11 mins
The Colour Of Britain | 1994 | 50 mins
Brimful of Asia | 1998 | 24 mins

Q&A with Pratibha Parmar and guests

Premaya Nam (Dirty Yellow Darkness)

Premaya Nam (Dirty, Yellow, Darkness)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Kalpana & Vindana Ariyawansa
Starring: Shyam Fernando, Samanalee Fonseka, Suranga Ranawaka.
Run time: 96 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2014
Language: Sinhala with English subtitles | Country: Sri Lanka

PLAY TRAILER >

Well educated Vishwa has a successful career in advertising and a beautiful wife, Samadi. But he suffers from severe Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), which he conceals from the world on a daily basis. He fears that his own urine is contaminating everything around him. Unable to endure his eccentric and strange behaviour, Samadi leaves him and moves in with her parents. Lonely Vishwa loses his job and descends into a life of prescription drug abuse. His illness and addiction escalate, leaving him with no choice but to admit himself to a mental hospital for treatment to overcome his fear and win his wife back, knowing there will be heavy social consequences in a culture that greatly stigmatises mental illness. Told with heart and humour, this beautiful true story is based on co-director Vindana Ariyawansa’s own experience of suffering from OCD and shows that sometimes love is the prescription.

Pune 52

Pune 52

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Nikhil Mahajan
Starring: Girish Kulkarni, Sonali Kulkarni, Sai Tamhankar, Bharti Achrekar.
Run time: 121 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

The life of a private detective undergoes a dramatic change when he takes up a case that is deeply personal and highly complex. Set in the year 1992, against the backdrop of the finance reform policy that spiralled the Indian middle class into a tizzy of consumerism, reforming everything, including their relationships, Pune 52 is a heartbreaking love story blended with a edge of the seat thriller complete with femme fatales and corrupt officialdom where nothing is as it seems and there is a twist lurking around every corner. This crackling tale is a standard bearer showcasing the continuing resurgence of Marathi cinema.

Qissa

Qissa: The Tale of A Lonely Ghost | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Anup Singh
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Tillotama Shome, Rasika Dugal.
Run time: 109 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2013
Language: Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: India, Germany, Netherlands, France

Acclaimed actor and LIFF 2013 guest Irrfan Khan (Lunchbox, Life of Pi), plays the role of Umber Singh, a rural Sikh, dispossessed from his homeland by the Partition. He obsessively focuses on the ‘ideal’ of having a son and heir, but as his fourth daughter is born he hides the child’s true identity, she becomes the son of his dreams, but at a terrible cost. Deftly directed by Anup Singh with stunning performances from an ensemble cast including Tillotama Shome as the ‘son’.

Queens Destiny of Dance

Queens! Destiny of Dance

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: David Atkins
Starring: Seema Biswas, Vineeth, Laxmi Narayan Tripathi
Run time: 112 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2011
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Glamour, treachery, dancing and fab outfits; Queens! Destiny of Dance is set in a palace owned by head transvestite Ammu, played by Seema Biswas (of Bandit Queen fame). Ammu is a mother figure to a gaggle of gorgeous transvestites. The pecking order in the palace is nicely settled, led by Ammu’s favourite Mukta that is until new ‘girl’ Nandini arrives. She is not only more beautiful and younger than Mukta, but also a better dancer. Ammu immediately switches her affections to Nandini and ageing Mukta is out in the cold. When Nandini suddenly disappears all hell breaks out and Mukta stands accused.

 

Ramsingh Charlie

Ramsingh Charlie

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Nitin Kakkar
Starring: Kumud Mishra, Divya Dutta.
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

In this tragi-comic tale, Ramsingh, a Charlie Chaplin impersonator, performs in a travelling circus. He is unexpectedly thrown into the bigger circus of life where he has to now juggle between his role as a father and that of a performer, all without a safety net. Facing a crisis of confidence as an artist, he must now brave the odds for one last shot at the sparkling lights of show business. He loses a little of himself in a world that has little space for dreams. Along the journey he realises that to do what he wants, he’ll do what he has to do. Kumud Mishra, known for his roles in Bollywood blockbusters like Rockstar and Airlift, delivers the performance of his life as Charlie, blending pathos and comedy into a bravura package. This is one of those rare films that will have you wiping a tear while at the same time grinning broadly.

Rang Rasiya

Rang Rasiya (Colours of Passion)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Ketan Mehta
Starring: Randeep Hooda, Nandana Sen, Paresh Rawal, Ferena Wazeir.
Run time: 129 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2008
Language: Hindi, English | Country: India

Both strikingly beautiful and audacious, Ketan Mehta’s film charts the life of the great Indian artist Raja Ravi Varma (played by Randeep Hooda), from his early days under the patronage of a King of Kerala, moving on to British Bombay in the late 1800s, where he makes his fortune.

Here the genius gives birth to Indian modern art and helps inspire the independence movement and the dawning of Indian cinema with his depictions, which bring to life the Hindu gods and goddesses. He must first find his muse who comes in the lavish form of Sugandha (Nandana Sen). Varma’s fascination for his model turns into a torrid, paint-smeared, love affair, which is reflected in his art. The religious power brokers see his increasingly eroticised work as dangerous and Varma is dragged to the British courts to be tried for blasphemy.

Mehta’s homage offers not only a spectacular insight into a turning point in Indian history, but also questions the freedom of the artist in contemporary society. Not to be missed!

Ringan (the quest)

Ringan (The Quest)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Makarand Mane
Starring: Shashank Shende, Saahil Joshi, Suhas Sirsat, Kalyanee Mulay.
Run time: 105 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

This moving father and son drama is set against the backdrop of farmer suicides in the drought-stricken state of Maharashtra. Arjun, the father develops suicidal tendencies due to debts caused by drought. But his love and concern for his stubborn son, Abhimanyu, motivates him to earn the money needed to buy back his ancestral land. He reluctantly takes his son with him when he leaves the village in search of work. They travel across the state and reach the holy town of Pandharpur, where Arjun finds work and Abhimanyu goes in obsessive search of his mother, who has been told, has gone to the Abode of God, which is Pandharpur. The film is a touching, stirring story of unbridled paternal love and fighting against trying circumstances to overcome the odds. It is also a clarion call to that greatest of human emotions – hope.

Road to Sangam

Road to Sangam

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Amit Rai
Starring: Paresh Rawal, Om Puri, Tushar Gandhi
Run time: 135 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi | Country: India

Mahatma Gandhi still evokes powerful feelings of sacrifice and secularism for many Indians today, over 60 years after his death. Some of Gandhiji’s ashes, which must be taken to the Hindu holy river ‘Sangam’, are discovered. A devout Muslim mechanic Hashmat (Paresh Rawal), has been entrusted the job of repairing the historic lorry that will carry the last ashes of the Mahatma. Hashmat is, however, caught in a complex situation when two innocent Muslim youths are arrested by police in his locality and are accused of terrorism. A strike to work is called by a prominent Muslim leader, played by Om Puri (East is East), to protest against this unjust treatment. As pressure increases, Hashmat is torn between whether to obey the strike and down tools, or follow his other ideals and strive to finish his work in honour of the great leader.

ROOBHA

Roobha

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Lenin M. Sivam
Starring: Jesuthasan Antonythasan, Amrit Sandhu, Thenuka Kantharajah
Run time: 91 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2018
Language: Tamil, English with English subtitles | Country: Canada

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

Canadian Tamil Roobha is a stunning young trans-woman struggling to find her place after being ostracised by her family. One night while dancing in a redneck bar she has a chance encounter with Tamil bar owner and ‘straight’ married man, Anthony, (played by Jesuthasan Antonythasan of Dheepan fame). This leads to an intense love affair, but their blissful relationship is put to the test as Roobha is forced to deal with transgender stigma present in their community and Anthony’s familial affiliation and ailing health. Lenin M. Sivam’s latest film is beautifully realised and a unique romantic tale exploring the complexities of gender identities, romance and immigrant loneliness.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with actor Jesuthasan Antonythasan

 

Runway

Runway

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Tareque Masud
Starring: Fazlul Haque, Rabeya Akter Moni, Ali Ahsan
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2010
Language: Bangla with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

Winner of a Cannes prize for his triumph The Clay Bird, this is the last offering from Tareque Masud who tragically died in an accident last year. Teenage Ruhul lives with his family in a small hut next to the runway of Dhaka international airport. His family struggle to make a living while he spends his days wandering under the shadow of the planes, aimless and frustrated in his futile efforts to find work. One day at a cyber-cafe he meets computer geek Arif (Ahsan) who introduces him to a group of other young men and what seems an inspiring new religious sect, but all is not what it seems and he quickly gets pulled into a world of violent revolutionary politics.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Runway

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Tareque Masud
Starring: Fall Haque, Rabeya Akter Moni, Ali Ahsan
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2010
Language: Bangla with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

Winner of a Cannes prize for his triumph The Clay Bird, this is the last offering from Tareque Masud who tragically died in an accident in 2011. Teenage Ruhul lives with his family in a small hut next to the runway of Dhaka international airport. His family struggle to make a living while he spends his days wandering under the shadow of the planes, aimless and frustrated in his futile efforts to find work. One day at a cyber-cafe he meets computer geek Arif (Ahsan) who introduces him to a group of other young men and what seems an inspiring new religious sect, but all is not what it seems and he quickly gets pulled into a world of violent revolutionary politics.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Saari Raat

Saari Raat (All Night) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Aparna Sen
Starring: Konkona Sen Sharma, Anjan Dutt, Ritwick Chakraborty.
Run time: 82 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Based on renowned playwright Badal Sarkar’s eponymous work, the film is set over one long dark and stormy night where a holidaying couple take shelter from a storm in what appears to be an abandoned house. To their surprise, an elderly man appears who is by turn hospitable and cantankerous. The night that the man and woman spend with their mysterious host turns out to be a crucial one in their lives. He draws out of them secrets that they had never known about themselves, or about each other. The husband is a realist and shrugs off his discomfiture, but his wife detects the ambiguity behind the old man’s remarks and begins to question his motives. Aparna Sen adeptly uses light, shadow and sound to create a mysterious world in which Konkona Sen Sharma gives a compelling performance.

Santosh Sivan Masterclass

Santosh Sivan | Masterclass

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014



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BFI player link

Santosh Sivan is India’s foremost and most awarded cinematographer. He is also the only Indian member of the American Society of Cinematographers. He shot to prominence on the national stage with Mani Ratnam’s Thalapathi and is celebrated for his work on Roja, Dil Se, Iruvar and Kaala Pani. His international credits include Bride & Prejudice and Mistress Of Spices. Sivan debuted as director with Halo followed by Malli , both films aimed at children. The world took notice of his next film The Terrorist (premiered at BFI London Film Festival), about a suicide bomber wrestling with her conscience. John Malkovich championed the film and ensured that it found global distribution.

