The Toronto International film festival which is officially kicking off from September 6th and ending on 16th, has several entries from India this year. While TIFF is not an unfamiliar terrain for Indian film makers, this will be the first time an Indian movie will be showcased in the cult Midnight Madness section.
So on one hand if Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarziyaan and Nandita Das’s Manto represent the popular names of Indian cinema, on the other there are low budget films inspired by a variety of subjects.
Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota
Vasan Bala, the co-writer of The Lunchbox, Dev D and Raman Raaghav 2.0, is regarded as one of the brightest minds in the Indian film industry. His film ‘Mard Ko Dard Nahin Hota’ plays along the idea, how masculinity has been defined as being tough enough to not get hurt. It is marginally based on the CIP disease (congenital insensitivity to pain), where people can feel touch but cannot comprehend pain. Balan’s protagonist is supposed to possess this ‘superpower’ and is played by Abhimanyu Dassani with Radhika Madan as the female lead. This will be the first Indian film to be showcased in the Midnight Madness category.
Bulbul Can Sing
Rima Das, the national award winning director from ‘Village Rockstars’, has come up with another promising film. Written, directed and edited by Rima, it’s a story about friendship and love with a teenage girl named Bulbul in the centre of it, growing up in a rural setting in Assam. As a tragedy strikes with her best friend, Bulbul begins to question herself and her love life, figuring out who she really is.
The Sweet Requiem
This film explores the subject of exile, identity, culture and politics that surround the Tibetan people in India. This is not the first time Ritu Sarin and Tenzing Sonam have taken up this subject. The couple has been running one of India’s leading independent film festival, Dharamshala International Film Festival. They have made several award-winning documentaries and a number of video installations, most of which have been focussed on Tibet, reflecting the culture and identity issues around the community.
