10 Films you shouldn’t miss at the London Indian Film Festival

By Asian Film Festival on June 13, 2022 • ( Leave a comment )

These are ten films you shouldn’t miss at the London Indian Film Festival which will take place in cinemas (in London, Birmingham, and Manchester) and online (at loveliffathome.com) from June 23 until July 5, 2022

– Selected Films –

**Americanish** by Iman Zawahry – USA | 2021 – 91 minutes | European Premiere

Set in Jackson Heights NY, a heartwarming comedy about a first generation immigrant Pakistani mom (Lilette Dubey), is still recovering from her husband dumping her and the girls years ago. She is now conflicted by the tradition of getting her grown daughters, Maryam and Sam, hitched to suitable Pakistani boys. None too impressed by the young men who come to dinner at mom’s, they decide to take matters into their own hands.

**Dug Dug** by Ritwik Pareek – India | 2021 – 107 minutes | European Premiere

Ritwik Pareekhs striking and infectiously funny satire explores the roots of faith and the commercialisation of religion. After a freak accident kills an alcoholic middle aged man named Thakur, the Dug-Dug brand motorcycle he is riding is taken away from the scene and locked up at a nearby police station. The following morning, the bike mysteriously appears back at the site of the crash. It is once again taken away by baffled police but once again the next day returns to the scene of the accident. Word of this strange occurance spreads through the village leading the locals to believe they are witnessing divinity and the work of a higher power at play.

Screening:
June 28th, 2022| Tuesday | Barbican | 5:50 pm (With Q&A)

Trailer:

**Emuthi Puthi (The Very Fishy Trip)** by Kulanandani Mahanta – India | 2021 – 103 minutes | European Premiere

Head strong teen Ritika hates her life under the strict control of her mother Indira, who also happens to be a senior cop. Ritika wants to escape. Ritika’s aged but free spirited grandmother has long dreamed of eating her favourite rural fish curry and then disappearing from the world. The pair come to a pact of convenience to help each other out and one night run away from home. What ensues is a frantic road adventure that takes this unlikely duo to unexpected places, coming across all manner of madcap characters, while Ritika’s police woman mum is hot on their trail.

**Ghare Pherar Gaan (Homecoming Song)** by Aritra Sen – India | 2022 – 140 minutes | International Premiere

This uplifting musical follows the journey of Tora (Ishaa Saha), a girl from the suburbs of Kolkata, to her marital home in London. Tora is in dissonance with the high-flying lives of her NRI doctor husband Ribhu and her council-woman mother-in-law Shanta, and thus starts searching for solace outside the bounds of her home. This is when Imran (Parambrata Chattopadhyay), a consummate musician from India, enters her life, making the caged bird inside her sing again and embrace life on her own terms. The film closely portrays the lives of Bengalis in London and the alienation that is felt by a new immigrant from abroad. Yet the city of London, somehow, subsumes one with time and becomes home to the lost souls.

Screening:
July 2, 2022 | Saturday | Picturehouse Central | 8:45 pm (With Q&A)

**Ladies Only** by Rebana Liz John – India, Germany | 2021 – 79 minutes

‘What makes you angry?’ a filmmaker asks a woman traveller in the ‘Ladies Only’ compartments of Mumbai local trains running in and out of the main stations. The answers to this and many other questions are both insightful and surprising, highlighting the issues, hopes and struggles of womanhood in India today, especially in the face of the frenetic non-stop Mumbai lifestyle. The changing light, faces and languages creates a poetic rhythm flowing through this engrossing and must-see documentary.

Trailer:

**Little English** by Pravesh Kumar – UK | 2022 – 98 minutes | UK Premiere

Pravesh Kumar’s debut feature is a laugh-out-loud story of a dysfunctional Punjabi family in the pressure cooker life of a terraced suburban home in West London. Newly arrived from India, naive Simmy has come to marry the family’s eldest son Raj, who shockingly does a runner, leaving Simmy locked in the house by her domineering mother-in-law. However, Simmy is smarter than she appears, and soon enlists the support of the family’s disgruntled in-laws, including a sugar crazed, diabetic grandpa and dangerous, but hot, brother in law, fresh out of jail. Together they plan Simmy’s big escape.

**Moving Upstream: Ganga** by Shridhar Sudhir – India | 2021 – 105 minutes | UK Premiere

Filmed over six months on a 2,500km walk along the River Ganges, this stunning documentary explores the idea of walking in this fast paced modern world and man’s evolving relationship with the natural world and bringing a much needed spotlight on the voices an concerns of the communities that depend on India’s greatest watercourse.

Screening:
ONLINE | June 30, 2022 | Thursday | LoveLIfeatHome | 6:00 pm

Trailer:

**No Ground Beneath The Feet** by Mohammad Rabby Mridha – Bangladesh | 2021 – 91 minutes | UK Premiere

This must-see film opens with a mafia don shaving a terrified Saiful in a barber shop chair, with a cut throat razor, reminding him to pay up. This high style film continues in a similar fast based vien, as impoverished Dhaka based ambulance driver Saif is faced to deal with the relentless struggle for survival. Living two lives, his town wife demands duty, while he hears from his real wife and children by the coast, that a flood is coming. Hoping to rescue his family, Saif tries ever riskier jobs, conflicting his morality in order to save the day.

**Once Upon a Time in Calcutta** by Aditya Vikram Sengupta – India, France, Norway | 2021 – 131 minutes | UK Premiere

World premiered at Venice Film Festival, Sengupta’s gorgeously shot film follows the story of Ela, a failed actress; she has recently lost her daughter – who was the only reason for Ela to stay with her husband. Ela faces various setbacks in her personal, professional and love life, but she doesn’t lose hope and sets out to find a new identity, love and independence in the booming streets of Calcutta. Helmed by beautifully nuanced performance from Sreelekha Mitra, the film captures the hustle and bustle of a city constantly in a state of flux.

Trailer:

**Taangh (Longing)** by Bani Singh – India | 2022 – 89 minutes | European Premiere

Bani Singh’s phenomenal in-depth look into her fathers past as a gold medalist hockey player starts off as a lovely look down memory lane that soon develops into an investigative documentary into the lost friendships and fallout of the Partition of India. As well as a sense of pride as the new India takes on their former British rulers to win at the 1948 London Olympics. A beautiful and touching story that marks the importance of collecting the oldest generations’ stories that will soon be gone.

For more information, please visit: https://londonindianfilmfestival.co.uk/