BFI SOUTHBANK

Saturday Afternoon LIFF

Saturday Afternoon

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Mostofa Sarwar Farooki
Starring: Parambrata Chatterjee, Nusrat Imrose Tisha, Eyad Hourani
Run time: 86 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Bengali, English with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh/Germany/India

Strand: FILM, POWER & POLITICS

Winner of two jury awards at Moscow International Film Festival Bangladeshi auteur Mostofa Sarwar Farooki (No Bed Of Roses) returns with this tense thriller shot in a single take where terrorists take over an eatery in Dhaka, resulting in a siege scenario and multiple deaths. Loosely based on real events, the riveting film takes a close look at the roots of modern day terrorism through political, social and gender implications. Adding gravitas to this gut-puncher are a plethora of international stars, including India’s Parambrata Chatterjee (Shah Jahan Regency), Bangladesh’s Nusrat Imrose Tisha (Sincerely Yours, Dhaka) and Palestine’s Eyad Hourani (Omar).

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Mostofa Sarwar Farooki

 

SATYAJIT RAY SHORT FILM AWARD

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018



| Year: 2018

Satyajit Ray Foundation's Short Film Competition 2011 (Brom)

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2011

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK

2011 WINNER: AMAR 

LIFF has once again teamed up with the Satyajit Ray Foundation to present its prestigious Satyajit Ray Foundation Competition. The final short-list has been selected and will previewed at a free screening at the Nehru Centre on 4 July at 18.30pm.

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2012 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

AMAR

Director: Andrew Hinton | Country: UK

All great achievements require time. Amar is 14 and top of his class. Someday he’d like to be a professional cricketer but for now he’s the family’s main breadwinner. An observational documentary which leads us through Amar’s daily routine.

 

THE TALKING WALLS OF LAHORE

Director: Numra Siddiqui | Country: UK

Graffiti is everywhere in Pakistan’s cultural heartland. Words consume the city’s visible spaces, from herbal practitioners advertising impotency cures to political and religious slogans. In a country battling economic and political instability, these ‘wall chalkings’ form a rich amalgamation of contradictory messages. The act of writing becomes emancipation, defying forces that attempt to bind individual expression.

 

MY LAD

Director: Sami Khan | Country: UK

Abdul has been hiding out in his launderette for days, unable to deal with the world outside. Despite pleas from his brother, Abdul is determined to run from the one thing he has to accept. Fate.

 

BOXING LADIES

Director: Anusha Nanakumar | Country: India

Zainab, Bushra and Sughra are three spirited, teenage sisters living in a small slum in Kolkata. They are also national level boxers. As the girls dream of rising above their living conditions, the film challenges the stereotype of young Muslim women.

 

ZAROORAT (DESPERATION)

Director: George Mangalath Thomas | Country: India

Asif, a street hawker, is confronted by a simple need – he must earn some money; just enough to buy some food. Which has it’s own complications – particularly when confronted with a corrupt local policeman and the corporation bulldozers poised to demolish his home…

 

VITTHAL

Director: Vinoo Choliparambil | Country: India

Vitthal is angry, very angry. Following the death of his grandfather, according to Hindu death rituals, his parents have shaved off his hair. For 12 year old Vitthal, his world is shattered.

 

HOME

Director: Krish Shrikumar | Country: UK

The man’s memories of home have become more vivid with time. This is the story of his journey back to a place only he knows he can return to… A short meditation on ‘Home’ as a place far beyond the imagination.

Satyajit Ray Foundation's Short Film Competition 2012 (amar)

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2012

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Various
Starring: Various
|
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK/Germany

2012 WINNER: SHOR 

The 2012 Shortlisted films will screen in a special free programme at the Nehru Centre on 27 June at 18:30. The winning film will be announced at the closing night ceremony on 3 July, at Cineworld Haymarket.

JURY:  Eran Creevy (dir SHIFTY, WELCOME TO THE PUNCH) Suri Krishnamma (dir BAD KARMA) Andrew Hinton (dir Amar, 2011 short film winner), Satwant Gill (LIFF, Jury Chair).

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2012 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

AYESHA

Director: Farzana Tipurita | Country: UK

The story of a British Pakistani woman at a crossroads, forced to choose between her family and her own desires.

RAJU

Director: Max Zarhle | Country: Germany

A German couple adopts an Indian orphan in Kolkata. When the child suddenly disappears they realise that they are part of the problem.

KHALEEL KHAN KE FAAKHTEY (DIRTY DOVES)

Director: Rizwan Siddiqui | Country: India

The old man had claimed the past as his own. The beauty of memories savoured and retold a million times to anyone who cared to listen, was all that mattered. Now, refusing to be deterred from his journey, it was time to confront that past…

MAYA

Director: Naina Panemanglor Country: UK

In a tiny first class train cabin, self assured Mohan Bhatt encounters his first love, Maya Rao. Maya, now married, is travelling with her husband and son. Pretending to be strangers at first, Mohan and Maya slowly come to terms with a past they thought they had left behind.

SHOR (NOISE)

Director: Neeraj Ghaywan | Country: India

Barely surviving in the seedy ghettos of Mumbai, Lallam and Meena find each other while embracing death, divorce, and redemption.

UNRAVEL

Director: Meghna Gupta | Country: UK

When the Western world no longer wants it clothes, they are sent to a textile recycling factory in the sleepy town of Panipat, Northern India. Bright and inquisitive factory worker Reshma and her co-workers, reflect on these clothes. Despite limited exposure to western culture, they construct a picture of how the West is, using both their imagination and rumours that travel with the cast off garments.

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2013

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK/USA/Canada

2013 WINNER: KAUN KAMLESHWAR 

The 2013 Shortlisted films will screen in a special free programme at the Nehru Centre on 23 July at 18:30. The winner of the £1,000 award will be announced on Thursday 25 July, at the Cineworld Haymarket during the closing night Gala.

JURY:  Atif Ghani (Prod Ill Manors) Kim Longinotto (Dir. Salma, Pink Saris) Sunny Grewal (Sunny & Shay Show, BBC London) Meghna Gupta (Shorts Dir: Unravel) Satwant Gill (LIFF).

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2013 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

CALCUTTA TAXI

Director: Vikram Dasgupta | Country: Canada

A young Art College student finds his backpack stolen on the day of a political strike. Set in the grimy backdrop of a city going through a political crisis, Calcutta Taxi unravels the story of three lives that coincide and affect each other. Each one having lost and found some things in this chance encounter of life.

I AM MICRO

Director: Shumona Goel & Shai Heredia | Country: India

Shot in the passages of an abandoned optics factory and centered on the activities of a low-budget film crew, I Am Micro is an experimental essay about filmmaking, the medium of film, and the spirit of making independent cinema.

FAUX DÉPART (FALSE START)

Director: Shekhar Bassi | Country: UK

Fahim and Haashid, friends borne of necessity and neither speaking the others language, sit on a secluded French beachhead. Ill prepared and uninformed, the men plan for their journey to England in search of a better life.

SIKH FORMAGGIO

Director: Katie Wise, Devyn Bisson, Dan Duran | Country: USA

After emigrating from India to Italy in search of jobs familiar to their agricultural roots, a Sikh community finds work within the struggling Italian Parmesan industry. As the Sikhs attempt to keep their culture and traditions strong in their new home, they are also helping to preserve a piece of Italy’s culture – the art of making parmigiano reggiano cheese.

ON MIGRATION

Director: Asheq Akhtar | Country: UK

A short film about the early experiences of migrants from Bangladesh and India, using verbatim accounts from the director’s parents as they recount their personal journeys arriving in 1970’s England.

KAUN KAMLESHWAR?

Director: Anurag Goswami | Country: India

Brothers Madhav and Raghu travel back to their village with a clear mission – to find Kamleshwar and put an end to their troubles. Fate, however, takes an unexpected turn…

Satyajit Ray Foundation's Short Film Competition 2014

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2014

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK/USA

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2015

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK

2015 WINNER: KHARGOSH (RABBIT) 

LIFF presents the prestigious annual Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition in association with the Bagri Foundation. The winner of the £1,000 award will be announced on 23 July at the Closing Night Gala.

JURY:  Amrita Acharia (Actress), Ken Marshall (Producer), Sathnam Sanghera (Author and columnist), Shazia Mirza (Comedian and columnist), Satwant Gill (LIFF, Jury Chair).

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2015 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

JAYA

Director: Puja Maewal | Run time: 18 mins | Country: USA

Young Jaya survives brutal gang life on Mumbai’s unforgiving streets by posing as a boy. When she meets a wealthy businessman who may be the father who abandoned her, she sets out to reclaim her identity.

THREE BROTHERS

Director: Aleem Khan | Run time: 16 mins | Country: UK

Teenager Hamid is unexpectedly thrust into the role of carer for his younger siblings. Ill equipped for this responsibility he needs to use all his resourcefulness to hold the family together. Nominated for a Best Short Film BAFTA in 2015.

GOONJ (ECHO)

Director: Madhuri Ravishankar | Run time: 18 mins | Country: India

An intimate documentary about 5 year old Zuvaria, the only person in her family who is hearing impaired. She is also highly spirited, often stubborn, full of curiosity about the world and has an indomitable zest for life.

KHARGOSH (RABBIT)

Director: Sudarshan Suresh | Run time: 14 mins | Country: India/USA

A debt ridden farmer struggles to keep afloat amidst mounting pressure from his money lenders. When his young daughter decides to adopt a stray rabbit, the relationship between father and child is put to the test.

IFTAR

Director: SGiri M Coneti | Run time: 9 mins | Country: USA

A debt ridden farmer struggles to keep afloat amidst mounting pressure from his money lenders. When his young daughter decides to adopt a stray rabbit, the relationship between father and child is put to the test.

DUM DUM DEEGA DEEGA (DANCING IN THE RAIN)

Director: Ayush Kapur | Run time: 15 mins | Country: India

Ajju lives on the streets of Mumbai; determined not to share the same fate as his drunken father, he has big dreams for his future. He just needs the right opportunity to present itself…

Khargosh

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2016

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK

2016 WINNER: MOCHI (THE COBBLER) 

LIFF presents the prestigious annual Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition in association with the Bagri Foundation.

JURY: Alka Bagri (Bagri Foundation), Aleem Khan (Film maker), Aditi Khanna (Senior Correspondent, Press Trust of India), Menelik Shabazz (Film maker) & Satwant Gill (LIFF, Jury Chair).

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2016 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

MOCHI (THE COBBLER)

Director: Saqib Pandor | Run time: 19 mins | Country: India

Gopal, a Mumbai cobbler at a railway station, struggles to make ends meet in his minimum wage job. With a growing son, it takes a fine balance to manage the family finances. It just takes one careless mistake…

MARRIAGE BAZAA

Director: Vijay Kumar  | Run time: 12 mins | Country: India

The consequences of female infanticide in Haryana has caused a growing gender imbalance. Increasingly, prospective grooms need to look further afield when choosing a wife who, like Rekha, may be from a different culture and caste. Often these women, far from home, have to deal with racism and suspicion from within their new family units.

