The 21st Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star unveiled its lineup for the India Story section late last night, on 3 September, on its social media handles via a small promo. The India Story section is aimed at providing a platform to new Indian feature films of great merit. The section also focuses on diversity and aims to bring films from various regions of the country.
This year, the section will feature thirteen films, with only one of them by a female filmmaker. Watch the promo below and find out more about the films.
1. A Dog and His Man by Siddharth Tripathy
CAST: Balu, Champa Patel, Ashish Behra, Prem Gupta
In what remains of his hometown in Chhattisgarh, Shoukie has finished serving eviction notices and is now left to drift aimlessly through both abandoned streets and bittersweet memories of better days. Though the subtext is land eviction, it’s also a human tale of how a man decides to ensure at least his dog doesn’t die in an alien land.
LANGUAGE: Chhattisgarhi, Hindi
2. Axone by Nicholas Kharkongor
CAST: Sayani Gupta, Lin Laishram, Dolly Ahluwalia
This bittersweet comedy follows a group of girlfriends from the north-east states of Assam and Meghalaya, who are trying to throw a secret wedding party for a soon-to-be bride. With a Punjabi busybody landlady and useless boyfriends to boot, the group’s plans soon go awry as the women attempt to cook the traditional axone wedding stew. A pork stew with pungent local herbs, the overpowering smell of the ingredients creates further drama. Will food and love be enough to save the day?
LANGUAGE: Hindi, English
3. Sindhustan by Sapna Moti Bhavnani
The story in this documentary film is told through ink and laced with a curry recipe. How? It started with Bhavnani’s request for a visa for Pakistan to visit Sindh being denied in 2016. In 2017, she decided to tattoo both her legs with the past and present. With art inspired by Sindh’s Ajrak and Bihar’s Madhubani art, the tattoos covering every inch of her legs have been created in 10 days under the needle by tattoo artist Yogesh Waghmare.
Her right leg tells the story of her history – of the days her family was in Shikarpur in Sindh, and the trauma they went through during the Partition. Her left leg tells the story of their present life in Mumbai, the Gateway of India and the sea. Find out more about the film here.
LANGUAGE: English, Hindi, Sindhi
4. Market | Iewduh by Pradip Kurbah
CAST: Lala Yomeca, Denver Pariat, Albert Mawrie
The film portrays the lives of everyday people with everyday stories, not dignified as heroes, but nevertheless people who make the lives of each other better. The trailer for this film will be released in a week.
LANGUAGE: Khasi
5. The Bitter Tree | Kaajro by Nitin Bhaskar
CAST: Vitthal Kale, Gajanan Zarmekar, Nakul Veluskar
Kaajro is the story of Tilgya, belonging to an untouchable caste. His village is celebrating the annual festival of Dussehra, marking the triumph of Lord Rama over Ravana i.e. good over evil. During this celebration, Tilgya’s ailing wife dies. The village debars him from participating in the festival procession and forces him to leave the village with his wife’s dead body.
6. Slow Burn | Ranj by Sunit Sinha
CAST: Adesh Sidhu, Ekta Sodhi, Kuljeet Singh
Ranj is a story of Amanpreet, a young villager, working as an automotive tools sales agent in the hostile big city. Driven to despair by the conflict between the burden of expectations and the notion of modern-day progress over social quietude, he must fight the odds and reconcile with his moral dilemma in order to reunite with his fiancé, Geetu.
LANGUAGE: Punjabi
7. A Thing of Magic | Jaduche Ghosht by Nithin Anil
Gundu Kaakka is a struggling harmonium player, who aspires to join a local drama troupe. One day, after watching a 3D movie, he presents a pair of 3D glasses to his sisters, Pradnya and Pratheeksha. He tells them that the glasses give only him some magical powers. Though they initially refuse to believe him, an event soon raises the sisters’ curiosity. The determined sisters set on a path to find out the truth about the glasses, along which tiny stories of the little village start to unfold.
LANGUAGE: Marathi
8. Chivti by Rajkumar Laxmanrao Tangade
CAST: Milind Shinde, Sambhaji Tangde, Ashwini Bhalekar, Gauri Konge
LANGUAGE: Marathi
9. Y by Dr Ajit Suryakant Wadikar
LANGUAGE: Marathi
10. The Prologue | Nirontor by Chandrasish Ray
LANGUAGE: Bengali
11. Aani Maani by Fahim Irshad
12. Last Headhunters of the Nagas by Aryan Biju Baruah
13. The Musk | Kastoori by Vinod Kamble
Last month, they had announced the opening film for the festival, Moothon by Geetu Mohandas. And we can’t wait for the rest of the lineup!
Mumbai Film Festival 2019 will run from 17 – 24 October 2019. And registrations are now open. Book here.