By Utpal Borpujari /New Delhi
Five feature films have made the 43rd Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) this year, four of them being world premieres.
Hindi films Anurag Kashyap’s “Manmarziyan (Husband Material)” and Vasan Bala’s “Mard Ko Dard Nahi Hota (The Man Who Feels No Pain)”, India-US co-production “The Sweet Requiem (Kyoyang Ngarmo)” in Tibetan directed by Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam, and Rima Das’ Assamese film “Bulbul Can Sing” will have their world premieres at TIFF to be held in September.
On the other hand, Nandita Das’ second directorial venture “Manto” (Urdu & Hindi), which had its world premiere at the Un Certain Regard section of Cannes Film Festival, will have its North American Premiere at TIFF, to be held from September 6 to 16.
“The Sweet Requiem” and “Bulbul Can Sing” will be screened in the top-billed Contemporary World Cinema programme, while Kashyap’s film, starring Vicky Kaushal, Abhishek Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu, will be part of Gala Premieres. “Manto”, starring Nawazuddin Siddiqui in the title role, will be part of the Special Presentation programme and Bala’s film will be part of the Midnight Madness section that specializes in genre films.
Das’ film will have its India release on September 21 while Kashyap’s “Manmarziyan” releases on September 7. But the release dates of the other three films have not yet been announced.
Sarin and Sonam’s “The Sweet Requiem” is the story of Dolkar, a 25-year-old Tibetan woman living in Delhi who had escaped from Tibet 15 years ago with her father.
An unexpected meeting with Gompo, the guide who led them from Tibet only to abandon them before they crossed the final pass to freedom, rekindles in Dolkar the memories of her escape are reignited and she is propelled on an obsessive search for reconciliation and closure, according to the official synopsis of the film.
Following Gompo obsessively through the narrow alleys of Majnu ka Tila, the Tibetan refugee colony in North Delhi, Dolkar is sucked into his strange and solitary existence. Flashbacks of her desperate journey with a small group through a harsh and desolate Himalayan terrain punctuate Dolkar’s growing predicament in the present as Gompo turns out not to be who she always imagined him to be.
On the other hand, Rima Das’ “Bulbul Can Sing” is a visceral coming-of-age drama about a teenage girl, Bulbul, living in a village in Assam, fighting her way through love and loss as she figures out who she really is. Bala’s film is about a man (Abhimanyu Dasani) who literally feels no pain.
There are a few other films with an India connection that are part of the festival this year. Prominent among them is “Hotel Mumbai”, which is set in the backdrop of the 2008 terror attacks on Mumbai. Directed by Anthony Maras, the film stars Dev Patel and Anupam Kher in major roles and is based on Victoria Midwinter Pitt’s 2009 documentary “Surviving Mumbai”.
Noted French director Mia Hansen-Love’s “Maya”, starring Aarshi Banerjee, is also set in India, and is about a French war correspondent who heads to India after being held hostage in Syria for several months.