CHARIOT RIDERS

Director: Samir Mehanovic | Run time: 22 mins | Country: UK

Afghani refugee Ali and his brother have just arrived in Turkey where, surrounded by many other refugees, his family tries to build a new life. The boys earn their living shining shoes. When one day their spot has been taken, their fragile existence and dreams of a better future hang by a thread.

CHHAYA

Director: Debanjan Nandy | Run time: 10 mins | Country: UK/India

An old man trapped in a mundane senior centre is living the memory of his beloved wife through his own shadow. But as his past sets in threatening his present, Prakash finds himself facing a difficult question: is he living a mesmerizing but unreal dream or life itself?

PLAYGROUNDS

Director: Pallavi MD, Shamik Sen Gupta  | Run time: 18 mins | Country: India

During a game of hide ‘n’ seek, 3 year old Murli hides in an auto rickshaw and falls asleep. He wakes up in a different neighbourhood with an angry man shouting at him in a language he doesn’t understand.

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2017

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Various
Starring: Various
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Various, with English subtitles | Country: India/UK

2017 WINNER:  PAPA

LIFF presents the prestigious annual Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition in association with the Bagri Foundation. The short film programme is a celebration of new filmmaking talent that explores themes of South Asian experience. Many previous winners of this award have successfully developed their careers and moved into making feature films, including young director Shubhashish Bhutiani, who has followed up his 2014 award winning short film Kush with a highly anticipated and charming debut feature Hotel Salvation which screened at LIFF in 2017

JURY: Anu Hasan (Actress, Writer, Presenter), Philip Ilson (Director London Short Film Festival), Shaheen Khan (Actress), Richie Metha (Director) and Satwant Gill (LIFF, Jury Chair)

 

PLEASE SEE BELOW FOR THE 2017 SHORTLISTED FILMS:

 

Mouth of Hell fillm still

MOUTH OF HELL

Year: 2015 | Country: UK
Director: Samir Mehanovic | Run time: 15 | Language: Hindi

Bafta nominated. The coal mines of Jharia, India, where smoke and fumes belch from cracks in the ground, is the home of 8 year old Anant, who scrapes a living picking coal and selling it at the local markets to feed himself and his sick mother. One day a chance encounter sets off a chain of events that will change Anant’s life.

Gopal, a Mumbai cobbler at a railway station, struggles to make ends meet in his minimum wage job. With a growing son, it takes a fine balance to manage the family finances. It just takes one careless mistake…

Moriom

Year: 2015 | Country: Switzerland
Director: Francesca Scalisi and Mark Olexa | Run time: 12 | Language: Bengali

A multi-award winning documentary about a beautiful but strange young woman, Moriom who insists that her parents torture her and keep her a prisoner. Her parents tell a very different story.

Sisak

Year: 2017 | Country: India
Director: Faraz Arif Ansari | Run time: 15 | Language: No Dialogue

A romance that develops slowly and intoxicatingly nestled in the silences and quiet comforts of the end-of-day train journeys.

With Love From Calais

Year: 2016 | Country: UK
Director: Manjinder Virk | Run time: 15 | Language: English/ Farsi

A woman volunteer at the refugee camp, the Calais Jungle, returns home to find that she is unable to let go of her experience and continue with her previous life. Based on real documentary footage fused with drama.

THE KILL

Year: 2016 | Country: USA
Director: Anay Tarnekar | Run time: 16 | Language: Marathi

A tribal man (Girish Kulkarni), debt-ridden and struggling to gain the respect of his long-suffering wife (Radhika Apte), finds himself at a crossroad, where he must choose between winning his family’s trust or betraying his religious beliefs.

Papa

Year: 2016 | Country: India
Director: Siddarth Chauhan | Run time: 15 | Language: Hindi

As Rajiv and his paralysed mother, Sushma adjust to their new, claustrophobic lives, the shadow of Papa is ever present.

Kivaad (The Door)

Year: 2016 | Country: India
Director: Anisa Mukerjea Ganguli | Run time: | Language: Hindi & Bengali

Minu works hard by day and upon returning to her home she craves just a few minutes of quiet – which isn’t easy to find in a crowded Kolkata slum.

U Ushacha

SATYAJIT RAY SHORT FILM AWARD

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2019

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition Part 1

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



| Year: 2021

The festival’s annual Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition is a rare chance to see the works of talented and emerging filmmakers who are exploring themes of South Asian experience, that also in different ways reflect the humanist ideals of the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The winner will be announced on 2nd July.

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2021 Part 2

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2021

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2022 Part 1

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Satyajit Ray Short Film Competition 2022 Part 2

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Searching for Happiness…

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Suman Ghosh
Starring: Shahida Neera, Sudiptaa Chakraborty
Run time: 63 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

A beautiful and tender tale about the many journeys people take in the quest for joy in a complex world. Four year old Shahida paints a smile on a red balloon and calls it “Happiness”. Together with her mother she floats it away, hoping to spread happiness across the world. Shahida soon realises she misses her “happiness” and runs away from home in search of it. As she roams the hazardous streets of Kolkata, she comes across different characters, all who in some way are searching for their own forms of happiness.

Online Q&A with Suman Ghosh

Shahid

Shahid

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Hansal Mehta
Starring: Raj Kumar Yadav, Prabhleen Sandhu, Baljinder Kaur, Tigmanshu Dhulia, KK Menon.
| Year: 2012
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Hansal Mehta’s powerful tour de force is based on the real-life trials of activist Indian lawyer Shahid Azmi. It was world premiered at Toronto Film Festival and has since been a hit at festivals around the world. Shahid (Raj Kumar Yadav) is a young Muslim man who gets drawn into a radical group and joins a militant camp in Pakistan Kashmir. He however realises violence is not his path and escapes the camp, but is caught by the police and ends up in Delhi’s Tihar Jail. Here he meets his mentor who encourages the bright young man to study a law degree. On release the dynamic Shahid throws himself into hottest part of the legal system, defending Muslims accused of acts of terrorism by the state. As his success in getting acquittals cause dark powers to gather against him, Shahid takes on his greatest and most controversial case, defending one of the men accused of the 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks. The film is sharply shot and edited and it offers a vivid insight into the legal and political mechanisms of modern India.

Pratibha-Parmar-Beauty In Truth

Shakti and the Early Works of Pratibha Parmar

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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Award-winning filmmaker, artist and professor Pratibha Parmar joins us for a special screening and panel discussion with  Poulomi Desai, Co-founder of Shakti, Kim Mulji and Cary Rajinder Sawhney, LIFF

History is said to be written by the winners, however, powerful narratives from alternative, diverse storytellers also shape our culture. 30 years ago, one of the world’s first South Asian LGBTQ+ activist groups, Shakti, started in London. It paved the way for NAZ Project, which helped ignite the Indian LGBTQ+ movement and a new generation of proud queers. Award-winning filmmaker, artist and professor Pratibha Parmar captured the historic birth of this cross-national community with her pioneering films about early British Asian experience, including the iconic Sari Red, which will be screened alongside Khush, Brimful of Asia, and other groundbreaking South Asian films.

NFT3, BFI Southbank, Sun 25th June, 7.00-9.00 pm

Shekhar Kapur

Shekhar Kapur: A Life with Elizabeth

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Shekhar Kapur

| Year: 2016

A rare opportunity to hear the erudite views of Shekhar Kapur, best known globally for Oscar nominated Elizabeth and Elizabeth: The Golden Age with Cate Blanchett, with the third film in the series being planned. Shekhar Kapur trained as a chartered accountant in London at the behest of his parents, but later bucked middle- class tradition by becoming an actor in Mumbai with the film Jaan Hazir Hai (1975). Switching to a directorial role Shekhar came to prominence with films like Masoom (1983) and his greatest Indian hit Mr India (1987), one of the most-loved Bollywood films of all time, with Amrish Puri as the timeless villain Mogambo! Unlike most other successful Indian directors who have remained fixed within the Bollywood canon, Shekhar jumped into the global frame with Channel Four’s hit film Bandit Queen (1994), introducing Seema Biswas to the world as a groundbreaking female desperado. Kapur continues to work tirelessly in film and television from Bollywood to LA.

Shekhar Kapur will be presented with the Sun Mark Ltd LIFF Icon Award© for his outstanding contribution to cinema.

Shonajhurir Bhoot (Ghost of the Golden Groves) LIFF

Shonajhurir Bhoot (Ghost of the Golden Groves)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Aniket Dutta & Roshni Sen
Starring: Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Soumyajit Majumder, Debleena Sen, Bidyut Das
Run time: 98 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

Surreal and unnerving, debutants Dutt and Sen deliver a fresh hybrid style to the scifi genre. In the first tale of this delightful diptych strange nocturnal incidents begin to occur to a government officer from Kolkata visiting the Shonajhuri forest area – eerie lights, anonymous voices, sinister wailing and a random encounter with a polymorph, all draw him deep into the treacherous web of the golden groves. In the second, based on a story by Bibutibhushan Bandyopadhyay (Pather Panchali), a poor cook gets the caretaker’s job at an abandoned house in the same forest and must deal with “the others”. Equal parts homage to Japanese New Wave horror like Onibaba and Woman In The Dunes, and the cinema of Satyajit Ray and Mrinal Sen, the film is breathtakingly original.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

Shongram

Shongram (Struggle) | World Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Munsur Ali
Starring: Anupam Kher, Asia Argento, Amaan Reza, Dilruba Yasmeen Ruhee.
Run time: 103 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2014
Language: Bangla with English subtitles | Country: Bangladesh / UK

In this powerful romantic drama set during the 1971 liberation struggle of Bangladesh, a London reporter interviews a British Bengali on his deathbed, where four decades later, Karim is able to recall and finally share his past. We are transported to 1971, when Bangladesh was still East Pakistan and a young Karim (a Muslim) is in love with a beautiful Asha (a Hindu). Their peaceful village life is suddenly interrupted by war and Karim must grow up fast to survive in an era where mass killings and abduction was common. He must also carry out his duty to his people and seek revenge before he can finally search for Asha, who has gone missing. Bangladesh’s stunning vistas are captured as never seen before and act as a counterpoint to the brutal horrors of war. Profound, potent and poignant, the emotional swoop of this mesmerising film will enthral, entertain and educate in equal measure.

Shukno Lanka (Dry Red Chillies)

Shukno Lanka (Dry Red Chillies)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Gaurav Pandey
Starring: Mithun Chakraborty, Sabyasachi Chakraborty
Run time: 110 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Hindi | Country: India

It may be a surprise to some that actor Mithun Chakraborty, Bollywood’s original Disco Dancer, is also a fine performer with some serious acting chops, having won the coveted Best Actor gong at India’s National Film Awards twice and Best Supporting Actor once. Here, he plays a veteran, bit-part actor Chinu Nandy, in the commercial Bengali film industry (aka Tollywood).

