Chiyaan Vikram and Parvathy Thiruvothu star in this period film on the British exploitation of tribals, and land grab in order to mine gold. Produced by Studio Green and Neelam Productions
Illustration/Uday Mohite
My Top 20 Indian, South Asian and South Asian Diaspora films to watch out for in 2024. This list honours 18 women film directors and producers.
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1.LAAPATAA LADIES by Kiran Rao, Hindi: Most delicious, comedy-drama about two brides who get mixed up after their weddings. Feistily feminist, earthy. Was at Toronto International Film Festival (FF). Producers Aamir Khan, Kiran Rao, Jyoti Deshpande: woman director, two women producers. Expected release March 1.
2.LSD2 (Love, Sex Aur Dhokha 2) by Dibakar Banerjee, Hindi: Dibakar is a most thoughtful, courageous yet entertaining filmmaker; this is a much-awaited sequel to his LSD of 2010, and is produced by Ekta Kapoor, woman producer.
3. GIRLS WILL BE GIRLS by Shuchi Talati, English: Absolutely gorgeous, finely observed, original debut feature, set in a boarding school. Teenage Mira’s (Preeti Panigrahi) coming of age rebellion is hijacked by her mother Anila (Kani Kusruti), who never got to come of age. Kusruti is luminous; at Sundance FF the film won the Audience Award and Special Jury Award for Acting for Preeti Panigrahi (World Cinema Dramatic). Woman director, woman producer Richa Chadha, with others.
4.VIDUTHALAI (Liberation)-PART 2 by Vetri Maaran, Tamil: Vijay Sethupathi, Soori and Gautam Vasudev Menon star in this sequel to Viduthalai-1, which explored how indigenous people fought back oppressive police. Both films were selected at IFF Rotterdam.
5.AMAR SINGH CHAMKILA by Imtiaz Ali, Punjabi: Diljit Dosanjh, Parineeti Chopra star in a film on the popular, raunchy Punjabi singer, who was shot dead young. Music by AR Rahman. Produced by Netflix India.
6.THANGALAAN by Pa Ranjith, Tamil: Chiyaan Vikram and Parvathy Thiruvothu star in this period film on the British exploitation of tribals, and land grab in order to mine gold. Produced by Studio Green and
Neelam Productions.
7. MALAIKOTTAI VAALIBAN by Lijo Jose Pellissery, Malayalam: Top Malayalam star Mohanlal leads this lavish historical actioner, very ambitious for Pellissery, now in theatres.
8.KOTTUKKAALI by Vinoth PS, Tamil: Selected in the Berlin Film Festival’s Forum section, it stars Anna Ben and Soori: his family “exorcise” her, as she’s in love with a man of the “wrong” caste.
9. ULLOZHUKKU (Undercurrent) by Christo Tomy, Malayalam: Debut fiction feature by Tomy (Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case, docu, Netflix). Parvathy Thiruvothu plays a pregnant widow with a secret lover, waiting for her unloving husband’s funeral to get over, during the Kerala floods. Produced by RSVP, MacGuffin Pictures; selected by Film Independent’s Global Media Makers programme.
10.BARIR NAAM SHAHANA (A House Named Shahana)by Leesa Gazi, Bengali: British Bangladeshi Gazi’s film is about a teenage Bangladeshi girl, married to a much older man in the UK via a ‘trunk call wedding,’ who returns home to escape marital rape—and finds her own voice. Jio Mami Mumbai FF. Woman director, woman producer, superb Bangladesh-UK coproduction.
11. RI by Achal Mishra, Ladakhi: Gorgeous, monochrome, hybrid docu-fiction-essay set in Ladakh, shot at twilight when it’s blue—poetic, meditative. Dharamshala IFF.
12. CHALCHITRA EKHON (Kaleidoscope Now) by Anjan Dutt, Bengali: Fictionalised tribute to auteur Mrinal Sen on his birth centenary, tracing Dutt’s enduring relationship with the master, beginning with when he acted in his Chalchitra in 1981. Kolkata IFF. Starring Anjan Dutt and Sawon Chakraborty.
13.PARAMA- A JOURNEY WITH APARNA SEN by Suman Ghosh, Bengali: Documentary on the feisty, intellectual and stylish Aparna Sen, prolific actress and director, as they revisit places in Kolkata where she shot her films. IFF Rotterdam.
14.SOMETHING LIKE AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY by Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, Bengali, Bangladesh: Farooki directs a partly autobiographical fiction, starring himself and actress-wife Nusrat Imrose Tisha. Busan IFF. Streaming on Chorki. Women producers are Anna Katchko, Nina Lath, Tisha.
15 PARADISE by Prasanna Vithanage, Malayalam, Sinhala: Yet another Indian couple (Roshan Mathew, Darshana Rajendran) holidays in Sri Lanka during the economic crisis; a theft triggers events that spin out of control. Busan IFF; Indo-Sri Lanka coproduction.
16.THE QUEEN OF MY DREAMS by Fawzia Mirza, English, Urdu: Mirza is a self-confessed South Asian Muslim Pakistani lesbian filmmaker, and this Canadian film that was at the Toronto IFF, is a campy family drama that criss-crosses time zones, set in Canada and an ultra-cool Karachi in the 1960s. All riffing off the song Mere Sapnon ki Rani from Aradhana, 1969. Woman director; woman producers Andria Wilson Mirza and Fawzia Mirza.
17. VAAZHAI (Bananas) by Mari Selvaraj, Tamil: Story of labourers employed on banana plantations, including children. A Hotstar Original film.
18. NOCTURNES by Anirban Datta and Anupama Srinivasan: In the Himalayas, a woman researcher and local assistant study moths, especially at night, to decode their mysterious messages. At Sundance FF, it won the World Cinema Documentary Special Jury Award for Craft. Woman director.
19. A FLY ON THE WALL by Shonali Bose: Bose’s good friend Chika Kapadia invites her to spend time with him in Switzerland, where he undertakes legally assisted suicide,
as well as to film him. Expect poignant reflections by a director who has reflected considerably on death. Woman director and producer.
20. ANDRO DREAMS by Meena Longjam, Manipuri, North East: Straightforward docu, but it records the resilience of Laibi Phanjoubam, 60, who has been running an all-woman football club in Andro village, Manipur, since decades, and her promising young football player Nirmala. Opened the Indian Panorama’s documentary section. Woman director, producer.
Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com
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