From streetside flower sellers who fall in love to a girl in search of a bioscopewala — the upcoming NFDC's Âu00c2u0088Film Bazaar is a rich blend of indie film debuts
We no longer live in a world where only Salman Khan-starrers do well at the box office. The indie movie is officially legitimate, with movies such as Titli (2012), Lunchbox (2011) and Court (2012) leading the way. But before all these movies hit film festivals around the world, and then Indian cinemas, they were shown at the NFDC Film Bazaar, held in Goa every year, which becomes the converging point for film buyers and sellers from all over the world. The aim is to discover, support and showcase South Asian content and talent in filmmaking, production and distribution. Before they get “discussed” at the bazaar this week, we get you the lowdown on the hottest indie debuts.
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Rukh (Unknown Faces), by Atanu Mukherjee
Directed by Atanu Mukherjee, an alumnus of the Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Rukh (which means direction) is a family drama with a mystery element. After his father dies, an 18-year-old heads out to find answers to his many questions, during which he also unearths a few family secrets. “I have seen characters like this around me for the past few years. That’s how the story came to be,” says Mukherjee. The 106-minute movie, which took a year-and-a-half to make, stars Manoj Bajpayee.
The Bioscopewala
The Bioscopewala, by Deb Medhekar
Inspired by Rabindranath Tagore’s Kabuliwala, immortalised in the Balraj Sahni-starrer of 1961, The Bioscopewala is more a “contemporary” take, says director Deb Medehkar. The FTII student, who has made over 100 television commercials, makes his feature debut with this film. He says that he wanted to make the movie since “Kabuliwala has been reduced to a text. We don’t remember the innocent beauty anymore.” It tells the tale of an Afghani bioscopewala, whose story is told by a young girl who goes on a journey to discover him and what he means to her. “He comes from a Taliban-occupied Afghanistan and his conflict is more relevant today.” The film will be ready by January 15, 2017.
Nimmo by Rahul Shanklya
A love story with a difference this will remind you of your own childhood, says Rahul Shanklya of his first feature. Nimmo tells the tale of an 8-year-old who falls in love with a 23-year-old. “People keep thinking he is just a child, but love is love. The woman gets married and moves away, and he is left alone,” says Shanklya, who based the movie on a short story he had read while at FTII. He devised the story in 2007 and then told his mentor Anand Rai, who sent it to the Work In Progress lab at the bazaar.
Bombay Rose by Gitanjali Rao
Rao, the award-winning director of the short films Orange, Printed Rainbow and TrueLoveStory, tells a story that’s innately Mumbai. The animation film is the story of a Muslim boy and a Hindu girl who sell flowers on the streets and eventually fall in love. “I have often wondered that despite staying on the streets, struggling for survival, how do these people find time for love?” The film will take two years for completion as even though the final edit is done, the real work starts now. “This boy is influenced by Bollywood and that teaches him how to express his love,” she says.
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