Nandy has resigned himself to lesser roles in the shadows of younger and less talented heroes, but gets the shock of his life when an award-winning director Joy Sundar Sen (Sabyasachi) decides to cast him as the lead in his next big film. Nandy feels distinctly uncomfortable with his return to the spotlight, but supported by his wife, musters his energy for his greatest performance.

This well scripted tale manages the triple feats of humorously skewering Tollywood practices, lampooning pretentious art-house filmmakers, but above all celebrating the pleasures of a happy marriage and growing old with your partner. This is a film that will leave you with a tear in your eye and a smile on your lips.

Sir LIFF

Sir

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Rohena Gera
Starring: Tillotama Shome, Vivek Gomber, Geetanjali Kulkarni
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, English, Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India/France

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

After its debut at Cannes this film has been winning hearts and awards the world over. A wealthy young Indian man in Mumbai with baggage from the past falls in love with his servant, a widow who dreams of becoming a tailor. Sir explores the age-old divide between the classes in India and wonders if it can ever be bridged. Brilliant performances from Tillotama Shome (Manto) and Vivek Gomber (Court) offer a compelling on screen chemistry in this charming romance.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Rohena Gera

 

Sisters of the Trees

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Camila Menéndez, Lucas Peñafort

Run time: 86 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, Marwari with English subtitles | Country: India, Argentina

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

Among the arid lands of Rajasthan, surrounded by marble mines lies the oasis-like village of Piplantri, where women are no longer worried about giving birth to a girl, who historically would have been seen as a burden. Since 2005, a small group of activists have changed society and now every time a girl is born in the village, the residents celebrate the occasion by planting 111 trees in her name. Sisters of the Trees is the intimate story of these brave women and the positive changes and challenges they face trying to raise their daughters for a better future, deeply connected to environmental conservation.

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Sold

Sold | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Jeffrey D Brown
Starring: Gillian Anderson, Seema Biswas, David Arquette, Niyar Saikia, Tillotama Shome, Parambrata Chatterjee.
Run time: 97 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: English | Country: USA

Sold is a remarkable film based on Particia McCormick’s bestseller which tells the tale of Laxmi (Niyar Saikia), a young Nepali girl who lives an impoverished life with her parents in the Himalayas. One day a lady comes to visit offering to take Laxmi to work as a domestic servant in Kolkata. Laxmi’s father agrees and she is led down the mountain and soon ends up in Kolkata only to realise that she has been trafficked into a brothel. Laxmi makes a bid to escape. Her cries for help attract the attention of a US photographer (Gillian Anderson), who helps local agencies spearhead a dangerous mission to rescue her. Superbly scripted with powerful performances including by Seema Biswas and Tillotama Shome.

Songs of Lahore

Songs of Lahore | London Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy
Starring: Sachal Jazz Ensemble
Run time: 82 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: English/Punjabi/Urdu with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan/USA

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

DOUBLE BILL FROM DOUBLE OSCAR WINNING DIRECTOR SHARMEEN OBAID-CHINOY

Lahore has always been world-renowned for its music. With the increased Islamisation of Pakistan in the 1970s, many of the city’s celebrated musicians have struggled, but this film spotlights one group, the internationally acclaimed Sachal Jazz Ensemble, who have kept on playing. When their unique mix of traditional music with Western flare gets the attention of jazz supremo Wynton Marsalis they are invited to New York.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

South Asian Creative Hub

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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23 June – 2 July | RICH MIX

UNDR LNDN and Apne Film Club are joining with LIFF, to create a hub for South Asian creatives to run during the first week of the festival at the Rich Mix. The line up includes a gallery exhibiting work from South Asian filmmakers and artists, short film screenings, a networking and workspace to hang out in, a workshop for aspiring filmmakers and more!

The hub and events will include in collaboration promotional support from T A P E Collective (@tapecollective)

This hub and project has been funded by Foundation for FutureLondon, Cinema For All and The Floor Creator Fund.

FREE EVENT | For more information check out @undrlndn @apnefilmclub

Sridevi tribute.  Mr India

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Shekhar Kapur 

Starring: Sridevi, Anil Kapoor, Amrish Puri,  Satish Kaushik
Run time: 179 mins | Certificate: 12 | Year: 1987
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

In December of last year LIFF was in touch with producer Boney Kapoor about Sridevi coming to this year’s festival to receive our Icon Award. Sadly it wasn’t to be, as the effervescent actress was snatched away in the prime of her life, so we are  holding this fitting tribute to a great star. Mr India is an extraordinary showcase of her everlasting talent. Sridevi plays an ebullient journalist who is in love with an invisible man Mr India (Anil Kapoor). They team to thwart the megalomaniac ambitions of the evil Mogambo, played memorably by the late, great Amrish Puri. Packed with chartbusting songs, including Hawa Hawai and Kaate Nahin Kat Te that feature two of Sridevi’s greatest ever dances, Mr India is a rollicking treat for the whole family.

Introduced by Mira Kaushik

Sthalpuran (Chronicle of Space)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Akshay Indikar
Starring: Neel Deshmukh, Anushree Wani, Sonia Mahale
Run time: 86 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2020
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

Eight year old Dighu has recently moved with his mother and older sister from the city to his grandparents coastal village of Konkan and is finding it hard to adjust to his new life without his father who has disappeared seemingly without a trace. As Dighu struggles to find answers from the grown ups around him, he finds solace from his grief through his diary and imagination. Akshay Indikar’s latest film is a gentle portrait of innocence and how children comprehend change and loss.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Sulemani Keeda

Sulemani Keeda (Writers) | European Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Amit V Masurkar
Starring: Naveen Kasturia, Mayank Tewari, Aditi Vasudev.
Run time: 89 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2014
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India / US

Two struggling writers dare to dream big and try to peddle their screenplay in Bollywood. Perennially hungry and horny, they lie, drink, hit on unsuspecting girls in bookshops and attend poetry readings where they read their vulgar verses. Things look bright when they meet a bizarre wannabe auteur who wants to make a film inspired by Tarkovsky and commissions them to come up with a script idea. When one of the writers falls in love with a woman who is leaving India in a matter of days, he is faced with a choice – whether to co-write a film he doesn’t believe in or woo the girl he has fallen in love with. This racy romp through the filmi underbelly of suburban Mumbai is also richly populated with a host of Bollywood celebrities in cameos, playing themselves. We’re not telling you who they are – come and find out for yourselves!

Superfan: The Nav Bhatia Story

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Amar Wala

Run time: 50 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: English | Country: Canada

CLOSING NIGHT GALA

A unique and uplifting documentary focusing on the life of the Toronto Raptors biggest fan, Nav Bhatia and the massive impact he has had on the city’s basketball community. The film charts his journey to Canada as a low income immigrant worker from India and how his relentless passion for life not only built his career, but as he came into contact with basketball for the first time, quickly expanded into supporting a struggling team. Bhatia not only inspired the players, but inspired generations to get into the sport and has brought together the city’s black and South Asian communities. This is a film that is bound to leave everyone who sees it with a smile on their face and in their hearts.

Q&A with Nav Bhatia and producer Rinku Ghei
Interview by BBC’s Sunny & Shay

Swimming Through The Darkness

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Supriyo Sen

Run time: 76 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

This inspirational documentary follows the eventful and at times chaotic life of blind swimmer Kanai Chakraborty. Despite being blind and the reservations of his family, Kanai decides to participate in the world′s longest swimming competition in the Ganges River to demonstrate the power of disabled people by challenging sports. Swimming Through The Darkness chronicles the roller-coaster journey of a gritty man determined not to let his blindness define him and to chase his own dream.

Online Q&A with Supriyo Sen

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

CENTREPIECE GALA: T for Taj Mahal

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Kireet Khurana
Starring: Subrat Dutta, Ali Faulkner, Pitobash, Bidita Bag, Raveena Tandon
Run time: 104 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, English with English Subtitles | Country: India

In this inspirational charmer, an illiterate villager runs a roadside eatery near the world famous Taj Mahal. He is concerned that another generation of the villagers will also grow up without an education and get ridiculed and duped as he has been. He hatches a unique social enterprise idea of offering tourists who eat his food the option of paying their bill, or teaching the local youngsters. The idea is an initial hit, that is until a big company muscles in. This delightfully eye opening  film features an outstanding cast of both international and Indian actors including Ali Faulkner  (The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn), Pitobash (Million Dollar Arm) and Subrat Dutta (Talaash).

Q&A With Director Kireet Khurana and guests

Taangh (Longing)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Bani Singh

Run time: 89 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2022
Language: English | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Bani Singh’s phenomenal in-depth look into her fathers past as a gold medalist hockey player starts off as a lovely look down memory lane that soon develops into an investigative documentary into the lost friendships and fallout of the Partition of India. As well as a sense of pride as the new India takes on their former British rulers to win at the 1948 London Olympics. A beautiful and touching story that marks the importance of collecting the oldest generations’ stories that will soon be gone.

Q&A with Bani Singh

Taapsee Pannu In Conversation

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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Strand: IN CONVERSATION

Actor Taapsee Pannu, the lead protagonist of the film Dobaaraa will trace back the path to her outstanding career in a special discussion

Born in Delhi, of Punjabi origin, Taapsee had a brief modelling career before making her acting debut in the Telugu film Jhummandi Naadam and went on to act in the 2011 Tamil film Aadukalam. She made her Hindi film debut with David Dhawan’s comedy Chashme Baddoor (2013). Taapsee was then lauded for her roles in the Hindi secret agent film Baby (2015) and legal drama Pink (2016), both of which were critical and commercial successes. She gained prominence in Hindi movies with films such as The Ghazi Attack (2017), Mulk (2018), and the romantic drama Manmarziyaan (2018). As a talented, versatile actor with broad linguistic abilities she is able to command work in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam language films and won the Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actress for playing a homely woman struggling through a divorce in Anubhav Sinha’s drama Thappad in 2020.

Tasher Desh

Tasher Desh (The Land of Cards)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Q.
Starring: Joyraj Bhattacharjee, Rii Sen, Soumyak Kanti De Biswas, Anubrata Basu, Tillotama Shome, Tinu Verghese, Imaad Shah.
Run time: 114 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2012
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

After shocking the world with Gandu, Director Q returns with this psychedelic take on Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s namesake play. A prince and his friend, trapped in a crumbling palace, invoke an Oracle who passes on a message of liberation. They flee the palace and shipwrecked on a paradise island, they encounter a strange culture. The islanders are all soldiers, who call themselves The Cards, and live by a code of rules that outlaws any human behaviour. Thanks to the new arrivals the land of cards sees dissent for the first time. Shot through with lush eroticism, the film boasts a soundtrack featuring acclaimed musicians Asian Dub Foundation, Susheela Raman, Sam Mills, Eric Truffaz, Moog Conspiracy and Anusheh.

