In full flow, the Busan International Film Festival (September 17-26) in South Korea has a wide mix of Indian films premiering at what is widely regarded as the continent’s biggest and most important festival in market terms…it’s celebrating its 30th edition and has an enhanced programme and set of awards for the first time…241 features screen
By Tatiana Rosenstein
Competition
Vimukthi Jayasundara’s quirkily titled ‘Spying Stars’ (Sri Lanka, India, France) headlines the competition section with the story of a bioengineer Anandi, who returns from space to an Earth ravaged by a virus with a name that sounds suspiciously like a bad nightclub in Goa — the “Illvibe”. A former Cannes Camera d’Or winner, this is a mash-up of genres and is unapologetically weird. There’s even a cameo by a turtle.
Vision Asia
This is as the tin says and with an eye on bold and emerging new voices.
Sanju Surendran’s ‘If on a Winter’s Night’ sounds like it might be a mix of literary allusions (Italo Calvino’s ‘If on a Winter’s Night a Traveller’…anyone?) and cinematic counterpoints but it isn’t. Set in Delhi, it’s about Sara who arrives in the city and quickly has to contend with a prejudiced landlord obsessing over electricity bills, a mother who only calls to nag, and her boyfriend who spends their cash on art exhibitions rather than necessities. Unsentimental and telling, Surendran steps up from award-winner for ‘Aedan’ at the International Film Festival of Kerala and is in Busan with pout and punch.
Maharshi Tuhin Kashyap’s ‘Kok Kok Kokoook’ (yes, that is the real title) comes at you with feathers, surrealism and decidedly Kafkaesque humour. The premise sounds like a bad joke: a chicken seller, a mysterious dent in his beloved motorbike, and a possible link to a hit-and-run. But Kashyap, who hails from Assam and cut his teeth in theatre, before film school, is chopping up controversy and serving it hot and almost raw with our Muslim lead character, out of sorts, pursued by a woman from South Sudan who wants a baby with him and a chicken that isn’t leaving him any time soon.
From Sikkim comes ‘Shape of Momo’ and female director Tribeny Rai with a film that won the top prize at the Work-in-Progress Lab at India’s National Development Film Corporation (NFDC, a bit like the BFI here) Film Bazaar and Cannes’ Hong Kong forum. Bishnu returns home from Delhi, only to find three generations of women – her grandmother dreaming of moving to Dubai, her mother barely holding things together, and her pregnant sister fleeing marital strife – all coexisting under one roof. UK based Nepali origin Gaumaya Gurung leads proceedings.
Windows on Asia
A mix of established voices and ones emerging from domestic shadows into the international film festival jungle…
‘Full Plate’ is by well-established indie actor Tannishtha Chatterjee (‘Brick Lane’ and ‘Lion’) whose evolution from in front of – to behind – the camera continues to gather momentum after ‘Roam Rome Mein’ (2019). ‘Full Plate’ is a marital drama with hijab-wearing Amreen (Kriti Kulhari) stepping out of her husband’s shadow, following an accident and taking up a job as a chef with a couple who run a trendy vegan joint – and excelling, just don’t brag to hubbie… And all the more impressive when you understand Chatterjee is currently battling cancer – having lost her father to it months ago and looking after her nine-year-old daughter and 70-year-old mother (for more click on the Instagram link above).
‘Don’t Tell Mother’ is the debut feature of Anoop Lokur who moved from Bengaluru and project managing there to Sydney and films, over time. It’s a family piece: two mischievous brothers, a grandmother living nearby, and a mother trying to start a business but blocked by her father-in-law’s stubbornness and her husband’s dithering. The backdrop is patriarchy, and its rebels who ain’t laying down…
Screened first at the Toronto International Film Festival (September 4-14), ‘Bayaan’ is on the surface a police procedural with star Huma Qureshi essaying rookie cop Roohi – who has to look into a godman, whose female followers are unhappy and upset. Her Dad was a legend crime fighter, so there is much expectation on Roohi’s shoulders. Director Bikas Ranjan Mishra, a Mami (Mumbai Academy of Moving Image – known better as Mumbai Film Festival) winner says it’s a film that bears witness to an India in transition, where power and gender intersect in different and sometimes conflicting ways.
Indian cinema at Busan isn’t about competing with K-pop gloss, it’s about carving out a new identity from the region – one momo, one chicken, one sci-fi turtle at a time. So, if you’re there, don’t just grab the kimchi, grab a ticket to an Indian film. Chances are, you’ll walk out thinking: Did I just see a chicken redefine cinema? Who knows?
