The 17th New York Indian Film Festival closed last night, with the screening of Milind Dhaimade's directorial debut, YOU ARE MY SUNDAY (Tu Hai Mera Sunday). The slate of films this year was exceptional with over 85 wonderful films, with several of them having their New York premiere.
The quality of Indian cinema is better than ever, on par with not just American & European cinema, and this festival brought several examples of that in narrative, documentary shorts and all categories. Films like SHAB by Onir, POORNA by Rahul Bose, A DEATH IN THE GUNJ by Konkona Sen Sharma (who won the best actress award & best director award at the festival this year), TRAPPED by Vikramditya Motwani, KASAAV by Sunil Sukthankar, AN INSIGNIFICANT MAN by Khushboo and Vinay Shukla, are just some of the examples of the exceptional quality of films that are being produced by Indian diaspora.
The festival also had various other events for filmmakers and audiences. The highlight was the 2 day workshop for "SHOOT A SHORT", by three time National Award winning Indian filmmaker Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni. The workshop primarily aimed at guiding film enthusiasts and beginners to make short films. It focused on the process of translating an idea to a complete short film. Umesh gave some very practical and valuable advice about how to plan the production, how to write and shoot your film, and how to make it into an exceptional piece of art, by putting every piece together beautifully.
Another big event was the meeting and panel discussion with David Tagioff from CAA. This was an opportunity for filmmakers and story tellers to understand the business from an agency's side. David and his associate Jason gave a deep insight into value of Indian cinema and content in the international arena. CAA has been ahead of the curve, when it comes to International programming. David and his team has been leading that effort, and his commitment and passion to great storytelling was quite inspiring to all.
The closing night film YOU ARE MY SUNDAY, is the feature directorial debut of ex ad man Milind Dhaimade, who quit at the height of his career to pursue his dream of making movies. His first feature film, definitely does not disappoint. It's a joyful tale of group of friends (Cast - Barun Sobti, Shahana Goswami, Avinash Tiwary, Rasika Duggal, Vishal Malhotra) who are just looking for a place to play football every Sunday, in Mumbai. But there personal lives, there own journeys, and their own fights become a metaphor of how urban lives have become so convoluted for simplicity of life. People are not able to enjoy simple things in life, due to the hustle & bustle of there career, wishes, goals, or lack of those.
The film is beautifully shot between Mumbai and Goa. The entire cast is wonderful, and does a great job. It's breakout performance by Barun and Shahana Goswami. Shahana breaks the mould she has been cast in, and gives a joyful performance as Kavi, a MBA working in marketing, trying to care for her father, and figure out her life. Without being overtly feminist or preachy, the film does a good job of portraying some honest stories. The screening was followed by a panel discussion with Milind, Shahana and Rasika.
The night and the festival, ended with a fun after-party at Gramercy Theater. Delicious Indian food, live music by Punjabi band - Rhythm Tolee, beer by BIRA (they do make good white beer) and wine by Mirza Ghalib.
The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Seven days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, award ceremony, special events, nightly networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain & educate North Americans about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City. Please visit: www.iaac.us/NYIFF2017/index.htm