London: Over the last five years, London Indian Film Festival (LIFF) has successfully opened the winding for the western audience to take a look at offbeat and serious cinema created by Indian filmmakers. Array of films screened at the festival in the past has been able to break the perception of west to associate Indian films with wafer thin plots, meaningless action and jarring dance sequences.
Chandigarh born, Europe bred Malayali boy Prashant Nair’s acclaimed comedy drama Umrika will be the opening film of the sixth edition of LIFF that opens on July 16, 2015. The film premiered at Sundance Film Festival won World Cinema Dramatic Audience Award is about a village boy, played by Suraj and his perception about Uncle Sam. Tony Revolori, who made a mark as Zero Mustafa in The Grand Budapest Hotel, also plays a prominent role in Umrika. Delhi boy Suraj, who made an onscreen debut in Ang Lee’s ‘Life of Pi’ along with Tony and Nair, will be the main guests of the inaugural day of LIFF.
Documentary film ‘Death of a Gentleman’ produced by journalists Jarrod Kimber and Sam Collins, based on the future of test cricket will be the highlight of closing day of LIFF on July 23. The controversial documentary that premiered at the Sheffield International Documentary Festival, points towards preservation of five day cricket and flip side of Twenty20 revolution. The documentary also focuses at the murky world of the sport’s administration, featuring interviews with ICC chairman N Srinivasan, ECB chief Giles Clarke and interviews of former cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Ravi Shastri among others.
LIFF’s Executive & Programming Director Cary Rajinder Sawhney is hopeful that the festival will reach an “un-tapped market for Indian Independent cinemas.” The increasing interest in LIFF and similar film events mirror the changing taste of the NRI audience who are keen to look beyond Bollywood extravaganza. The films to be showcased at the festival are targeted for the audience to appreciate Asian cinema.
Other highlights include ‘screen talk’ by Tamil and Hindi filmmaker Mani Ratnam, Berlinale winner ‘Dhanak’, Venice winner ‘Court’, Toronto documentary ‘Monsoon’ and Bengali art-house hit ‘Labour of Love’.
'Kaakkaa Muttai' ('The Crow’s Egg') produced by Dhanush and Vetrimaaraan that won applauds at various prestigious festival will be screened along with Soha Ali Khan starrer ‘31ST October’. Konkona Sen Sharma will present her films Saari Raat while Ananth Mahadevan will present his film Gour Hari Dastaan: The Freedom File.
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