This Article is From Sep 06, 2012

Indian cinema in focus at Toronto film festival 2012

Indian cinema in focus at Toronto film festival 2012

Highlights

  • With an entire section dedicated to films from Mumbai and the gala premiere of Sridevi's Bollywood comeback English Vinglish, Indian cinema is in the spotlight at the 37th Toronto international film festival which began today.
  • The North-American cinema event, which has gained importance over the years for its ability to create Oscar-buzz, is offering a rich bouquet of 15 films from India while two of its biggest attractions -- Midnight's Children and Reluctant Fundamentalist --have NRI filmmakers Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair as helmers.
  • English Vinglish, which marks Sridevi's return to films after a gap of 15 years, has been directed by debutante Gauri Shinde. A funny and touching story about an Indian woman's struggle to learn English in America, the film will be screened on September 14.
  • Midnight's Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie's Booker award-winning novel of the same name, boasts of a huge Indian star cast and the fantasy tells the strange story of midnight children. Born on the cusp of India's independence from Britain, these children are endowed with strange, magical abilities.
  • Nair, on the other hand, tells the story of a young Pakistani's disillusionment with the great American dream in the post 9/11 era. The film was partly shot in India and stars Shabana Azmi and Om Puri apart from its international starcast.
  • From southern film industry, National-award-winning filmmaker Girish Kasaravalli's The Tortoise, An Incarnation will be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the festival.
  • In the 'City to City' section, which is dedicated to Mumbai, 10 films will be showcased.
  • The section is a mix of Bollywood hits like Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur I&II, Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai, Habib Faisal's Ishaqzaade and independent movies like Vasan Bala's Peddlers, Hansal Mehta's Shahid, Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely, Manjeet Singh's Mumbai's King, Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus and Shambhavi Kaul's short film 21 Chitrakoot.
  • Of these films Peddlers, Miss Lovely and Gangs Of Wasseypur I&II were also a part of Cannes film festival.
  • The 11-day festival, which opens with Bruce Willis starrer action thriller 'Looper', will show 289 feature films and 83 short stories.
  • Other Hollywood biggies to be premiered are Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter, Caught in the Web, Anna Karenina, Cloud Atlas and On the Road.
Toronto: With an entire section dedicated to films from Mumbai and the gala premiere of Sridevi's Bollywood comeback English Vinglish, Indian cinema is in the spotlight at the 37th Toronto international film festival which began today.

The North-American cinema event, which has gained importance over the years for its ability to create Oscar-buzz, is offering a rich bouquet of 15 films from India while two of its biggest attractions -- Midnight's Children and Reluctant Fundamentalist --have NRI filmmakers Deepa Mehta and Mira Nair as helmers.

English Vinglish, which marks Sridevi's return to films after a gap of 15 years, has been directed by debutante Gauri Shinde. A funny and touching story about an Indian woman's struggle to learn English in America, the film will be screened on September 14.

Midnight's Children, an adaptation of Salman Rushdie's Booker award-winning novel of the same name, boasts of a huge Indian star cast and the fantasy tells the strange story of midnight children. Born on the cusp of India's independencefrom Britain, these children are endowed with strange, magical abilities.

Nair, on the other hand, tells the story of a young Pakistani's disillusionment with the great American dream in the post 9/11 era. The film was partly shot in India and starsShabana Azmi and Om Puri apart from its international starcast.

From southern film industry, National-award-winningfilmmaker Girish Kasaravalli's The Tortoise, An Incarnation will be screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section of the festival.

In the 'City to City' section, which is dedicated to Mumbai, 10 films will be showcased.

The section is a mix of Bollywood hits like Anurag Kashyap's Gangs Of Wasseypur I&II, Dibakar Banerjee's Shanghai, Habib Faisal's Ishaqzaade and independent movies like Vasan Bala's Peddlers, Hansal Mehta's Shahid, Ashim Ahluwalia's Miss Lovely, Manjeet Singh's Mumbai's King, Anand Gandhi's Ship of Theseus and Shambhavi Kaul's short film 21 Chitrakoot.

Of these films Peddlers, Miss Lovely and Gangs Of Wasseypur I&II were also a part of Cannes film festival.

The 11-day festival, which opens with Bruce Willis starrer action thriller 'Looper', will show 289 feature films and 83 short stories.

Other Hollywood biggies to be premiered are Argo, Silver Linings Playbook, The Fighter, Caught in the Web, Anna Karenina, Cloud Atlas and On the Road.

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