Curator of the first Indian Indigenous Films: Cinema from the Margins section at the International Film Festival of Melbourne 2026, Meenakshi Shedde dissects Indigenous cinema as a doorway to a new world

An event will celebrate the launch of a book on Ambedkarite women poets from Maharashtra as well as unsung voices who fuelled the movement

Everybody should interview their grandmothers and mothers on top priority. It will usually be a fascinating revelation to learn who they really were, before they got married and became our grandmothers and mothers.

Continuing my previous column: I took Amma, Indu Shedde, 98 years, on a memory trip to our hometown Dharwad, Karnataka. Amazingly, she sold gold to extend her holidays in Mount Abu, she recalled

I took Amma, 98 years, on a memory trip to Dharwad, where she grew up. We visited her primary school, Kittur Chennamma Park, her favourite icecream parlour, and Karnatak University Library, where she worked as Assistant Librarian in the 1950s

Mari Selvaraj’s brilliant Bison (Tamil, with English subtitle options), starring Dhruv Vikram, ranks among the finest Indian films of the year. Must see!

Riz Ahmed’s Hamlet, directed by Aneil Karia, a British film in English and Hindi/Punjabi, a bold and vivid adaptation of Shakespeare’s tragedy and set in a contemporary South Asian community, was at the Toronto film festival


Actor-writer-director Aziz Ansari - who won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for the Master of None series in 2018 - co-stars in Good Fortune with Keanu Reeves and Seth Rogen in a superb, laugh-out-loud comedy, with Reeves playing an angel who has come to earth, with a core of empathy for workers at the bottom of the gig economy

Altogether, a very rich and diverse haul of films, of which we can be justifiably proud.

Celebrating Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF)’s 50th anniversary with a record 17 films and series in official selection from India, South Asia and South Asian Diaspora. There are eight films and series from India, four South Asian films beyond India, and five Diaspora films

Meenakshi Shedde

Why celebrating Indian indigenous films is important

Attend this unique event to celebrate female voices in the Ambedkarite movement

Amma: Death is like changing clothes

Amma, 98, revisits Dharwad-2

Amma, 98, revisits Dharwad

Bison: On the horns of caste

Hamlet in a kurta

Good fortune on gig economy

TIFF breaks S Asia records

Record 17 South Asian films at Toronto festival

Home / Search / Meenakshi Shedde