Entertainment / TIFF 2022: Our Preview Of The Top South Asian Films And Stars At This Year’s Fest

TIFF 2022: Our Preview Of The Top South Asian Films And Stars At This Year’s Fest

Entertainment Sep 08, 2022

by Matthew Currie

The Toronto International Film Festival is back in town and, as ever, the fest brings with it a slew of intriguing South Asian directors and stars to spotlight. Here, for your consideration, is our breakdown of noteworthy SA flicks — including everything from effervescent rom-coms to harrowing dramas to scintillating documentaries.

Kacchey Limbu

Director Shubham Yogi casts Pataakha breakout Radhika Madan as Aditi, a young Mumbai woman who decides to defy gender stereotypes and start her own cricket team, squaring off against a squad that has her own brother on the roster. Both siblings are struggling with parental and societal expectations, spurred on by a love of the game and a belief in themselves.

What’s Love Got to Do With It?

As he’s done throughout his career, filmmaker Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) straddles the line between South Asia and Hollywood with his new rom-com. Baby Driver alum Lily James plays Zoe, a young, fiercely free-spirited London filmmaker who is taken aback when her childhood pal Kaz (Shazad Latif) acquiesces to his Pakistani-born parents’ wishes and seeks out an arranged marriage. Seeing an opportunity, she decides to document the courtship on film. As she attains a better understanding of this foreign custom, Zoe begins to question the approach she herself has been taking to love and life.

Joyland

A big hit at this past Cannes film fest, Saim Sadiq’s tender, provocative drama follows a repressed, unemployed family man (Ali Junejo) who finds new purpose in life after landing a job as he backup dancer to a trans stage performer (Alina Khan) — causing him to question everything. Meanwhile, his gainfully employed, hard-charging wife (Rasti Farooq) has her own struggles with acceptance and identity.

Zwigato

A legend on both sides of the camera, Nandita Das directs this incisive, zeitgeist-grabbing drama about a family man (comedian Kapil Sharma) who, after losing his factory job amidst the pandemic, looks to make ends meet by working as a driver for a food-delivery app. Meanwhile, his wife (Shahana Goswami) ventures out into the workforce herself. Both of them end up gaining a hard-won fresh perspective on themselves and their relationship.

Nightalk

Venerable Canadian provocateur Donald Shebib (Goin’ Down the Road) helms this poignant character study about police detective Brenda Roberto (Ashley Bryant) whose investigation of a most peculiar murder leads her to go undercover on a phone-sex app called Nightalk. Here, she meets-cute with a mysterious fellow online dater Tom (Al Mukadam, of CBC’s Pretty Hard Cases). He could be the killer she’s looking for, but as time goes on, the lines blur, as Brenda uses the app to indulge her own unspoken sexual fantasies.

To Kill A Tiger

Documentarian Nisha Pahuja chronicles the harrowing — yet all-too-common — true story of a 13-year-old girl in Jharkhand, India, who was abducted and raped by three men. When her family went to authorities, their suggestion was she marry one of the rapists to restore their daughter’s dignity. Unwilling to bow to tradition, public shaming or intimidation, the girl, her father and their stalwart relatives persevered in their demand for justice.

Tora’s Husband

As COVID cuts a swath across the globe, Tora (Tarali Kalita Das) watches her husband Jaan (Abhijit Das) spiral into an oblivion of stress, doubt and alcoholism, pushing their marriage to the brink. Director Rima Das’s film will no doubt hit home for anyone who felt the sting of the pandemic — in Toronto, India or beyond.

Viking

Hamza Haq, star of hit CTV medical procedural Transplant, is amongst the ensemble for the latest offbeat drama from French-Canadian director Stéphane Lafleur. With the first-ever manned mission to Mars underway, five Earth-bound test subjects undergo psychological experiments designed to simulate the pressures of prolonged space travel. The results are alternately poignant and darkly amusing.

While We Watched

With free, independent journalism being undermined by budget cuts and commandeered by extremist pundits the world over, this new documentary explores the institutional rot of the Fifth Estate through the lens of Indian TV reporter Ravish Kumar, as he fights an uphill battle against fake news, dwindling funds and willful public ignorance.

The 2022 Toronto International Film Festival runs from Thursday, September 8, through Sunday, September 18.

Main Image Credit: www.tiff.net

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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TIFF 2022: Our Preview Of The Top South Asian Films And Stars At This Year’s Fest

by Matthew Currie

Matthew Currie

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