Teen Aur Aadha (Three and a Half)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Dar Gai
Starring: Zoya Hussain, Jim Sarbh, Suhasini Mulay
Run time: 119 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, Marathi with English Subtitles | Country: India

This beautifully layered, and stylistically groundbreaking saga narrates the story of one house which exists in three different eras. A young boy struggles with the pressures of pre-pubescent school life. Twenty years later the house is now a brothel where a young virgin sex-worker is dealing with her first client. While 30 years later, the place is now a sublime home of an elderly couple that love, laugh and dance together, sharing many secrets of happy companionship. The film has been shot in three takes and a half-take at the end, which exhibits the house under renovation, symbolising the emergence of new stories and the inevitable nature of change in time.

Q&A with Director Dar Gai

Thani Thatuwen Piyabanna (Flying With One Wing)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Asoka Handagama
Starring: Anoma Janadari, Gayani Gisanthika, Mahendra Perera
Run time: 81 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2003
Language: Sinhala with English subtitles | Country: Sri Lanka

YEAR ROUND PROGRAMME

A married man works as a mechanic in a small Sri Lankan town. His secret know to none but his wife, is that he is actually a woman. One day an accident causes his real gender to be discovered, setting off a chain of events that will change their lives forever. Asoka Handagama’s subversive film, originally banned domestically satirises homophobia and sexual bigotry while serving as a brutal indictment of the sexual harassment experienced by working women in Sri Lanka.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com

Online Q&A with Asoka Handagama

That Girl in the Yellow Boots

That Girl in Yellow Boots

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Anurag Kashyap
Starring: Kalki Koechlin, Naseeruddin Shah, Gulshan Devaiya
Run time: 107 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2010
Language: Hindi | Country: India

Mumbai’s leading independent filmmaker Anurag Kashyap pushes the envelope in narrating the tale of Ruth, of mixed British/Indian parentage, who comes to Mumbai in search of her absent father.

Ruth is soon caught up in the seamier side of Mumbai, where a potent mix of gangsters, massage parlours providing ‘happy endings’, drug dealers and ashram dwellers collide. Kashyap captures the authentic Mumbai, shooting solely at real locations, eschewing the ersatz sets Bollywood is known for and crafts a cutting edge exploration of Mumbai’s underbelly.

Kalki Koechlin delivers the performance of her life as the bruised, vulnerable, yet mentally strong Ruth and is ably supported by revered veteran Naseeruddin Shah.

Followed by Q&A with Director Anurag Kashyap at BFI Southbank.

Argumentative Indian

The Argumentative Indian

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Suman Ghosh
Starring: Amartya Sen, Kaushik Basu
Run time: 60 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2017
Language: English | Country: India, US, UK

The festival joins forces with London School of Economics’ South Asia Centre to present this fascinating documentary offering an insight into the mind of Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, one of the world’s greatest living economists and philosophers. Structured as a free-flowing conversation between Sen and his students and Cornell economics professor Kaushik Basu, this rare film explores the laureate’s formative years in Tagore’s ashram Shantiniketan to his college in Calcutta and his academic career in the US and UK, with cameos from former Indian prime minister and noted economist Manmohan Singh and a host of other scholars.

Argumentative Indian

The Argumentative Indian

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



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European Premiere of The Argumentative Indian and a Q&A with Professor Amartya Sen.

The festival joins forces with the London School of Economics’ South Asia Centre to present this fascinating documentary offering an insight into the mind of Indian Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, one of the world’s greatest living economists and philosophers.

Structured as a free-flowing conversation between Sen and his students and Cornell economics professor Kaushik Basu, this rare film explores the laureate’s formative years in Tagore’s ashram Shantiniketan to his college in Calcutta and his academic career in the US and UK, with cameos from former Indian prime minister and noted economist Manmohan Singh and a host of other scholars.

The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Professor Amartya Sen, chaired by Dr Mukulika Banerjee.

The London School of Economics, Sheikh Zayed Theatre, New Academic Building, 54 Lincoln’s Inn Fields WC2A 3LJ

Tuesday 27th June, 6.30 pm

The Ashram

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Ben Rekhi
Starring: Sam Keeley, Melissa Leo, Kal Penn, Radhika Apte, Hera Hilmar
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: English | Country: India/USA

After receiving a cryptic message, Jamie journeys deep into the Indian Himalayas to pick up on the trail of his girlfriend who has disappeared. There, he discovers a secretive community led by a guru with alleged mystical powers. As he tries to pry the secrets from the guru’s devotees Jamie becomes more convinced that this mysterious community may know more about his lover’s disappearance than they’re telling him. Ben Rekhi brings together a star-studded cast for a story of mystical intrigue with a twisty plot and startling climax that is sure to provoke discussion. 

The Bright Day

The Bright Day

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Mohit Takalkar
Starring: Sarang Sathaye, Radhika Apte, Shernaz Patel, Rajit Kapur, Mohan Agashe, Kelly Marie Miller.
Run time: 94 mins | Certificate: 15 |
Language: Hindi / Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

An unfocused young man cannot get to grips with his humdrum middle class life and yearns for more. He leaves behind his family and girlfriend and goes on a trip across India to find himself. Mohit Takalkar’s stunning debut is a visual extravaganza taking in the sights and sounds of India, including temples, rivers, palaces and deserts like never seen before. Even those familiar with India will find plenty to marvel at as Takalkar finds physical and spiritual beauty in the unlikeliest of spaces. The story is based on a long backpacking journey around India by Takalkar and leading man Sathaye that led to them finding their inner core.

The Cinema Travellers

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Shirley Abraham, Amit Madheshiya

Run time: 96 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi & Marathi with English Subtitles | Country: India

This Cannes prize-winning documentary is an intimate and emotional journey with the travelling cinemas of India, which yearly bring the wonder of the movies to faraway villages. Filmed over five years, it accompanies a shrewd exhibitor, a benevolent showman and a maverick projector mechanic who all bear a beautiful burden: to keep the last travelling cinemas of the world running.

The Crow's Egg

The Crow's Egg (Kaakkaa Muttai)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: M. Manikandan
Starring: Ramesh, Vignesh , Iswarya Rajesh.
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2014
Language: Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

FILM WEBSITE >

This delightful family tale has echoes of Slumdog Millionaire. When a pizza parlour opens near their playground, two carefree slum boys are consumed by the desire to taste this new foreign dish. Realising that one pizza costs more than their family’s monthly income, they develop schemes to earn more money – inadvertently beginning an adventure that will involve the entire city, but money is one thing and entry into a middle class establishment is another. M. Makinkandan’s hopeful film avoids the usual emotionalism associated with depictions of poor children and instead takes us on a journey that is an insightful view of class aspiration in today’s big city India.

The Effects of Lying

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Isher Sahota
Starring: Ace Bhatti, Laila Rouass, Navin Chowdhry, Lauren Patel
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: English | Country: United Kingdom

Ace Bhatti stars as a dutiful husband and loving father whose life falls apart when decades of festering secrets are exposed, and he’s forced to face up to who he really is. Isher Sahota’s The Effects of Lying is a delightfully chaotic comedic drama about a family trying to hold it together as their world begins to crumble. The stellar British Asian cast also includes Laila Rouass, Navin Chowdhry and Shaheen Khan, as well as the Harry Potter franchise’s Mark Williams.

Q&A with the filmmaker, Isher Sahota and the cast with critic Ashanti Omkar

The Good Road

The Good Road

LIFF Festival Screening: 2013

Director: Gyan Correa
Starring: Sonali Kulkarni, Ajay Gehi, Keval Katrodia, Poonam Kesar Singh, Shamji Dhana Kerasia, Priyank Upadhyay.
Run time: 89 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2013
Language: Gujarati with English subtitles | Country: India

A metaphysical road movie following three sets of people as they travel along a desolate stretch of highway in India’s Kutch region. A young boy from Mumbai separated from his parents, is befriended by a truck driver and his surly assistant who are on a perilous smuggling trip and a young girl on a deeply personal quest is in imminent danger of becoming part of the flesh trade. Over the course of 24 hours these and several other lives collide and hurtle inexorably towards a finale. The stark beauty of one of India’s most isolated and dangerous locations is strikingly captured in this debut feature.

The Last Adieu

The Last Adieu | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Shabnam Sukhdev

Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2014
Language: Hindi/English with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Using the documentary format Shabnam Sukhdev goes on an exploratory quest to connect with her father who passed away suddenly when she was just 14. On this journey she discovers that her celebrity filmmaker father partied hard with stars like the young Amitabh and won awards at Berlin Film Festival in the 1960s, but she also uncovers his private home life and the delicate balance between her father and mother’s relationship that she missed as a girl. These and many other insights help Shabnam and the audience more fully understand the complexity of her dad who was India’s greatest documentary filmmaker S.Sukdev.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

The Lift Boy LIFF

The Lift Boy

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Jonathan Augustin
Starring: Moin Khan, Nyla Masood, Saagar Kale
Run time: 107 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2019
Language: English, Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: YOUNG REBEL

The Lift Boy is a heart-warming entertainer that will leave you smiling from ear to ear. When his father falls ill, 24 year-old lay-about Raju is forced to take up his dad’s job as a liftboy at a posh apartment complex in Mumbai. As an aspiring engineer, despite having failed his exams four times, Raju detests having to do what he considers menial work, believing it is beneath him. However over time he learns that the job is more than just being confined to the lift and as he gets to know the residents of the apartment building, as an inspiring connection begins to blossom with Maureen D’Souza, the owner of the complex.

 

At Cineworld Wembley and Genesis, the short film ‘Dada and the Punjabi Princess’ from Director Dr. Chila Kumari Burman will be shown before the screening.

 

Dada and the Punjabi Princess

Sensuous collisions in kaleidoscopic landscapes: visual artist Chila Kumari Burman’s latest film critically and playfully subverts stereotypes of Asian women, suggesting new possibilities for desire, reflection and political alliances.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

The Master Shyam Benegal

The Master: Shyam Benegal | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Khalid Mohamed.

Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: U |
Language: Hindi/English with English subtitles | Country: India

A fascinating documentary about one of India’s greatest independent filmmakers, who as a truant schoolboy ran off to the cinema to adore Hollywood and Soviet cinema. The film charts his emergence from advertising to become a leading filmmaker of the Indian New Wave of the 1970s with hard edged social issue classics like Ankur, Nishant, Manthan and Bhumika through to more modern hits like Zubeidaa and the hit comedy Welcome to Sajjanpur. The film avoids the usual platitudes exploring the man and filmmaker, with a rich mix of insights by many celebrated film professionals including actors Shabana Azmi and Kareena Kapoor, who have shared his filmic journey so far.

The Bagri Foundation supports documentary films as a powerful medium to raise social awareness.

