After a year of top honours at major international film festivals in 2022, Indian cinema is again in the limelight this year with a string of premieres at top festivals. From Rotterdam to Cannes and Locarno to Toronto, Indian feature films, web series and documentaries have leapt into official selections with their artistic and aesthetic style and the diversity of storytelling. The following is a peep into the entries in 2023 that make Indian cinema stand out in the world:
1744 White Alto (Malayalam)
Written and directed by the Kasaragod-born Senna Hegde,1744 White Alto is a comedy about an honest police officer and two small-time criminals on the run from the law. Hegde, known for his feature productions in Malayalam (Thinkalazhcha Nishchayam, which won the National Award for Best Feature Film in Malayalam in 2022) and Kannada (Katheyondu Shuruvagide, a romantic comedy set in a tourist resort), continues his run of mainstream comedies in the story of a case of mistaken identity following a hit-and-run incident. A former IT engineer and creative director in advertising, Hegde sets his new film on the premise of good and evil, but offers plenty of comments on social and economic issues like organised religion and fuel price rise.
1744 White Alto premiered at the Rotterdam International Film Festival in January
Poacher (English/Hindi/Malayalam)
Directed by Indo-Canadian filmmaker Richie Mehta, Poacher is a web-series inspired by true events about a group of Indian Forest Service officers, police constables, NGO workers and Good Samaritans risking their lives trying to track down the biggest ivory poachers in the history of India. Shot in the forests of Malayattoor near Kochi in Kerala, the series reveals the devastating effects of poaching and corruption in forests. Mala Jogi (Nimisha Jayan) is a ranger who chases ivory poachers, aided by Alan Joseph (Roshan Mathew), a wildlife conservation activist. Poacher follows Mehta's hugely acclaimed Netflix series Delhi Crime, which won India’s first International Emmy award for Best Drama Series.
Three episodes of Poacher premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January
Kucheye Khoshbakht (Farsi/English)
Directed by Sreemoyee Singh, Kucheye Khoshbakht (And, Towards Happy Alleys) is a documentary film on Iran's successful film culture and the conditions in which the country's filmmakers work under the threat of prosecution. The debut film of Singh, a Jadavpur University, Kolkata alumnus, documents interviews with acclaimed Iranian director Jafar Panahi and human rights activist Nasrin Sotudeh. Censorship and its effect on the daily lives of Iranian women, who recently came out in the streets to protest the killing of Mahsa Amini, finds focus in the film that took six years to make.
Kucheye Khoshbakht (And, Towards Happy Alleys) premiered at the Berlin film festival in February
Ghaath (Marathi)
Directed and co-written by Nagpur-born Chhatrapal Ninawe, Ghaath (Ambush) is a debut feature film that centres on the cost of the decades-long Maoist conflict. Ninawe, a member of the Halba tribe from central India, tells the story of the security forces-Naxalites violence through a drunken policeman, an informant and a demoralised guerrilla. The film reflects on the lives of the villagers caught between the violence.
Ghaath premiered at the Berlin film festival in February
Kennedy (Hindi)
Independent filmmaker Anurag Kashyap's new film, which was shot mostly during nights on Mumbai’s streets over 30 days, features an insomniac former policeman (Rahul Bhat) operating for a corrupt system. Based on a script Kashyap wrote during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdown, Kennedy stars Sunny Leone, who plays the role of Charlie, a charming woman always ready to disarm assassins with her lethal, seductive giggle. The film's background score, Russian composer Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake, recorded by the Prague Philharmonic Choir, keeps the tempo as Kennedy, the titular character, carries out one assassination after the other.
Kennedy premiered at the Cannes film festival in May
Agra (Hindi)
Directed and co-written by independent filmmaker Kanu Behl, Agra is a cinematic exploration of the sexual dynamics within a modern Indian family. After his debut feature, Titli, set in the badlands of Delhi's underbelly, Behl ventures on a personal exploration in his sophomore feature that deals with desire and repressed sexuality. Set in Agra, the film is about Guru, a young, single call centre employee living with his parents, revelling in a life bordering on insanity, pathetic fantasies, dating apps and hysterical self-harm.
Agra premiered in the Directors' Fortnight parallel programme in Cannes in May
Rimdogittanga (Garo language)
Written and directed by Meghalaya-born filmmaker Dominic Sangma, Rimdogittanga (Rapture) is a Garo language film about the fear and divide in contemporary Indian society. Shot entirely in the Garo hills with a non-professional cast, the film, Sangma's second after Ma.Ama, shows a village torn apart by the fear of intruders. The residents begin to suspect strangers arriving in their village surrounded by forests after a teenager goes missing during a search for cicadas, an insect devoured by the community for its culinary benefits. Meanwhile, a corrupt pastor announces an apocalyptic relief fund warning of darkness that would last 80 days.
Rimdogittanga premiered at the Locarno film festival in August
Stolen (Hindi/English/Marwari/Santali)
Directed and co-written by Karan Tejpal, an assistant director on the sets of 3 Idiots, Stolen is the search for a missing baby born to a poverty-stricken tribal woman. She is joined by a photographer, who witnessed the baby-snatching at a remote railway station, and a city boy who arrives to receive his younger brother. A strong statement on motherhood, classism, xenophobia and disillusionment with the system, the film exposes the lack of state accountability while saluting the strength of human spirit and hope.
Stolen premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 31 August
Lost Ladies (Hindi)
Kiran Rao's sophomore feature is about a riot of mistaken identities involving two brides. Set in 2001 in rural India, the film explores unlikely kinships in the story of two new brides accidentally swapped on an overnight train. A police investigation begins as the grooms launch their own search and rescue operations. Lost Ladies, titled Laapataa Ladies in Hindi, comes more than two decades after Rao's hugely acclaimed debut, Dhobi Ghat (2010).
Lost Ladies will premiere at the Toronto film festival on September 8
The World is Family (English/Hindi/Marathi)
Five years after his last film, Vivek (Reason), celebrated documentary filmmaker Anand Patwardhan returns with a rare personal film, a portrait of his parents, who shared links with Mahatma Gandhi and India’s independence struggle. Patwardhan, known for works like In the Name of God (1992), Father, Son, and Holy War (1994) and War and Peace (2002), draws from archival footage and two decades of his own shooting unaware that he is making a movie on his family.
The World is Family will premiere at the Toronto film festival on September 10
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