Bengali filmmaker Rituparno Ghosh’s Nouka Dubi, which is based on Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s story of the same name, is leading the Indian selection of five films at the 55th London Film Festival, which will take place from October 12 to October 27.
The Tagore connection continues with the selection of Nobel Chor, a Bengali feature directed by Suman Ghosh about a poor farmer who discovers Nobel medal awarded to the writer for Gitanjali in 1913. The black comedy starring Mithun Chakraborty picks up the real-life incident of the theft of Tagore Nobel medal from a museum.
“The two of the three Bengali films chosen for the festival this year are linked to Tagore, tying in very nicely with his 150th birth anniversary celebrations,” said Cary Rajinder Sawhney, who is programme adviser for South Asia for the London Film Festival and chooses the films for the festival from the region.
“We had many good films from Bengal this year, so the third film from India is Gandu (Asshole), directed by Kaushik Mukherjee, which is fairly experimental and more edgy,” Mr Sawhney said. The London Film Festival, which will screen 204 feature films and 110 shorts from more than 54 countries, has a rare Punjabi art film from India on the screening list year.
Gurvinder Singh’s Anhey Ghorey Da Daan (Alms of the Blind Horse) set in rural Punjab about landless farmers is another highlight of the Indian selection, said Sawhney. Legendary director Mani Kaul was involved with the film as its executive producer. “It is quite special to catch a film which is not only a Punjabi art film, which seems like a contradiction in itself, but to also have a film where the late Mani Kaul was creatively involved in the making. You can see that very much echoed in the film.”
“It’s not for the average viewer, but more for the cinephile, who will love this film,” Mr Sawhney added.