The River LIFF

The River

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Jean Renoir
Starring: Nora Swinburne, Esmond Knight, Radha Burnier, Patricia Walters
Run time: 99 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 1951
Language: English and Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: France, UK, India, US

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

A lyrical adaptation of Rumer Godden’s beloved coming-of-age novel, Renoir’s first colour feature follows a close-knit upper class British family living on the banks of The Ganges in the waning days of colonial India. Harriet and her four adolescent sisters are brought up in a philosophy that embraces both Christianity and Hinduism. Their placid lives are disrupted with the arrival of a soldier who is recovering from the horrors of war, and offers the smitten girls an insight into a wider world they have never been exposed to before. Featuring stunning Technicolor cinematography by Claude Renoir that captures the majestic beauty of Bengal and her rituals, The River is a treat for the eyes and the mind. It is also notable as an influence for the young Satyajit Ray who met Jean Renoir on the sets and became friends with him.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

The Road to Kuthriyar

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Bharat Mirle

Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: English & Tamil with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: SAVE THE PLANET

Seamlessly blending a dreamily scripted adventure story and documentary style together, Bharat Mirle’s debut feature follows Dhruv, a young wildlife surveyor from the city who is conducting a mammal survey of the Kodaikanal Wildlife Sanctuary in Tamil Nadu. With support from the seemingly shifty tribesman guide Dorai, the unlikely pair form a strong bond of trust and friendship and Dhruv begins to see the world and the forest in a whole new light.

The Song of Scorpions

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Anup Singh
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Golshifteh Farahani, Waheeda Rehman, Shashank Arora
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2017
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India/Switzerland/France

Mesmerisingly beautiful – this poetic tale is set within the deep desert landscapes of rural Rajasthan. Nooran is a defiantly independent young tribal woman trained by her grandmother in the ancient healing remedy of singing to counteract the deadly poison of scorpion stings. A lone camel herder Aadam (Irrfan Khan) is Nooran’s admirer, but spurned by her he hatches a twisted plot to win her heart. Director Anup Singh’s meditative direction elicits intense but restrained performances from lead actors Golshifteh Farahani (About Elly) and Irrfan Khan (The Lunchbox) with a cameo by the legendary actress Waheeda Rehman.

Q&A with director Anup Singh

The Story of British Bhangra

LIFF Festival Screening:



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Acclaimed music producer and composer Kuljit Bhamra presents a legendary line up of great British acts

Based on last year’s big interest in British Asian music videos, we have this year been working with some great musicians to present a special live performance charting the growth of British Bhangra in the 1980s and 90s, created by young artists mixing traditional and modern music forms in Birmingham and London. This new Bhangra sound went on to influence the UK, India and the world. Acclaimed music producer and composer Kuljit Bhamra will present a legendary line up of great British acts at Rich Mix. Followed by DJs. Don’t miss the unique one-off event!

The Storyteller

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Ananth Mahadevan
Starring: Paresh Rawal, Adil Hussain, Tanistha Chatterjee, Revathy Asha
Run time: 116 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: English, Hindi, Bengali, Gujarati with English subtitles | Country: India

Based on a short story (Golpo Boliye Tarini Khuro) by the legendary filmmaker Satyajit Ray, The Storyteller tells the delightful tale of a wealthy businessman who hires a storyteller to regale him with stories to help get over his insomnia. But as their relationship unfolds, the possibility that both men harbour ulterior motives slowly begins to surface. World premiering at the Busan International Film Festival and with a star cast including Paresh Rawal, Adil Hussain, Tanishtha Chatterjee and Revathy Asha, The Storyteller is a witty and timeless fable celebrating the work of the master storyteller, Satyajit Ray.

Q&A with Ananth Mahadevan in conversation with Variety Journalist Naman Ramachandran

The Warrior

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Asif Kapadia
Starring: Irrfan Khan
Run time: 86 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2001
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

Winning BAFTA’s Best British Film, director Asif Kapadia’s sweeping, mythical adventure stars the legendary Irrfan Khan as a heartless swordsman in ancient Rajasthan, who delivers death at the behest of his landowner boss. On one such mission he has a spiritual epiphany and renounces his vocation, however he soon becomes the hunted.

With an In Conversation on-stage with Director Asif Kapadia talking about his films including Senna, Amy and Maradona.

Image credit:
THE WARRIOR: Images courtesy of Park Circus/Channel 4

The White Elephant

The White Elephant

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Aijaz Khan
Starring: Prashant Narayanan, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Neena Gupta.
Run time: 115 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Hindi | Country: India

A delightful and warm-hearted family film, The White Elephant takes us to traditional rural Kerala where elephants are still very much part of religious custom. It is time for the holiest of ceremonial elephants to choose which one of the local villagers will feed and look after him for the coming year.

This is a great honour, but also a heavy financial burden as elephants have big appetites. The local priest is sure he will end up in the care of the local landlord, but the wily Haathi has other plans and with his trunk taps the local drunk on the shoulder. The villagers are shocked, the drunk and his family are beside themselves, but custom and the elephant god must be obeyed.

This Shaking Keeps Me Steady LIFF

This Shaking Keeps Me Steady

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Shehrezad Maher

Run time: 60 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Urdu with English subtitles | Country: Pakistan/USA

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

In Karachi, three paramedics discuss their recurring nightmares sparked by their experiences at work: disturbing stories that haunt the first responders responsible for tending to violent events. As well their recollections, televised re-enactments with victims, criminals and medical personnel showcase scenarios ranging from the banal to the horrifying. Alternating between reminiscence and fiction, reality and imagination Shehrezad Maher creates a powerful and impactful reflection on trauma and the spectacle of violence in society.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Shehrezad Maher

 

image still from the film Ticket

Ticket - The Movie

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Raaghav Ranganathan
Starring: Raaghav Ranganathan, Karthik Kumar, Lakshmipriyaa Chandramouli, Sanam Shetty
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2017
Language: Tamil with English Subtitles | Country: India

We present the World Premiere of this laugh-out-loud comedy. Avinash is a young, nutty professor who struggles to be decisive. Grading reports have to be put aside when his hopes for the girl of his dreams collapse and through a series of blunders he gets on the wrong side of murderous local gangsters. To make matters worse his eccentric best mate Athif is drowned at sea. As Avinash’s future goes into roller-coaster melt-down Athif’s ghost returns to help his buddy and things get a whole lot freakier, heading towards a rip-roaring life after death finale. Raaghav Ranganathan, an actor noted for S Shanker’s Enthiran (The Robot) makes his directorial debut with this guaranteed crowd-pleaser.

Tigers

Tigers | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Danis Tanović
Starring: Emraan Hashmi, Danny Huston, Geetanjali Thapa, Maryam D'Abo.
Run time: 90 mins | Certificate: 12A |
Language: Urdu, English, German, with English subtitles | Country: India, France, Germany

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

A pharmaceutical salesman selling local brands in Pakistan struggles to support his family and his young wife until he lands his dream job of working for a global giant in the industry. He quickly achieves success at selling the multinational’s baby formula and rapidly rises up the ranks, socially and economically. One day he discovers that the formula he sells causes the deaths of hundreds of babies. Sickened to the core, he quits and begins a lone and dangerous battle against his former employers who have all the resources in the world and governments in their pocket. It is a typically hard-hitting film from Oscar-winning director Danis Tanović (No Man’s Land). In a role radically different from his serial kissing Bollywood films, Emraan Hashmi is a powerhouse in the central role of the salesman who stands up for justice against an all-powerful corporation.

To Kill a Tiger

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Nisha Pahuja

Run time: 125 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2022
Language: Hindi, Nagpuri with English subtitles | Country: Canada

Nisha Pahuja’s film deals with the aftermath of a brutal crime. In Jharkhand, India, a 13-year-old girl was abducted and assaulted by three men. Her father, a poor rice farmer, goes to the police, but refuses the solution they offer. Instead, against the wishes of his community, he seeks legal redress to the crime. Winning multiple awards at film festivals across the world including Toronto and Palm Springs, To Kill a Tiger shows how one family’s strength can overcome the most heinous injustice and force a social reckoning that will reverberate throughout society.

To Kill a Tiger deals with highly sensitive subject matter and contains depictions of sexual violence, which may be triggering for some viewers.

Q&A with director Nisha Pahuja and special guests.

Toba Tek Singh

Toba Tek Singh | World Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016

Director: Ketan Mehta
Starring: Pankaj Kapur, Vinay Pathak
Run time: 75 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Hindi / Punjabi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >

Acclaimed director Ketan Mehta delivers this unforgettably moving and at times joyous version of Manto’s legendary story, produced by the Zeal for Unity project. Award-winning actor Pankaj Kapur gives a career defining performance as Bishen Singh, a Sikh inmate of a mental institution, who hasn’t slept for 15 years and always asks the same question “Where is Toba Tek Singh?”, the name of his home village. The new warden, played by Vinay Pathak, takes delight in Bishen and the other patients’ eccentricities. However, with the Partition of India and Pakistan it seems that the world outside is more insane than the folk inside, and the institution must give up all its Hindu and Sikh inmates. Singh is marched to the new border, but in which country is his beloved home?

Too Desi Too Queer

Too Desi Too Queer

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019



|

SPECIAL EVENT

The festival joins hands with Thrive LDN, Brixton Reel Film Festival, Queer Asia, University of Westminster and others to present a special FREE event exploring well being in London’s South Asian LGBTQ+ communities.

The event includes a dynamic range of recent LGBTQ+ shorts from South Asia and the UK, followed by a panel debate exploring community empowerment and looking after individual wellbeing, with high profile speakers. A networking social with DJ ends the evening at University of Westminster, Portland Place Campus.

For updates on the short film programme please check out the festival website. All are welcome but please be respectful that this is an LGBTQ+ space.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

The free event is available for booking on eventbrite

 

Too Desi Too Queer

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Too Desi Too Queer + Q&A

LIFF Festival Screening: 2023

Director: Various directors

Run time: 100 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Various Languages with English subtitles | Country: India, Pakistan, United Kingdom, USA

London Indian Film Festival is delighted to return to BFI Southbank with this pioneering short-film programme. We explore the lives, loves, experiences and well-being of South Asian LGBTQIA+ communities throughout the subcontinent and diaspora with this dynamic and thought-provoking selection of recent LGBTQIA+ short films.

 

Short Film Programme

Dear Dad
Dir: Ibrahim Rana
10 mins | English, Urdu with English subtitles
A young man comes to meet his dying father for the confrontation of his life.

Her Canvas
Dir: Sagar Devram Minde
9 mins | No dialogue
On a cloudy melancholy evening Myra, a visual artist experiences an overwhelming surge of emotions. Hinged between past and present she tries to make sense of reality around her.

Look Like You
Dir: Snigdha Kapoor
12 mins | English
While visiting the adoptive family of her eight-year-old biological son, Tara overcomes the hesitation of his parents to relay advice she gathered from growing up as a queer outcast.

