TIFF’s rich South Asian haul

Illustration/Uday Mohite

It's that time of year again, when all eyes are on the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF, the festival that flags many Oscar contenders early on. But the 49th TIFF, that runs from September 5-15, offers many other riches besides. About 23 per cent of Canada's overall population were immigrants, and a significant 46.6 per cent of Toronto's population were immigrants, by the 2021 Census, according to Statistics Canada. Of these, South Asians are the most visible minority, at 14 per cent of Toronto's population, followed by the Chinese (10.7 per cent) and Blacks (9.6 per cent). TIFF has a long history of warm engagement with its multicultural audience, including South Asians, the city's largest immigrant population.

In fact, this year, there are at least 11 films from India, South Asia and South Asian Diaspora selected at TIFF, an amazing achievement. These include Reema Kagti's Superboys of Malegaon (Gala) and Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light (Special Presentation). Two strong South Asian Diaspora films play in the Centrepiece: Sandhya Suri's Santosh (starring Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar; UK film), and Lawrence Valin's Little Jaffna (starring himself; from France). Lakshmipriya Devi's Boong (a little boy, Manipuri), and Maksud Hossain's Saba (Bangladesh), both play in the Discovery section for first or second features, along with two diaspora films - Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse and Amar Wala's Shook, both by Canada-based directors. There are two more films in the TIFF Classics - Raj Kapoor's Awara and Srinivas Krishna's Masala. Finally, there's a short film, Sauna Day, by Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash, from Estonia, no less.

Reema Kagti's Superboys of Malegaon, produced by Zoya Akhtar et al, is a fictionalised version of the delicious story of Nasir Shaikh of Malegaon--whose inventive, no-budget, locally-sourced movies turned his town into a joyous dream factory--that also celebrates friendship and small town-ness with panache. Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light, which won the Grand Prix at Cannes, explores the friendship between two Kerala nurses in Mumbai, their loneliness and desires. Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajwar pull off compelling performances in Sandhya Suri's Santosh, as two policewomen investigating the rape and murder of a Dalit teenager, with a fine mixture of empathy and cynicism. French-born Lawrence Valin, of Sri Lankan Tamil origin, does an impressive turn, acting in and directing his debut feature, the dynamic Little Jaffna, that was also at the Venice Film Festival. He plays an undercover cop who infiltrates the Tamil gangs in Paris, who are funding the Eelam liberation movement back home in Sri Lanka, and as he feels a kinship with them, becomes deeply conflicted about his mission. Lakshmipriya Devi's Boong (a little boy, Manipuri), is a real jewel, a feisty, kickass feminist film that tells a single mum-son story, that announces the stupendous talent of the director in her debut feature, that stars Bala Hijam and Gugun Kipgen. Boong wants to bring his missing dad Joykumar back as a gift for his mum, with the help of his best friend Raju, son of an ‘outsider' trader from Rajasthan: the film celebrates hope, friendship and feminism, poignant in a state ripped by ethnic hatred. Mehazabien Chowdhury shines in Maksud Hossain's debut feature Saba (Bangladesh), as the sole caregiver to her paraplegic mother Shirin (Rokeya Prachy). She even risks her burgeoning romance with co-worker Ankur (Mostofa Monwar) when her mother needs surgery. Also, in the Discovery section is Montreal-born Durga Chew-Bose's Bonjour Tristesse (Hello, Sadness), an adaptation of the coming-of-age novel by Françoise Sagan, of the adventures of Cecile and her father while holidaying in the French seaside; she with a handsome local; and her father with his lover, when her mother's friend Anne turns up. In Bombay-born, Toronto-based Amar Wala's Shook, Saamer Usmani plays struggling writer Ashish, who falls for Claire, a barista, even as he learns his estranged father has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. In the TIFF Classics are Raj Kapoor's 1951 crime drama Awara, once popular worldwide, starring himself and Nargis, in a 4K restored version by the NFDC-National Film Archive of India, as well as Srinivas Krishna's Masala, also in a 4K restoration. Krishna (played by the filmmaker), orphaned, and a recovering heroin addict, struggles to handle the standards of respectability of his extended family, in this bold and irreverent film on multiple identities, co-starring Saeed Jaffrey and Zohra Sehgal. And in the short Sauna Day, Anna Hints and Tushar Prakash (Estonia) move away from the female-centric spaces they explored in Smoke Sauna Sisterhood, to what goes on between two men who inhabit those steamy places. All in all, a very rich haul.

Meenakshi Shedde is India and South Asia Delegate to the Berlin International Film Festival, National Award-winning critic, curator to festivals worldwide and journalist.
Reach her at meenakshi.shedde@mid-day.com