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NEW YORK
Besides being inspired from her cousin’s life, filmmaker
Shonali Bose’s “Margarita, With A Straw,” has
pieces of her own emotional journey. “It is very difficult to
bring a personal story on screen; it is a tough emotional
journey,” Bose told a houseful audience at the opening night
of the 15th Annual New York Indian Film Festival
here.
Filmmakers, actors, producers, prominent members of the
Indian-American community and movie buffs gathered in midtown
Manhattan May 4. The week-long festival will showcase 30
shorts, documentaries and feature films from some of the
greatest talents working in the Indian subcontinent as well as
the diaspora. The festival also includes special events,
networking parties and Q&A sessions with directors, actors and
producers.
“Margarita, With A Straw,” starts Kalki Koechlin – known
for her edgy work in films – who plays Laila, a rebellious
young woman with cerebral palsy. She leaves her home in India
to study in New York, unexpectedly falls in love, and embarks
on an exhilarating journey of self-discovery.
Bose said the story comes from her inner-most self and
reflects the emotions that she felt after losing her son in
2010. The film is not just inspired by Malini’s life but also
mine. Bose lost her son, Ishaan in 2010. “I started writing
the story on January 20, 2011 which was supposed to be his
17th birthday, so, a lot of those emotions have been
incorporated in the story,” she said. At the post-screening
discussing Bose was joined by Koechlin, her co-actor Sayani
Gupta and co-writer and casting director Nilesh Maniyar.
Bose is also the first Indian to receive the
prestigious Sundance-Mahindra Global Filmmaker Award for the
screenplay of the film. The award was presented at the 2012
Sundance Film Festival after which the film premiered at the
Toronto International Film Festival 2014 where it won the
NETPAC award for the best Asian Film
Other highlights include Aparna Sen’s “Saari Raat,” the
festival’s center piece film, a play in three acts by the
legendary Bengali playwright and theatre personality Badal
Sircar, starring Anjan Dutt, Rittwik Chakraborty and Konkona
Sen Sharma; Vishal Bhardwaj’s Shakespeare trilogy of
“Maqbool”, “Omkara” and “Haider,” followed by a post film
discussions; “Daughters of Mother India,” a documentary film
focused on the aftermath of the Delhi rape incident, given
India’s ban on the broadcast of the rape documentary “India’s
Daughter”; and the South Asian Film Lab (SAFL): a
creative workshop and incubator for film development in New
York City will present staged readings of excerpts of three
feature scripts in development.
The festival will close May 9 with Sharat Katariya’s
offbeat film “Dum
Laga Ke Haisha” at the Skirball Theatre for Performing
Arts here. The screening will be rounded off with a discussion
session with its director Katariya. Ayushmann Khurana and
debutante Bhumi
Pednekar appear in lead roles in this romantic-comedy. The
film is set against the backdrop of digital revolution of the
90s and is about a school drop-out who is compelled to marry
an educated woman who, he thinks, is a bit hefty for him.
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