Shoot Your Shot
Dir: Mishaal Memon
12 mins | English
An emotional standoff takes flight as two immigrant queer teens navigate that fuzzy feeling in your stomach, all whilst learning how to skateboard.

Discovering Kali – 25 years of the Legendary Club
Dir: Matt Mahmood Ogston
40 mins | English
The legendary Club Kali’s 25 year history and heritage is celebrated through the eyes of its founders, performers, and attendees in this roaring documentary.

 

Too Desi Too Queer 2021

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021



|

SHORT FILMS

The festival is proud to bring back its super-hit ‘Too Desi Too Queer’ short film programme, exploring the lives, experiences and well being of South Asian LGBTQIA+ communities in the Subcontinent and diaspora, through a dynamic and thought-provoking selection of recent LGBTQIA+ short films. There’s a super-glam white marble staircase leading up to the cinema, so make sure you dress to impress and know how to walk it!

Directors: Various | Run time: 65 mins | Recommended Certificate: 15 Language: Punjabi, Hindi, English, Marathi with English subtitles
Country: India, USA, Pakistan, Canada

Stray Dogs Come out at Night


Director: Hamza Bangash | Run time: 11 mins | Language: Punjabi | Year: 2020 | Country: Pakistan, Canada, UK

Iqbal, a ‘maalishwala‘ by profession, cannot come to terms with his illness. He convinces his uncle to take a day trip to the beach, desperate for respite. The Arabian sea beckons.

Wig


Director: Atanu Mukherjee | Run time: 26 mins | Language: Hindi | Year: 2020 | Country: India

Arkita believes herself to be be modern, liberal and most importantly independent. An unprecedented encounter with a transgender sex worker questions her beliefs.

Film Courtesy: KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

Compartment


Director: Abhijit Suvarna | Run time: 5 mins | Language: – | Year: 2020 | Country: India

A closeted young man’s inner desires are unleashed after a chance encounter with an effeminate person.

Film Courtesy: KASHISH Mumbai International Queer Film Festival

Ekaant


Director: Swapnil Pagare | Run time: 6 mins | Language: Marathi| Year: 2020 | Country: India/USA

Manasi’ a poet and ‘Sudha’ a housewife are deeply in love with each other but the restrictions of the society has put chains around their relationships.

I know Her


Director: Fawzia Mirza | Run time: 3 mins | Language: English| Year: 2019 | Country: USA

In the afterglow of a seemingly fated hookup, two women realise that perhaps they have a little too much in common.

Vaidya


Director: Harsh Agarwal, Sumit Pawar | Run time: 23 mins | Language: Hindi, English | Year: 2021 | Country: India

After a chance encounter while on holiday, Kabir and Vaidya’s whirlwind romance is bought crashing down when Kabir has to return home.

In cinema Q&A with special guests

Available online during the festival and in cinemas

Too Desi Too Queer and Vishnu's Got My Back

LIFF Festival Screening:



| Year: 2022

Tooting Broadway

Tooting Broadway

LIFF Festival Screening: 2012

Director: Devanand Shanmugam
Starring: Elizabeth Henstridge, Nav Sidhu, Oliver Cotton, Kabelan Verlkumar.
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 18 |
Language: English | Country: UK

A racy urban crime drama set in 2009 whose South London location lends a gritty feel to a fast paced story. 24 hours before the Tamil protests outside the Houses of Parliament, Arun (Sidhu) returns home to stop his younger brother Ruthi (Verlkumar) from participating in a criminal act that could ruin his life. Arun is granted a day by his mysterious employer, Marcus (Cotton) to talk Ruthi round. Once back he meets an old flame, Kate (Henstridge) who is struggling with a big decision herself while Arun’s friendship with a gang leader threatens to suck him back into a world he left behind. The political tension provides the backdrop for Arun’s need to forge a life away from his past versus his obligation to his family, friends and his Tamil roots. Tooting Broadway portrays a community and a rarely seen subculture – Sri Lankan Tamil gangs – and brilliantly deploys the themes of family, loyalty and honour.

Trijya - Radius

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Akshay Indikar
Starring: Abhay Mahajan, Girish Kulkarni, Anjali Jogalekar
Run time: 91 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2019
Language: Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

World Premiered at Shanghai Film Festival, Trijya tells of a young poet’s journey of self-discovery. Avdhut, a migrant to the city of Pune, works part-time as a journalist writing the astrology column for a local newspaper. Even though he doesn’t have a steady job he is under pressure from his family to get married and settle down but all Avdhut wants is to return to the simple life of his village and pursue his passion of poetry. Unable to deal with the mundanity of his life he decides to throw in his job and go on a journey to find himself.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Online Q&A with Akshay Indikar

Ulidavaru Kandante

Ulidavaru Kandante | International Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2014

Director: Rakshit Shetty
Starring: Rakshit Shetty, Kishore, Tara.
Run time: 154 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2014
Language: Kannada with English subtitles | Country: India

This dazzling epic manages to cram in homages to Sin City, Pulp Fiction, Agneepath, Scarface, Shankar Nag, Rashomon and a host of other tributes while telling an utterly compelling and original story. In this kinetic suspense thriller that deals with five interconnected stories, a journalist sets out to uncover the truth behind an incident from the past, through the perspectives of different people, and how they and their lives are intertwined with it. Along the way she encounters gangsters, fisherwomen, precocious children, tiger dancers, motor mechanics and a wide array of other colourful characters that help together in piecing together what happened one fateful night years ago. Rakshit Shetty, the star of blockbuster hit Simple Agi Ondh Love Story, makes his directorial debut with this film and also puts in a swaggering central performance where he faces off against the other rising Kannada star Kishore.

Uma

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Starring: Jisshu Sengupta, Sara Sengupta, Anjan Dutt
Run time: 148 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: India

Uma, a young girl who lives with her father in Switzerland, is diagnosed with a disease that could be terminal. Her greatest desire in life is to participate in the Durga Puja, the annual joyous celebrations which take place in October. The trouble is that Uma may not have until October and her father, with the help of an award-winning filmmaker and the entire city of Kolkata, undertakes to recreate the festival in the summer as a special treat for his beloved daughter. Based on a true story, ace filmmaker Srijit Mukherji crafts a life affirming emotional tale that is a celebration of the human spirit.

Umrika

Umrika | UK Premiere

LIFF Festival Screening: 2015

Director: Prashant Nair
Starring: Suraj Sharma, Tony Revolori, Adil Hussain, Smita Tambe, Prateik Babbar.
Run time: 98 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2015
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

PLAY TRAILER >     FILM WEBSITE >

This year’s Sundance Audience Award winner is an uplifting, rights of passage tale about two brothers from a small village who have dreams of making it big in Umrika (America). Udai (Pratiek Babbar) is the eldest and adored by his hard-working mum. He leaves their hamlet on a bullock cart to pursue his dream after he says he has received an invitation to work in the US.

Torn between pride and grief his mum waves him off. Months go by but there is no word from Udai, family pride turns to concern. Younger son Rama (Suraj Sharma, Life of Pi), shares the family’s increasing grief and then suddenly letters start to arrive. His parents cheer up again as amazing pictures of the USA fill their lives. All seems well until Rama discovers that the kindly local postman has forged the letters. Rama runs away from home to discover his brother’s true fate.

Urf (A.K.A)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Geetika Narang Abbasi

Run time: 94 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2022
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

To look like a film star is one thing, to be a lookalike of one is quite another. The latter comes with a stamp of ‘urf’ or ‘also known as for life. Lookalikes are as much a part of Indian popular cinema as the mega stars that front the industry, their popularity reaching such heights that they even have their own films, which are often satirical revisions of beloved classics. Focusing on lives of Kishore Bhanushali, Firoz Khan and Prashant Walde, lookalikes of superstars Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, Urf unravels a unique world where one’s own identity is consumed by fame, while also bringing a fascinating perspective on stardom and cinema.

Q&A with Geetika Narang Abbasi

Urojahaj (The Flight) LIFF

Urojahaj (The Flight)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Buddhadeb Dasgupta
Starring: Chandan Roy Sanyal, Parno Mittra, Sudipto Chatterjee
Run time: 82 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2018
Language: Bengali with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

Legendary Bengali filmmaker Buddhadeb Dasgupta, who has a magic realist style akin to Guillermo del Toro, attends the festival to present one of his finest films. An idealistic villager discovers a wrecked WW2 Japanese warplane deep in a ghostly forest. Seeing passenger planes overhead, his dream has always been to fly. He sets about secretly repairing the plane, but as he starts enquiring about an engine, the military find out and he is soon considered a national threat. Dasgupta’s films are often subtly laced with a pressing politic of the ordinary man pitted against the all-powerful state.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Buddhadeb Dasgupta

 

Veettilekkulla Vazhi (The Way Home)

Veettilekkulla Vazhi (The Way Home)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2011

Director: Dr. Biju Kumar
Starring: Prtithviraj, Indrajith, Govardhan.
Run time: 95 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2011
Language: Malayalam | Country: India

Malayalam cinema’s young heartthrob Prithviraj plays a Delhi-based prison doctor who accedes to the dying wish of his patient, a member of a terrorist squad. Her wish is that he unites her five-year-old son with his father whom he has never seen. The trouble is that the father is the leader of a dreaded Indian Jihadi terrorist group.

The doctor collects the boy from the southern state of Kerala and begins an arduous pan-Indian journey to track down the elusive terrorist. The doctor’s quest is all the more poignant and noble because his own wife and child were killed in a terrorist attack.

Alongside breathtaking imagery showcasing India’s natural beauty from the lush backwaters of Kerala to the arid zones of Rajasthan and the stunning grandeur of the Himalayas, the film is also a sensitive look at the touchy issue of terrorism and its impact.

Winner of National film award for the best Malayalam Film.

Vihir (The Well)

Vihir (The Well)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2010

Director: Umesh Kulkarni
Starring: Madan Deodhar, Alok Rajwade, Dr Mohan Agashe
Run time: 120 mins | Certificate: 18 | Year: 2009
Language: Marathi, Hindi | Country: India

A wonderfully moving coming of age tale, stunningly filmed amongst the grandeur of the rolling Indian plains. Young Sameer leaves the city with his parents to visit their country family, who are preparing for a wedding. Sameer, however, has only one aim, to meet his cousin and best friend Nachiket. The two adolescent boys are inseparable and Sameer looks up to his older, free thinking cousin, who teaches him many truths as they stand at the cross-roads of their lives, with the innocence of child-hood slipping away. This change is echoed by the fate of Sameer’s female cousin, who is being forced into a marriage for the family’s petty gains. Nachiket becomes increasingly distraught by this marriage, until he can take it no longer, leading to an action that will change Sameer’s young life forever.

