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Our South Asian Roundup Of The 40th Toronto International Film Festival
South Asia shined at the globally acclaimed Toronto International Film Festival.
It was another full slate for India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at this year’s Toronto International Film Festival with entries featuring the star-studded likes of Malala Yousafzai, Dev Patel and Irrfan Khan, among many other intriguing talents. Here are our thoughts on the South Asian presence at TIFF 2015.
Photo Credit: TIFF
Just Married director Meghna Gulzar jumps genres with this gritty, grounded dramatization of the infamous 2008 Noida double murder case, in which two married physicians were convicted of killing their teenaged daughter. Employing a style reminiscent of iconic 1950 Japanese film Roshomon, Gulzar and screenwriter Vishal Bhardwaj present three separate versions of how the homicide might have played out, making for a uniquely intriguing true-crime yarn anchored by yet another quietly engaging performance from the incomparable Irrfan Khan as the case’s lead investigator.
Photo Credit: TIFF
TIFF favourite Deepa Mehta returns to the festival that helped launch her career back in 1991 with what can only be described as a drastic departure from her usual oeuvre. A Vancouver-set gangster saga, Beeba Boys centres on rising underworld power player Jeet Johar (Randeep Hooda) and his gang of “good boys”, as they battle a rival crime boss for control of the city. At its best, the film is a kinetic blend of slick action scenes and quippy dialogue.
Photo Credit: TIFF
Davis Guggenheim (An Inconvenient Truth) turns his probing gaze upon one of the most inspiring figures of our time. Based partially on Malala Yousafzai’s bestselling memoir, I Am Malala, this strikingly shot documentary devotes plenty of time to its subject’s courageous, near-fatal battle with oppressive Taliban forces in Pakistan. But, indeed, the most moving bits find Guggenheim at home with Malala and her family, giving us a glimpse at the ordinary teenaged girl behind the freedom fighter. It’s a tender, nuanced portrait that, in its way, is just as inspiring as her impassioned speeches.
Photo Credit: TIFF
A group of old friends (Sarah Jane-Dias, Tannishtha Chatterjee, Sandhya Mridul, Anushka Manchanda, Amrit Maghera, Rajshri Deshpande and Pavleen Gujral) reunite at one of their family homes for a girls getaway, where one of them unleashes a surprising secret. Billed as India’s first-ever female-driven buddy comedy, director Pan Nalin’s film is a largely improvised affair, with the stars riffing on a whole host of subjects that impact women in the country today — from sexism to gay rights to oppressive husbands. The film is a bit rough around the edges, with some off-the-cuff sequences falling flat, but for the most part, the actresses display an infectious chemistry. Moreover, their journey is punctuated by a third-act twist that transforms Angry Indian Goddesses from a pleasantly breezy watch to a truly unforgettable experience — as evidenced by the fact that it finished second in the voting for TIFF’s vaunted People’s Choice Award.
Photo Credit: TIFF
Earlier this year, French helmer Jacques Audiard wowed audiences at Cannes with this quietly affecting tale of a Sri Lankan soldier (Antonythasan Jesuthasan) who partners up with a 20-something woman (Kalieaswari Srinivasan) and a young orphan (Claudine Vinasithamby) to pose as a family and seek asylum in France. It’s a deliberately paced journey, to be sure, as the three characters struggle to adapt to life in a strange new world and recover from the trauma of their old one. But the collection of understated, deeply relatable moments of human connection capped off by an unexpectedly pulse-pounding final act make Dheepan an uncommonly rich piece of filmmaking.
Photo Credit: TIFF
Director Leena Yadav’s latest film centres on four women (Tannishtha Chatterjee, Radhika Apte, Surveen Chawla and Lehar Khan) living in a rural Indian village who each, in their own way, begin to question the life of servitude they are living and, indeed, passing on to the next generation. Described by its director as a sort of Sex and the Village, the film is being pegged by critics as an equal parts harrowing and inspiring exploration of an oppressive existence still endured by far too many women in South Asia.
Photo Credit: TIFF
Dev Patel brings to life Indian mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan in director Matthew Brown’s film. The biopic tracks the groundbreaking advances its subject made while working at England’s Cambridge University under curmudgeonly mentor G.H. Hardy (Jeremy Irons), overcoming his humble beginnings and the racism of his colleagues to make his mark on history. Critical consensus: an important, inspiring story told in a disappointingly safe, straightforward fashion.
*Check out his interview with ANOKHI PULSE TV about the roster of TIFF movies that he thinks we should watch. Check it out below…
Main Image Photo Credit: TIFF
Matthew Currie
Author
A long-standing entertainment journalist, Currie is a graduate of the Professional Writing program at Toronto’s York University. He has spent the past number of years working as a freelancer for ANOKHI and for diverse publications such as Sharp, TV Week, CAA’s Westworld and BC Business. Currie ...
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