TIFF 2023: Mumbai dominates, but Punjabi films stand out as Indian cinema zoom across categories at 48th Toronto International Film Festival

Deepa Mehta and Tarsem Singh, the two celebrated Indian-origin filmmakers born in Punjab, lead movies from the biggest film-producing nation selected to the 48th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) beginning on Thursday. Mehta, the Indian-Canadian director from Amritsar, joins Delhi-based transgender woman Sirat Taneja to shoot I Am Sirat, the story of transgender woman's double life in the national capital. Part of the documentary section of TIFF (September 7-17), I Am Sirat is among seven Indian films in different categories at the Toronto festival this year.

Deepa Mehta and Sirat Taneja co-direct the documentary, 'I Am Sirat', part of TIFF Docs (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)

Singh, the Indian-American director known for his works, The Cell, The Fall, Mirror Mirror and Immortals, will be in Toronto with his first film shot in India. Singh's Dear Jassi, which will have its world premiere in the prestigious Platform competition category, is based on the true story of an Indian-Canadian woman, who was murdered by her family in 2000 in Punjab for marrying against its wishes. The director, who was born in Jalandhar, shot the film in Punjab late last year and in Canada early this year.
Mehta and Sirat's collaboration, I Am Sirat, and Singh's Dear Jassi are both Punjabi language films that stand out in the Indian selection at the Toronto festival this year dominated by Hindi films from the Mumbai film industry. Lost Ladies (Laapata Ladies), Kiran Rao's first feature in more than a decade, Kill, Nikhil Nagesh Bhat's martial arts thriller, and Karan Boolani's Thank You For Coming represent the Mumbai film industry in Toronto while Anand Patwardhan's new documentary The World is Family and Marathi film, Sthal (A Match) by Guilty Minds web-series co-director Jayant Digambar Somalkar, complete the Indian selection.

With their powerful narrative about sexuality and patriarchy, Punjabi films I Am Sirat and Dear Jassi promise to be the top draw in Toronto where immigrant Punjabis form a sizeable number of the South Asian community in Canada's Ontario province. I Am Sirat follows the life of transgender woman Sirat Taneja, who is forced to hide her gender identity at home. "Mehta’s empathetic eye and compassionate interviewing style prove just as essential, letting Sirat tell her own story on her own terms," says TIFF programmer Norm Wilner.

Set in the 1990s, Dear Jassi tells the story of Jassi, who meets rickshaw driver Mithu on a trip from Canada to visit her extended family in Jagraon, Punjab. The couple fall in love unaware of the consequences that await them. "Tarsem Singh Dhandwar’s first story set in India tells the true-life Romeo and Juliet tale of a young couple who are desperate to be together but are kept apart by time, distance, and familial expectations," says TIFF's director of programming Robyn Citizen. "Both a true work of art and an unblinking chronicle of continuing injustice, Dear Jassi demonstrates immense storytelling talent and filmmaking rigour while capturing the brutality that lies on the other side of a beautiful sunset, if you’re brave enough to turn the camera," adds Citizen.

Anand Patwardhan's 'The World is Family' is a rare personal portrait of his family (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)

Patwardhan's new documentary, The World is Family, marks his return to Toronto five years after the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA) award-winner Vivek (Reason), about the rise of religious fundamentalism. The new film of the director of such acclaimed works as In the Name of God, Father, Son and Holy War and War and Peace, is a rare personal portrait that documents the family histories of his parents and their links with the freedom movement.

Hindi film 'Kill' by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat is part of the Toronto festival's Midnight Madness programme (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)

Indian films have found a permanent place in the Toronto festival's adrenaline-rushing Midnight Madness programme, after Vasan Bala won its top award for his martial arts film, Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota, in 2018. After Bala, TIFF selected first-time filmmaker Ritwik Pareek's Dug Dug, a quirky tale of bizarre beliefs, two years ago. This year, another Hindi martial arts film, Kill directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhat (The Gone Game web-series), is part of the fan-favourite programme that brings together the weird and the wicked from around the world. Kill's drama unfolds on a Delhi-bound Rajdhani Express as commandos fight against an army of bandits. "With the action entirely restricted to the moving train, Kill’s gory momentum and claustrophobic confines recall Midnight Madness classics like Gareth Evans’ The Raid and Kim Hongsun's Project Wolf Hunting," says Midnight Madness programmer Peter Kuplowsky.

'Lost Ladies (Laapataa Ladies)' returns Kiran Rao to directing, 13 years after 'Dhobi Ghat' (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)

Thirteen years after she debuted with Dhobi Ghat, Kiran Rao returns to directing in Lost Ladies (Laapataa Ladies), about two young brides accidentally swapped before their wedding day on a moving train.

'Sthal (A Match)' by debutant Marathi director Jayant Digambar Somalkar (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)

Sthal (A Match) by debutant Marathi director Jayant Digambar Somalkar is the story of a young village girl caught between her family's pride and her own ambitions in the middle of an arranged marriage. Somalkar, who co-directed the Amazon Prime original series Guilty Minds, gathers non-professional actors in the film, part of the festival's Discovery programme. Mumbai-born Karan Boolani's Gala Presentations entry, Thank You For Coming, his feature film debut starring Bhumi Pednekar, is about a 32-year-old determined to disprove the social mores about sex.

Mumbai-born Karan Boolani's TIFF Gala Presentations entry 'Thank You for Coming' features Bhumi Pednekar (Photo: Courtesy of TIFF)