Village Rockstars

LIFF Festival Screening: 2018

Director: Rima Das
Starring: Bhanita Das, Basanti Das, Manabendra Das
Run time: 87 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2017
Language: Assamese with English subtitles | Country: India

Recipient of multiple international awards, Village Rockstars is an instant crowd-pleaser. A single mother and her 10 year old daughter Dhunu live in a remote flood-prone Assamese village. Dhunu is not a shy, submissive girl and with a vibrant spirit and imagination she dreams of setting up her own rock band. She fashions a make-believe guitar out of expanded polystyrene and jams in the rice fields with her boy mates. Noticing an old guitar has come up for sale in the market Dhunu attempts schemes to raise money to buy it, but as the local women complain about Dhunu’s un-girlish behaviour, her mother is forced to make a stand.

* At Stratford Picturehouse, there will be a screening of the short film, RUPI RUN before the screening of Village Rockstars.

Rupi Run is an award winning (Ringling President’s award) story about two dirt poor street performers who chase after a coin through the streets of India. It has been directed by Tarun Lak and produced by The Ringling College of Art and Design

Q&A with Director Rima Das (BSL signed at Picturehouse Stratford)

Vinci da LIFF

Vinci Da

LIFF Festival Screening:

Director: Srijit Mukherji
Starring: Rudranil Ghosh, Ritwick Chakraborty, Sohini Sarkar, Ridhi Sen
Run time: 117 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2019
Language: Bengali with English Subtitles | Country: India

Strand: BENGAL TIGERS

A talented make-up and prosthetic artist, nicknamed Vinci Da after Leonardo da Vinci because of his prodigious skills, gets unwittingly drawn into a psychopathic lawyer’s criminal plans to rid Kolkata of evil. Acting powerhouses Ghosh, Chakraborty and Sarkar are in top form in this terrific, edge-of-the-seat psychological thriller superbly orchestrated by the prolific filmmaker Srijit Mukherji. A smash hit at home in Bengal, this is a rare chance for London audiences to see it on the big screen and also revel in the timeless beauty of Kolkata.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

Virtual Reality Films

Virtual Reality Short Films

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017



|

The festival will also showcase a collection of immersive virtual reality films, directed by Indian and British Asian filmmakers working at the forefront of this exciting new method of storytelling. At the BFI Southbank on the  24-25 June, members of the public will have the opportunity to put on head sets and immerse themselves in a selection of short documentaries, covering a range of themes, from women’s rights to environmentalism and caste protests, as well as an entertaining glimpse of life in the buzzing metropolis of Mumbai and a supernatural horror vignette.

[Parental caution is advised due to adult themes. Seats will be provided, as some audience members may experience dizziness].

FREE EVENT no booking required.

BFI Southbank Foyer area, Sat 24th & Sun 25th June, 12.00-8.00 pm

Vivek (Reason)

Vivek (Reason)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Anand Patwardhan
Starring: Narendra Dabholkar, Govind Pansare
Run time: 240 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2018
Language: Hindi, Marathi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: FILM, POWER & POLITICS

India’s greatest documentarian, Anand Patwardhan, returns with a powerful chronicle of contemporary India. Depicting a country that after decades of relatively pro-secular democracy, is now increasingly divided by religion, caste and power. Patwardhan follows activists, rationalists and dissenters, Narendra Dabholkar and Govind Pansare, he broadens his gaze to look at critical questions of communism, caste and freedom of speech. This is a riveting and sobering film that will inform and frustrate in equal measure. Reason is a must watch, and is perhaps the most important documentary to emerge from India in recent years.

There will be an extended intro with Anand Patwardhan at Bertha DocHouse on Sunday 23 June

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Director Anand Patwardhan in attendance

 

We Make Film

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022

Director: Shweta Ghosh

Run time: 80 mins | Certificate: U | Year: 2021
Language: English, Hindi, Bengali With English Subtitles | Country: UK, India

Strand: WOMEN MAKE MOVIES

Dr. Shweta Gosh delves into the stories of film and video makers with disabilities in India and the inaccessibility and barriers to film consumption and education, and how the they find ways to articulate their creative vision. This inspiring and uplifting film discusses why it’s so important the film sector is more open to differently abled people.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 48 hours]

Followed by an online conversation with Dr. Shweta Gosh

Whirlpool

Whirlpool (Gardaab)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Harune Massey
Starring: Amna Ilyas, Fawad Khan, Gohar Rasheed
Run time: 93 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Urdu with English Subtitles | Country: Pakistan

The Godfather meets Romeo and Juliet in this cleverly spun gangster romance. Amongst the pulsating cityscape of Karachi, Pakistan, a young man brought up to a life of underworld vice and killings attends the wedding of a rival gangster clan. Here he falls for the proud daughter of a rival Don. Their forbidden dangerous liaisons soon escalate to an obsessive love intensified by the ever-present risk of death. The film is also an intimate portrait of a city where ethnic and class divisions simmer amidst turf wars.

White Sun (Seto Surya)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2017

Director: Deepak Rauniyar
Starring: Dayahang Rai, Asha Maya Magrati, Rabindra Singh Baniya
Run time: 89 mins | Certificate: 12A | Year: 2016
Language: Nepali with English Subtitles | Country: Nepal, Qatar, US, Netherlands

Laced with humour, this powerful drama sees an anti-regime partisan confront physical, social and political obstacles for his father’s funeral. His search for a solution takes him to neighbouring mountain villages where he encounters the police and rebel guerrillas. This searing portrait of post-civil war Nepal has been lauded the world over, winning awards at the Venice, Palm Springs and Singapore film festivals.

Who is Baul

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Sairam Sagiraju

Run time: 54 mins | Certificate: PG | Year: 2021
Language: Bengali, English with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

Filmmaker Sairam Sagiraju, together with Grammy award winning composer Ricky Kej and historian Vikram Sampath set out on a monumental journey to document the philosophies and musical lineage of the Bauls of Bengal. For centuries Bauls have passed on their traditions of inner knowledge and spirituality through song and music. Declared as an Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO, The Bauls of Bengal have kept their philosophies alive for over a thousand years, but modern demands threaten their simple, enlightened lifestyles.

Online Q&A with Sairam Sagiraju

Streaming online on LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Widow of Silence LIFF

Widow of Silence

LIFF Festival Screening: 2019

Director: Praveen Morchhale
Starring: Shilpa Marwaha, Ajay Chourey, Bilal Ahmad
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2018
Language: Urdu with English subtitles | Country: India

Popular at Busan and Rotterdam Film Festivals, Praveen Morchhale’s drama tells of Aasia who works as a nurse in a hospital to maintain herself, her 11-year-old daughter and her sick mother-in-law. She spends her days working, looking after her family and trying to obtain a death certificate for her husband who had been taken away by the police and presumed dead. With her life in limbo, unable to either re-marry, or settle her considerable financial debt without a death certificate, a conniving government official looks to take advantage, forcing Aasia to make difficult decisions to overcome her absurd plight. Widow of Silence is a gripping and soulful film with breathtaking visuals of the Kashmir landscape.

Please remember there are no adverts before festival screenings so we encourage you to arrive in good time.

 

Q&A with Director Praveen Morchhale

 

Wild West

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: David Atwood
Starring: Naveen Andrews, Sarita Choudhury, Ronny Jhutti
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 1992
Language: English | Country: UK

Strand: GREAT BRITISH ASIANS

A rare chance to see this lively comedy following the outrageous fortunes of a Southall based Country & Western band as they chase their dreams of stardom. Zaf (Naveen Andrews), is a struggling lead singer of a band, who donning their stetsons, firmly believe that their act ‘The Honky Tonk Cowboys’ is the next big thing. As their aspirations soon start to crumble they have a chance encounter with the magnetic and talented Rifat (Sarita Choudhury), who promises to set them on the path to stardom and a once in a lifetime wild trip to Nashville USA. It all seems too good to be true!

Image courtesy of Park Circus/Film Four

WingMan (The Universal Irony of Love)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Anuj Gulati
Starring: Shashank Arora, Trimala Adhikari, Nakul Bhalla
Run time: 85 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: Hindi with English subtitles | Country: India

Strand: Young Rebel

Omi works as a call centre agent at a corporate dating service, where he is tasked with being a matchmaker for his urban callers. His personal life, however, is a shambles as his childhood sweetheart has decided to call it quits and his matchmaking skills seem to work for everyone but himself. As Omi’s life continues to spin out of control and his pursuit of a married waitress hits the buffers he becomes unable to control his emotions leading to night of crazy events that could change his life forever.

Screening online at LoveLIFFAtHome.com [available for 24 hours]

Woman with a Movie Camera

Woman with a Movie Camera: A Life Less Ordinary | South Asian Filmmaker’s Debate

LIFF Festival Screening: 2016


Starring: Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Leena Yadav, Shefali Bhushan and Rinku Kalsy
| Year: 2016

This year’s Bagri Foundation London Film Festival has aggregated some of the best South Asian films. We are delighted that many of these happen to be by leading women filmmakers. We present a rare opportunity to hear filmmakers like double Oscar winner Pakistan’s Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, Mumbai’s multi-award winning Leena Yadav, documentary filmmaker Rinku Kalsy and other special guests talk about their unique careers and experiences and explore commonalities of experience with women filmmakers around the world. Chaired by Nasreen Munni Kabir, a documentary filmmaker who has made over 80 documentaries including the Inner/Outer World of Shah Rukh Khan and who has been curating the Indian films on Channel 4 for over 30 years.

The Debate is preceded by a screening of Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy’s 2016 Oscar winning short A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness (40 mins) Pakistan.

WOMB (Women of My Billion)

LIFF Festival Screening: 2021

Director: Ajitesh Sharma
Starring: Pragya Prasun Singh, Neha Rai, Sangeeta Tiwari, Srishti Bakshi
Run time: 102 mins | Certificate: 15 | Year: 2020
Language: English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu with English subtitles | Country: India

OPENING NIGHT GALA

Strand: EXTRA-ORDINARY LIVES

A young woman, Srishti Bakshi embarks on a monumental journey, walking almost 4000km over 240 days, from Kanyakumari in the south, to Kashmir, in the North, along the way meeting and learning first hand about the experiences of many women from all corners of India. WOMB is a poignant and heart warming documentary exploring the social and political issues faced by women of today’s India. It is a unique testament to seemingly insurmountable challenges in these unprecedented times and the everyday sheroes who are battling to overcome.

Q&A with Srishti Bakshi (Opening Night only)

Ciné Lumière screening in liaison with:

Women Make Movies Panel

LIFF Festival Screening: 2022



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Panel with three of India’s leading female actor-writer-directors Aparna Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma and Nandita Das in London

On the unique occasion that we have three of India’s leading female actor-writer-directors Aparna Sen, Konkona Sen Sharma and Nandita Das in London, at the same time, we will celebrate this moment with a very special panel. With so much experience on offer, it is expected to be a lively and informative conversation, with incredible insights into working in the world’s largest film industry, especially from a female perspective. Chaired by writer director Sangeeta Datta.