I’ve known film critic and author Aseem Chhabra for decades, and I always value his instincts on what to catch at the New York Indian Film Festival. As the festival director, and an expert on Indian and global cinema, his recommendations are often the best way to navigate a packed slate.
This year, the festival’s 26th, Epicenter is again proud to serve as a community media partner. We will be there to moderate talkbacks, capture audience reaction and take in red-carpet moments during its run, May 28 to May 31. Check out the schedule and buy tickets here. Heads up: Epicenter has secured a 10% discount code for “The Elysian Field” and “Romantic Affairs.” Use promo code: EPIC10
We sat down with Chhabra – he’s at the Cannes Film Festival this week – to ask for his can’t-miss list. Edited excerpts.
S. Mitra Kalita: I always ask you what to see, but before we do that, what are some themes that emerged this year in your lineup?
Aseem Chhabra: We ended up with a few films about children looking for their fathers or their parents. So “Aakuti,” the Assamese film, is about a little girl whose mother passed away and she thinks the mother’s gonna come back. Or “Boong,” our opening night film, which is from Manipur and won the BAFTA for the best film in the children and family category. It is remarkable. It’s the first time an Indian film has won a BAFTA, and there were two Disney films running against it. It’s about a boy who’s looking for his father, whose father has gone to work along the border of Myanmar and Manipur.
We have a really good mix of social commentaries and entertaining films. We have a lovely film from Delhi called “The Great Shamsuddin Family.” It is the end of the life of this very large family, and everything sort of starts to fall apart for them. And it’s a middle-class Muslim family.
We have our centerpiece film, a very, very powerful film from Punjab called “Flowers of Acacia.” A story about poor women who dance at weddings that looks at patriarchy, another theme in these films.
We have films in 15 languages, representing all the way from Kerala in the south up to Kashmir. It’s been a good year.
SMK: As an Assamese American, you know I am thrilled with one aspect of this festival…
AC: We have four films from the Northeast this year and from different states, two from Assam, one from Manipur, one from Meghalaya. We’ve never done so much. They’re really good films, all of them.
SMK: We’ve talked in the last few years about the effect of India being in the spotlight for some of these awards, specifically on documentary film. Anything of note on India on the global stage right now?
AC: There’s a documentary called “Deja Vu,” about the farm crisis in America during Ronald Reagan’s time, when farming was becoming more and more corporatized and farmers were losing their land. Do you know who the biggest owner of farmland in America is? Bill Gates. The film draws a parallel with what happened in India a few years ago, when the farmers’ protest became a very big issue. They were worried that their farmland would not get the minimum required price, and that farms were being taken over by big corporations.
There’s a film that we are showing called “Marriage Cops,” set in Dehradun, about the police cells there, where they are completely run by women who look into complaints about domestic violence and other problems women are facing. At the same time, there are men who come in and complain about the fact that their wives are mistreating them.
SMK: There’s been a proliferation of other South Asian film festivals and just lots of festivals, both in New York and around the country. So what keeps you guys going? What keeps you different?
AC: Ours was the first. The festival was started immediately after 9/11, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani asked arts organizations in New York to hold events for people who were afraid of stepping out of their homes. Over the 26 years, what keeps us going is that we get access to remarkable films that are being made in India. There’s a lot of the indie film movement that is very strong. I mean, there’s Bollywood, of course, but the indie film movement is so strong, and those films don’t get much exposure.
I’m actually talking to you from Cannes right now, where there’s so little Indian film. Many of these films don’t get a chance to be shown at the bigger festivals, so at least we bring them to New York. These are New York premieres; quite a few of them are world premieres. That’s what keeps it going.
SMK: But Bollywood is so beloved. How do you serve that audience?
AC: We’re showing two Bollywood films. We’re showing “Sholay.” It’s a restored 4K restored version and the 50th anniversary of “Sholay.” And we’re showing “Dil Chahta Hai” on its 25th anniversary.
