NEW DELHI: Anurag Kashyap’s highly lauded film ‘Ugly’ will open the fourteeth New York Indian Film Festival taking place next month.
Slated from 5 to 10 May, the festival will screen a mix of 23 narrative features and 11 documentaries. The festival is curated by Aseem Chabbra, a senior Indian journalist based in the US.
Geethu Mohandas’ Liar’s Dice which recently won two National Film Awards will be the centerpiece film. The closing film is the renowned Aparna Sen’s Goynar Baksho.
The festival will also present a retrospective of British-based Gurinder Chaddha’s documentaries.
Kamal Swaroop’s documentary about Dada Saheb Phalke’s life in Varanasi, Rangbhoomi made for the Films Division which won the best non-feature National Award for 2013 is also being screened.
Delhi-based scribe turned filmmaker Utpal Borpujari will present his documentary on Naga folk music, Songs of the Blue Hills.
Karan Bali’s 80 minute documentary, An American in Madras, based on American-born filmmaker Ellis R Dungan’s travails in the Tamil film industry will get a screening alongside the recently released Gulabi Gang by Nishtha Jain.
Nagraj Manjule’s Fandry and Sumitra Bhave and Sunil Sukthankar’s Astu which also won two National Awards each and Gajendra Ahire’s Postcard are three Marathi features to be screened at the festival. Assamese feature As The River Flows (Ekhon Nodir Xipare) by Bidyut Kotoky, will also be screened.
Sumanta Ghosal’s The Unseen Sequence, a documentary exploring the dance form of Bharatnatyam through the art of Malvika Sarukkai, and Jaideep Varma’s documentary on Indian stand-up comedy, I Am Offended will also be screened along with Neela Venkataraman’s Sound Check documentary on music.
Nagesh Kukunoor’s Lakshmi, the winner of Toronto Reel Film Festival and Amit Masurkar’s Sulemani Keeda, Buddhadeb Dasgupta’s Nawaazuddin starrer Anwar Ka Ajab Kissa and, are also slated for screening.