Each edition of International Film Festival of Kerala brings home the wealth of unusual films from across the world, be it a French romance or a stirring tale on the life of a Vietnamese family in the wake of war.
Taking the audience to remote locations across the world is a boon that the film festival has offered but in no way does it imply that the mosaic of Indian films is left struggling for attention in the background.
This year’s festival too boasts of a collection of movies produced by Indian filmmakers and they are packaged into two – Indian Cinema Now -- a collection of parallel cinema and Top Angle -- award-winning Indian films.
Indian cinema had become almost synonymous with the glitz, glamour and loudness of Bollywood but parallely a nether world of films that tackle relevant social issues, strips down all the glossiness of mainstream films is gathering momentum. Satiating this curiosity for art house films, seven have been listed in the ‘Indian Cinema Now’ category.
Questions surrounding personal identity in a plural society, love, family, violence and specific references to incidents that have etched itself into the nation’s collective self such as the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and Nandigram paint the impressive canvas of Indian films to be screened.
Bengali movies dominate with Tears of Nandigram directed by Sarfaraz Alam and Shyamal Karmakar; Sound by Kaushik Ganguly; Cosmic Sex by Amitabh Chakraborty and Chitragada – The Crowning Wish by Rituparno Ghosh. In addition, this category consists of Cheeka,The Crier , a Hindi film directed by debutant Adeyapartha Rajan, the Marathi production Samhita-The Script by Sumitra Bhave and an Assamese film, Waves of Silence by Jahnu Barua.
