Indians, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis and Sri Lankans rarely consciously see ourselves as South Asian. Geographically, theek hai. But in our souls, do we see ourselves as sharing a common South Asian identity and heritage? Forget it! Each to our own burrows. So, it is thrilling that Deepa Mehta's Funny Boy, one of the more high profile, recent films set in South Asia, is made by Mehta, an Indo-Canadian from Punjab, now based in Toronto; directing a film about Sri Lankans, set in Colombo; co-written by Shyam Selvadurai, Canadian author of Sri Lankan origin, along with Mehta; and produced by Canadian David Hamilton and Hussain Amarshi of Mongrel Media, an amazing, Pakistani-origin film distributor and producer, born in Congo, Africa, but long based in Canada. How's that for a remarkable marriage of South Asian and world cinema, and a sign of the future of cinema? Not only is Funny Boy Canada's entry for the Oscar for Best International Feature Film, but it is distributed by Array, led by the high profile Ava DuVernay, who was Oscar-nominated for Selma, and is a distribution collective for films by people of colour and women. The film dropped on Netflix in the US and UK on December 10, and was the opening film at the Engendered I-View World Film Festival in a New Delhi theatre the same day (its India distribution dates are yet to be finalised at the time of writing). What's more, it opens with the delightful old Tamil song Paatu Padava (Can I Sing a Song?) from the 1961, b/w Tamil film Then Nilavu (Honeymoon), starring Gemini Ganesan and Vyjayanthimala.

The film calls for an expansive literary, political, sexual and gender perspective, a border-slashing, South Asian engagement that no big local South Asian film industry, including Bollywood, is capable of, and in which it is least interested. So, a big salute to Mehta for daring to soar beyond the tagliatelle of boundaries of a 'desi film'-and soar she does.